On my way to Sunday dinner I stumble upon a "Yes On 8!" demonstration in downtown Cupertino. A predominantly Asian constituency of marchers stretch for blocks in their red shirts (English on front, Chinese on back), holding aloft yellow placards proclaiming a need to "protect marriage," chanting slogans and encouraging cars to honk in agreement. I am surprised and oddly titillated by the sight, clearly due to my naivete regarding the strength of church in the Chinese community in liberal Silicon Valley. I can't help but marvel at the ploy of invoking Biblical precedence in support of "protecting family and protecting children," for it is darn near impossible to find a single example of commendable marriage or a fairly functioning family in scriptures.
Abraham, forefather of three monotheistic faiths, marries Sarah who offers to her husband her servant, Hagar, as concubine in an effort to be fruitful and multiply, then mercilessly throws servant and step-child out into the wild desert in a fit of jealous rage.
Son Isaac marries kind-hearted Rebecca who gives birth to twins locked in a state of mortal sibling rivalry; the same Rebecca who will later deliberately deceive her blind, aged husband to secure an inheritance for her favorite son.
Jacob, who marries two women (each of whom push their servants on him as concubines in an effort to out-produce the other) and sires 13 children, ten of whom conspire to kill one due to exceptional favoritism practiced by parents.
Moses who spends years on the road at a job that keeps him physically and emotionally away from wife and children for most of his married life.
King David, great-great-grandfather of the messiah, is a notorious philanderer who arranges the slaughter of the husband of his lover and may have expressed bi-sexual tendencies as a young man.
Jesus (who was either celibate or married to a former prostitute) shuns his mother, brother, and sister (in Matthew 12) proclaiming that his true family is composed of those united with him in doing the will of God.
Wonderfully rich tales, compelling portraits of the true complexity of family life, worth studying again and again, but. . . evidence of God's call for "traditional families"?!
8 may not be enough. I say, "Yes to 9!" -- yes to the 5 books of the old testament and yes to the 4 gospels of the new testament. . . for a picture of family practices far more foreign than anything being proposed today.
The "Yes on 8" signs make Steve want to pull them out of the ground. It is so foreign to his nature to consider such an act of vandalism that even admitting this pains him.
ReplyDeleteAs his ever willing alter ego I have offered to go tear them out for him, but have decided that free speech wins out.
Lisa - you should have been there with me to pull signs out of people's hands! After an hour of marching back and forth along De Anza boulevard the group slowly disbanded and ever so quietly a trickle of individual (clearly non-organized) "No on 8" demonstrators appeared, raising signs made hastily with crayon and cardboard. The power of organized numbers quickly became apparent as these lonely callers in the twilight mustered but an echo or two of honking horns while their foes were greeted by a constant cacophony of trumpeting cars.
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