This just in! That the Supreme Court has now legalized same sex marriages across the US! Of course, Virginia has allowed this for months now, so there will be no wild scramble at the circuit courts here. Couples in our country who want a religious wedding can have their marriage officiated by a Presbyterian pastor in the PCUSA, even, or a pastor in the United Church of Christ or in the Unitarian Universalist tradition. I am proud of the fact that the Presbyterian Church USA (with whom I affiliate) has allowed pastors to perform same sex marriages since last year.
All to say that today’s ruling by the Supreme Court means nothing new for Virginia, and yet it does. It is confirmation that what we have been doing, is now recognized across the 50 states. Whereas before we were in the minority, now we find ourselves on the forefront. Whereas before, it may have been construed by folks in other states that Virginians were misguided, turns out Virginia, conservative Virginia, has been a leader in a movement, and that movement has prevailed!
There are many reasons the laws regarding marriage had to change. I am sure we all have stories. I have one to share with you today. A few years ago, I served as a volunteer hospital chaplain. I was called in late one night. A patient was near death. A loved one had asked for a chaplain visit. I did not dawdle, getting dressed, driving to the hospital; but I arrived just minutes after the patient had passed on. She looked to have been in her 60’s. Two women were in the hospital room with the body. One was a young woman who looked to be about eighteen She was the deceased’s niece. She shed no tears. She looked, “removed.” The other woman was the deceased’s close friend. Like the deceased, she too, was probably in her 60’s. The “close friend” soon revealed to me, that the two women had been more than that. In tears, she said angrily, “All we wanted to do was live openly. But always we hid our relationship. She was afraid it would hurt her career.”
Her entire adult life, this woman had had to live a lie. Now that her loved one was dead, she could not make decisions regarding the disposition of the body. Hence the reason the niece was in that hospital room. The hospital staff looked to her for instructions on what was to happen next regarding funeral arrangements. The older woman may have been the other’s constant companion, and the love of her life, yet she was not “family.”
And now the law is changed. So those who love each other can marry and make that promise “to love and cherish as long as we both shall live .” Starting today that promise will stand not only in loving hearts, but in courts of law. Glory BE!
Happy Wedding Planning!
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