Gay Marriages-Not New To The Church

The ?church has a new Pope. And what a difference a Pope makes. Ever since Pope Francis has taken the title of Pope the overall image of the Catholic Church has been on the rise. The recent ruling by the federal courts allowing same-sex marriage has sent the Christian Right into a frenzy.

Liberals and Gay Rights groups across the country have praised Pope Francis for his recent comments concerning the same-sex marriage ruling. The Pope when asked about the possibility of gay priest responded:

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” See Source

These comments are sure to make the Christian Right anti-gay bigots mad as hell. However, while conducting research on this issue I found something quite surprising.

Church
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The First Century Church Performed Gay Marriages

Catholic Religious scholar John Boswell labored much of his life uncovering gay marriage in the early church.?His study of the Roman Empire and the first-century church?included him pouring over countless historical documents.?In the course of conducting his life’s work, Boswell discovered something quite amazing. He found dozens of documented cases of church rituals were carried out forming a union between two men.

His discovery?showed that the rituals used were exactly the same as that of a heterosexual marriage. Nothing was found regarding Lesbian unions. However, this is probably due to an artifact of Roman culture who kept very limited records of women, period.

Were these same-sex unions conducted by the first-century church the same as today’s gay marriages? Probably not. Marriage back in those days meant something altogether different than today’s traditional marriage as well. But, Boswell’s work can’t be swept aside, nor can his findings. We tend to think of same-sex marriage as a 21st-century thing. At least, this writer did. Well, I learned that simply is not true.?Now, we have found solid evidence that unions between same-sex partners are?not a new phenomenon; that same-sex couples have been sharing their lives together loving one another throughout the ages.

Boswell, who died in 1995 from complications relating to AIDS, must be looking down with joy this day, knowing that human relationships can change over time and that society’s opinion can mirror that change and what was banished yesterday can be embraced today just as the church did over a thousand years ago.