Same-Sex Unions and the Sermon on the Mount

In case you missed this bit of profound biblical exegesis and theological scholarship, Sen. Barack Obama (D. Ill.) said Sunday in Ohio that same-sex unions should enjoy state-recognized legal status and rights. That’s nothing new in Obama’s platform, of course. What was staggering, I must say, was this statement he then made: “If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount ….” Now, if that alone isn’t confusing enough (What part of the Sermon on the Mount might he have in mind, for example?), he then ended that sentence with this: “… which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.”

Thanks to Sen. Obama, we now know that Paul contradicts Jesus on the matter of homosexuality, that the Bible as a whole doesn’t have a unified and coherent message, and that the Sermon on the Mount in particular supports state-recognized legal status and rights for same-sex marriage unions. Wow! Welcome to the wild and wacky world of postmodern hermeneutics and religious pluralism — à la political campaigning — run amok!!