Review of What God Has Joined Together? A Christian Case for Gay Marriage by David G. Myers and Letha Dawson Sconzoni
Oren Martin and Barak Tjader
This book review appears in the Annotated Bibliography for Gender-Related Books in 2005, JBMW Volume 11 No. 2.
Category: Non-Evangelical - important secular works and books that addrss the subject of biblical gender issues from a religious, albeit, non-evangelical point of view. This category also serves as our classification for liberal scholars wanting to retain some sort of Christian identity.
This book claims to provide a bridge between marriage-supporting and gay-supporting people. Myers and Scanzoni build a case for the legitimacy and goodness of same-sex marriages. To do so, the authors examine the nature of homosexuality, the meaning of marriage, and even the biblical "evidence" for their argument. Noteworthy are the marriage paradigms noted by Myers and Scanzoni, one in which complementary gender makeup is the bottom line in life and, thus, marriage, and another that sees marriage primarily as an inclusive covenant of fidelity and commitment and is, therefore, open to homosexual unions. And while the arguments presented against gay marriage are fairly superficial and biblical appeals are obviously weak, it is important to note that at least these authors see two marriage paradigms—one based on creation and ordered by complementarity and the other governed by a liberal sexual ethic that is accepting of homosexual marriage.
