Changing for the better

Times are changing fast and perhaps in no way faster than in how society views homosexuality. Seven short years ago, Virginia passed a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. Now our two senators — Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — are for marriage equality, and twice our electoral college delegates have gone to Barack Obama, the first president to make gay rights part of his platform.

Some view this acceptance as cultural decline, but in another generation, the argument against gay marriage will be as moot as those made for racial segregation. As recently as 50 years ago, people used the Bible to support segregation. Certainly some citizens still struggle to accept people of other races, but very few express their prejudices publicly. Whatever the Supreme Court decides this month about gay marriage — there is a long list of possibilities, including one that would undo Virginia’s constitutional ban — clearly marriage equality is coming. Sooner or later.

We welcome this sea change and acknowledge how difficult this issue is for social conservatives. Earlier this week, Exodus International, the country’s largest anti-gay Christian ministry, announced it would close and begin a new ministry with the goals to “reduce fear and come alongside churches to become safe, welcoming and mutually transforming communities.”

In closing Exodus, the ministry’s President Alan Chambers acknowledged that pray-away-the-gay stances are neither honorable nor biblical. An unflattering television documentary no doubt influenced the timing of this announcement, and nothing can bring back the many thousands of homosexual youth who killed themselves after familial and church rejection. Still, we are grateful for the kind words and opening hearts, during these long-awaited changing times.

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