Christian blogger apologizes for years of opposition to marriage equality

Benjamin Corey, a Christian blogger and strong opponent to marriage equality for many years, posted an apology to the LGBT community yesterday for his years of speaking out against the freedom to marry who you love.

Prior to my paradigm shift circa 2009, I was a major opponent of marriage equality. One of my go-to lines when asked why, was always the catch-all phrase “because it will hurt the sanctity of marriage”.

I was convinced that in some direct way, same sex marriage would harm mine. If, for no other reason, than Fox News said it, I believed it, and that settled it.

Seriously, I believed that – and said it often – even though I was previously divorced, and let’s admit: there’s no sanctity in divorce.

This year as I approach seven years of marriage and look back on all that we’ve experienced, I realized that we’ve spent our entire marriage living in states that have legally passed marriage equality. Same sex marriages have been happening around us the entire time, and it made me realize:

Your same sex marriage hasn’t affected the sanctity of mine.

Not even a little.

Benjamin goes on to say that his apology is for not only opposing marriage equality, but "slandering" the LGBT community. And today, he feels that the biggest threat to his own marriage, is himself. Not others around him.

Looking back, his view today is that conservative Christians are their own foes when it comes to the sanctity of marriage. He adds that over a decade ago a study was done showing that born-again Christians are more likely to divorce than other population groups.  He refers to this as "the Christian culture of divorce."

I highly recommend you read his entire essay. Just goes to show that when it comes to many Christians, they are truly "not all like that."

Thank you, Benjamin, for sharing the calm, clear-eyed self-examination.