BANGOR – The California Supreme Court’s recent decision that same-sex marriages can be performed in the nation’s most-populous state has sparked so much interest that a book written four years ago by a Bangor Theological Seminary professor will be reissued.

The Pilgrim Press, based in Cleveland, has gone back to the press for a third printing of “Same-Sex Marriage? A Christian Ethical Analysis” by the Rev. Marvin Ellison of Portland.

“The recent California State Supreme Court ruling in support of marriage equality for same-sex couples is another step toward securing full civil rights for gay men and lesbians in this society,” Ellison said last month. “Even more, it’s a profoundly important gesture of showing respect for persons whose humanity has been vilified and denied.”

In his book, Ellison, who teaches Christian ethics at the seminary with campuses in Bangor and Portland, examines the arguments for and against same-sex marriage and concludes that as a matter of justice, the institution should be open to same-sex couples. In conversations with both legal scholars and theologians, he examines the strengths and weaknesses of how marriage traditionalists, advocates of same-sex marriage, and critics of marriage from within the gay community analyze the issues and frame their arguments.

Mary L. Bonauto, an attorney for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders who led the legal team that won the same-sex marriage case in Massachusetts, called the book “a must-read for anyone who wants to take an informed position on this issue.”

“Ellison’s book offers an essential voice in the marriage debate by bringing the broad ethics of Christianity to what is otherwise a legal question about the justness of discrimination against gay and lesbian couples in civil marriage,” she said. “He takes to task all the players in the debate, and brings to bear the rich justness and compassion of Christian ethics to enrich the debate.”

“As Christianity and other religions celebrate, the freedom to love and be loved lies at the very heart of what it means to be human,” Ellison, a Presbyterian minister, said. “Denying two adults, whether it’s an inter-racial or same-sex couple, the moral feed to love [and the legal right to marry] is more than dehumanizing. It’s cruel and unloving.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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