Jimmy takes a Robyn-break. (Getty)
Former President Jimmy Carter is doing interviews promoting his latest book, which is about the Bible, and which we don’t expect anyone reading this to be too interested in. But in an interview with HuffPo this week, dude said some pretty cool, correct stuff about same-sex marriage:
HuffPo: A lot of people point to the Bible for reasons why gay people should not be in the church, or accepted in any way.
Carter: “Homosexuality was well known in the ancient world, well before Christ was born and Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
I draw the line, maybe arbitrarily, in requiring by law that churches must marry people. I’m a Baptist, and I believe that each congregation is autonomous and can govern its own affairs. So if a local Baptist church wants to accept gay members on an equal basis, which my church does by the way, then that is fine. If a church decides not to, then government laws shouldn’t require them to.”
Go, Jimmy! Gay marriage is not just fine, but “very fine”! We’re actually a little surprised – we would have guessed the former president was a civil unions guy (all legal marriages, gay or straight, are either religious or civil – so he’s talking about marriage-marriage, here.) Also, we don’t think anyone is fighting to force specific churches to marry anyone? (Even opposite-sex couples can’t even get married in many churches without months of counseling and mandatory baptisms and other dreadfully un-fun hurdles.) So kind of no problem on that? (Church weddings are so boring anyway). The important thing is: it’s good to have Jimmy on the good side.
[Via HuffPo]
