We all know the WTS position on same-sex marriage, but I thought it was interesting to see this piece on its website. I think what intrigues me the most is that the WTS approach is, as I once told the elders on my judicial committee, "inadequate, incomplete and insufficient". But there is more. The peice then goes on to give the typical fairy-tale solution to what it perceives as a problem with the experience of someone they call "Nathan" and how he was able to completely change thanks to God's holy spirit working on him. You can read about it here:
http://www.watchtower.org/e/20050408a/article_01.htm
It's not simply a matter of the usual WTS whitewash of a very complex issue, but the arrogance and stupidity manifested in its discussion. First it condemns people by taking Bible verses out of context and misinterpreting and mistranslating original language words. Then it quotes only those sources who agree with the WTS stance. Other voices are drowned in silence, being only vaguely and dismissively alluded to.
If anybody thinks there aren't gay Witnesses still active in the religion who are also deeply in the closet, then he is only fooling himself. From individual congregations to a clandestine but active gay community in Brooklyn Bethel, the WTS has always had gay members in its ranks. Many of these people have partners with whom they have cohabited for years. Yet the WTS wants to wish this away in the cornfield and act that all of its people are as straight as an arrow's flight.
If it weren't for the fact that the WTS's actions have caused much pain, misery and suffering to many of its adherents I'd laugh. How many young men and women have even been driven to suicide by this organization's stance on their real nature? How many families have been torn apart because the WTS demands that the family's gay son or daughter be shunned? How many have unwisely entered into marriage because the WTS either openly or surreptitiously suggested that marriage was a "cure" for their homosexuality, thus setting the stage for future disaster?
Whether the WTS wants it or not, same-sex marriage will eventually be legalized in the United States. I'm sure it isn't happy that its home state of New York has already sanctioned it, and that despite heavy opposition from the Roman Catholic Church among others. It will be interesting to see what directions it will give publishers about handling same-sex couples they encounter in their house-to-house canvassing work. Doubtless it'll botch that just as they have other issues relating to marriage as in the Selma and Steve mess.
Quendi