(HOST) This year, the New Hampshire legislature has taken up the civil union debate. And commentator Edith Hunter has been thinking about how much attitudes can change – and why.
(HUNTER) On a recent Sunday our Unitarian Universalist Church had a pulpit exchange with the Episcopal Church.
In regards to at least one element of the theology of the two denominations, we are far apart. Unitarian Universalists, or UUs as we call ourselves, consider Jesus to be human, a great teacher, similar to Buddha, or Confucius, or Mahatma Gandhi. The Episcopalians consider Jesus as both fully human and divine.
But on social issues, we both believe in working toward a livable wage, toward universal health care, and in accepting one another regardless of our color or sexual orientation.
What was so refreshing in this particular Sunday service was that the visiting Episcopal priest was a lesbian whose partner attends our UU church. The sermon title was: “Rejoicing in Marriage Equality.” She and her partner had lived in Massachusetts and while there had been legally married.
Before delivering her sermon, as is a regular part of our Sunday morning service, she had a brief time with the little group of young children in the congregation.
The picture book she read was called, “King and King.” She began by asking the children whether or not the title seemed a little unusual. Everyone agreed that one would expect it to be “King and Queen.”
Then she read the story about the queen who thought it was time for her son, the prince, to marry. And she presented him with a series of princesses to choose among. None of the princesses, individually described in the picture book, appealed to him, until the final princess appeared with her brother, a prince. The two princes immediately fell in love, became King and King and “lived happily ever after.”
Following the story we sang the children out, as we regularly do.
Then came the sermon, in which she spoke eloquently of the wonderful social acceptance that has been hers and her partner’s because Massachusetts has gone all the way in its legislation and made their relationship legally a marriage.
And I was thinking, as I sat there, some of the children hearing the story of the King and King are young enough to be my great-grandchildren. And I thought, in all honesty, not to me, nor my sixty year old children, nor their thirty year old children, does this concept come totally naturally. But to the youngest of those listening, possibly it can.
If it is as natural for a woman to love a woman, or a man to love a man, as it is for a man and woman to love one another, then a King and King should, someday, sound natural.
Writer and historian Edith Hunter lives in Weathersfield Center.