What do you think of this decision, Dad?

Art work from World Magazine, April 11, 2009

From the start, let me make it clear that I am not trying to hold a conversation with my deceased father. I understand the Biblical injunction against trying to contact the dead (Deut. 18:11, Isa. 8:19). The title of this post is merely a literary device to get the reader's attention.

You see, my father was born and raised in Iowa. He ministered in Iowa for many years (1954-1959--that's the part that I was around for, and later in his life from 1979-1992, when he retired from full-time ministry). My mother was also born and raised in Iowa. I think that both of them were proud to be from Iowa. I lived there for almost 5 years of my life. I was a pretty happy kid there, I think. It was in Iowa that I had my first church camp experience (what I seem to remember about that was that a bottle of pop cost only five cents); it was also in Iowa that I remember my first clover-leaf exit off of an expressway. I think it was en route to Central Iowa Bible Camp, just 3 miles off of Interstate 80, west of Des Moines. In recent years, I participated with a group of students in an ad hoc club name WOI, rumored to stand for Wannabees of Iowa. I digress--back to the issue at hand, Fish!

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, upholding a Polk County District Court decision from 2007, appealed by the county. The ruling was unanimous, making Iowa just the 3rd state in the nation (Massachussetts and Connecticut are the others) to legalize same-sex marriages. It is the first Heartland state to receive such a ruling.

As a Christian who believes that homosexual unions are wrong, I am not against affording them basic civil rights. I would much prefer that their unions be labelled as that: civil unions, rather than marriage. 

Perhaps what has happened in Iowa is a portent of what is coming down the pike. I can't help but wonder what my father would think!