There’s more to comment on in the Elizabeth Edwards interview in Salon (I already wrote about one issue here).
Let me preface this by saying that I actually like Elizabeth Edwards quite a bit. I think she is a passionate and fearless woman, and I’d be more inclined to vote for her than John, Hillary, or Obama.
But that doesn’t put her above criticism when it comes to her running husband Johnny’s Presidential campaign.
Gay Marriage
On the issue of gay marriage vs. civil unions, it appears that the Edwards are trying to straddle the fence; one of them taking each side of the issue in hopes of appealing to voters on each side.
But I found this answer and reasoning from the interview on the subject of their opposing beliefs to be a bit faulty:
SALON: But your husband feels differently; he’s a civil unions guy.
EDWARDS: Well, I think it’s a struggle for him, having grown up in a Southern Baptist church where it was pounded into him. I was raised a Methodist in military churches. Poverty was talked about; I don’t remember homosexuality ever being mentioned. And I don’t think that Christians who aren’t engaged in a political campaign ever talk about it. They talk about poverty and other issues talked about in the Bible. But in churches, in political season, there’s plenty of ginning up this issue.
Now, I was raised Southern Baptist (even attended the largest Baptist university in the world). But I’ve also attended services at a few Methodist churches. Some of them where even military churches.
And as far as I can remember, they both used the same Bible. The same Bible that does talks about poverty AND homosexuality. Unless her childhood Bibles had these passages ripped from them:
- Leviticus 18:22 — You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
- Leviticus 20:13 — If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.
- 1st Corinthians 6:9-11 — Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
So I don’t really believe her excuse that their disagreement lies in the differences in Bible teachings between Methodists and Southern Baptists. Because it’s not true.
Sock Puppetry
I’m a little disappointed (and a little surprised) that Elizabeth admits to being a sock puppet:
SALON: You blogged on it on MyDD? That’s funny. You’re famous for that, actually — people always said you were a Daily Kos diarist under another name.
EDWARDS: I wasn’t. But I have blogged using other screen names before. Before the Whole Foods guy got in trouble [the Wall Street Journal revealed last week that CEO John Mackey used pseudonyms to deride competitors online] I decided that that wasn’t such a good idea.
She’s right. As the wife of a former-Senator and high-profile presidential candidate, I think it showed a degree of dishonesty (not a normal Elizabeth trait). I’m glad she’s admitted to it, and hopefully she’s stopped doing it.
But in the interest of full disclosure, I’d be very interested to find out exactly where she posted under an alias, and to read exactly what she wrote about.
We’ll probably never know though, since the people that Elizabeth consents to be interviewed by aren’t going to ask her to give up that kind of information.
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I think you’re misunderstanding what she is trying to say. She’s not saying her church used a different bible or had those passages ripped from them. She’s saying that she doesn’t remember her church focusing on those passages when she was growing up.
I grew up Catholic and attended mass in dozens of cities on the Eastern Seaboard for dozens of years and I cannot remember a single mass where those passages were spoken or taught. It’s not that we had a different bible, either. The subject just wasn’t politically charged until a certain time in the mid-80′s, so it wasn’t being mentioned in most churches. Since she was born in 1949, she was an adult during the mid-80′s and was probably no longer attending the churches she was talking about in her quote above.
The first time I ever heard any sort of church mention homosexuality from the pulpit was when I attended a Southern Baptist Sunday program with a friend of mine from college. That was in 1988.
So I believe that Ms. Edwards is being accurate when she says that their differences lie in the rhetoric of the churches of her husband’s and her upbringing.
Erin — thanks for your clarifications; I think you make some good points.
However, I think I have a pretty good understanding of the preachings of a Southern Baptist Church.
I don’t remember homosexuality being discussed or preached very often at all. Certainly no more often than any other principal that the Bible teaches.
That the Bible and the tenets of Christianity are against homosexuality is pretty clear. Just because Ms. Edwards’ particular Methodist church didn’t teach it as often as Johnny’s Southern Baptist doesn’t make it any less of a principal of Christianity.
I wonder what other morals and principals taught in the Bible Ms. Edwards is willing to disregard or renounce simply because “her church” didn’t focus on it?
I guess she hasn’t read Romans 1:26-28 either.