There’s an article in today’s Portland Tribune about the forthcoming Academy of Character and Ethics, to open this Fall at Jefferson High School.
Or, rather, it’s an article about some criticism being directed at the Rev. James M. Martin, who will head that program. It seems that Martin is senior pastor at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, which gave (at least as far as I can determine from some rough Googling of news stories) $15,000 to the Special Rights for Heterosexuals Coalition, and gathered signatures to place Measure 36 on the ballot.
So I thought I’d take a moment for a little tour of Martin’s public comments on that particular issue. Afterwards, I’ll explain precisely why I’m bothering.
“I’ve been dragged into a fight that I did not want to get into,” said the Rev. James Martin of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Portland, one of the 941 churches around Oregon that helped collect signatures. “As a pastor, I know that marriages are not always perfect. But throughout recorded history, marriage has been good for men, women and the community. There is nothing better for a child than being raised in a home with his mother and father.”
- KGW/AP
In fact, Mount Olivet Baptist Church, a largely black congregation based in North Portland, rounded up more cash for Measure 36 than any other single church, kicking in $15,000, according to campaign press coverage. The Sunday after Election Day, the ballot battle was still on Pastor James Martin’s mind. “Remember that 36 was never about gay people,” Martin told the 500 or so parishioners, mostly but not all black, at Mount Olivet’s 11:30 am service. “It was about marriage.” (Martin didn’t return calls from this reporter.)
As pastors, we rarely speak out on political issues. But this election is different because Oregonians will decide one of the most important decisions ever placed on a ballot. It is Measure 36, the Defense of Marriage Amendment. And the outcome of Measure 36 will affect marriage and family for years to come.
We, as pastors — who collectively minister to tens of thousands of people of virtually every color, nationality, age and gender — are doing everything within our power to keep marriage defined as being between one man and one woman.
We love, support, and help care for almost every family arrangement conceivable, but marriage is a relationship like none other. Marriage is the way God designed nature to bring children into the world. And marriage provides the ideal environment to raise a child where each of the unique qualities of a man and a woman blend together for the balanced development of their offspring.
It doesn’t mean married people are any more special than non-married people; it’s the relationship of marriage itself that’s special. This is why we strongly encourage every person to vote YES on Measure 36. It’s simple; it’s right; it’s the way marriage should be defined – one man and one woman.
Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that Martin will be stalking the halls of Jefferson preaching his views of marriage.
But the entire marriage debate was, and is, something of a Rorschach test for rational thought. And, clearly, Martin was firmly ensconced within the camp which failed to grasp that their religious views of marriage had nothing whatsoever to do with the state-sanctioned civil institution which bears the same name.
There were, and are, two casualties of the marriage debates: Equality for same-sex couples, and (to a degree) rational thought. That latter part is the issue here, since practicing and honing the ability to think with an at least passable sense of rationalty ought to be one of the things with which the public schools concern themselves.
Martin himself fails the rationality test. Is that the sort of person who should be guiding an Academy of Character and Ethics at Jefferson High School?
