Friday, October 23, 2009

Staff photo by David Leaming

COUNTER POINT: Unity College student Trevanion Grenfell addresses speakers that support the referendum to repeal the state same- sex law during a forum on Thursday. Pastors Bill Cripe and Rick Carver spoke in favor of repealing the law while Pastor Margaret Beckman and Penny Guisinger urged students to keep the law intact

BY SCOTT MONROE
Staff Writer
 
10/23/2009
 
UNITY -- Inside the Unity College gymnasium in front of a large student audience, four guest speakers on Thursday debated the Nov. 3 vote on Question 1, a people's veto attempt to overturn the state's new same-sex marriage law.
Emotions ran high.

"Separation of church and state!" "Traditions change!" shouted some students during a question-and-answer session.

After each panelist had delivered prepared remarks, students got up to a microphone and the discussion turned more lively. All student-speakers indicated they were against the repeal, aiming most of their questions, and sometimes sharp criticism, at the two pastors in support of the repeal, Rick Carver and Bill Cripe.

Trevanion Grenfell, 23, a junior at Unity College who later said he is the son of two pastors, equated the restriction against same-sex marriage to that of an African-American being restricted from sitting at the front of a bus.

"This is very clearly a civil rights issue," Grenfell said. "It is very clearly a form of tyranny."

Cripe, senior pastor of the Faith Evangelical Free Church in Waterville, responded that such a comparison was "offensive to members of civil rights -- black America," and that a failure to preserve "traditional marriage" will leave it "doomed completely."

The guest panel included Cripe, Carver, pastor of the County Road Baptist Church in New Limerick, Margaret Beckman, pastor of the First Universalist Church in Pittsfield, and Penny Guisinger, director of development and communications at the Cobscook Community Learning Center, a nonprofit in Trescott Township, easternmost Maine.

Beckman delivered what she called a faith-based argument in support of same-sex marriage, saying that at the heart of most religions are the concepts of love and justice, and an ethical belief in caring for and liberating the oppressed.

She cited the Biblical story of Moses leading the enslaved Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt.

"Treating a class of people differently is not love, and it is wrong," Beckman said. " ... Marriage is too important to think love and justice do not matter. They do."

Carver said that all laws contain a form of discrimination and that sometimes it is necessary to do that for society to distinguish between "good versus bad, and more specifically, righteous versus un-righteous." He said he would, for example, discriminate against a man with needle marks on his arm who wanted to see his 17-year-old daughter.

Responding to Beckman's focus on "love" for religious guidance, Carver said that, for Christians, Jesus Christ "made a profound statement. He said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. He didn't say I am the love. He declared himself to be the truth."

And the truth for our country, which "has always been based in the God of the Judeo-Christian faith," is that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman, Carver said.

Student-speaker Sean Flynn took issue with that reasoning: "Why should we live our lives which have nothing to do with your morals?"

Guisinger described herself as a 41-year-old mother of two who, after separating from her husband a few years ago, fell in love with a female friend. Guisinger said that the experience has shown her "we don't get to choose who we fall in love with."

"Love is at the core of this issue," Guisinger said. "And it really isn't about anything else.... I chose to step into that relationship and to be happy and fulfilled."

She dismissed religious arguments on Question 1, because, she said, "we need to not look at the Bible, which is not where we get (public) policy." Guisinger said that despite purporting to "stand for marriage," the campaign in support of Question 1 "is an anti-gay effort, and I feel that every day."

Cripe generally steered away from religious points, preferring instead to highlight the importance of word usage, studies and quotes.

He disputed same-sex marriage supporters' contention that the new law brings "equality" by arguing that "everyone today has an equal right to get married" because marriage licenses already include criteria and stipulations that are "applied to everyone."

"It does prevent them from redefining marriage themselves," Cripe said.

Cripe also cited homosexual writers whose quotes made the point that "not all homosexuals are pro-marriage," he said.

"Marriage, you see, is not the last frontier, and it is not the end of it," Cripe said.

Carver also said that Maine's same-sex marriage law would lead to a slippery slope in which anything is permissible and there are no moral standards; he asked rhetorically whether we should, for instance, allow a 7-year-old to marry a 21-year-old.

Guisinger took issue with that example.

"Two consenting adults doesn't feel the same to me. I think we need to be careful of using those comparisons," she said. "There are lots of dangerous behaviors in society and this really isn't one of them."

The forum was hosted by The Unity Experience course at the college in an attempt to "encourage students to listen respectfully to all sides," said James Horan, professor of development studies and the course's instructor. Horan said course lessons include personal and community development, and civic engagement.

"We value diversity of thought," Horan said.