What Happens when there's Nothing Left to Say about Marriage

It might be the start of a joke: three white evangelical men walk into a bar (or a Chick-Fil-A). . .

 

But it’s not. This is what happens when there’s nothing left to say about marriage equality.

 

Campolo, a moderate evangelical, issued a statement today “urging the church to be more welcoming.” The statement isn’t headlined, “I now support gay marriage.” Instead, Campolo buries the lede, first admitting that his position on marriage equality has long been “ambiguous,” but now he has landed at a “place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church.”

 

With a Supreme Court decision expected within weeks, Campolo follows a sequence of fellow centrist and moderate evangelicals, including, last year, David Gushee, who have come out for marriage equality, culminating in an official coming out for Sojourners magazine. Campolo doesn’t wrestle with the theology; his statement is more of a wrestling with his conscience. Even though only 27% of white evangelicals support marriage equality, according to the most recent data from Pew, it’s becoming less and less surprising to hear a well-known middle-of-the-road evangelical come out in support of same-sex marriage.