Miss California and gay marriages

I kind of created an unwanted tension between my friends on Facebook when I posted a link to a blog post by former Miss Philippines Universe Joyce Burton-Titular about Ms. California being the most famous first runner up. If you’ve been around the blogsphere, you know about the buzz. During the Miss USA pageant, Miss California was asked by showbiz blogger Perez Hilton about what she thinks on same sex marriages. She answered with conviction, she doesn’t support it. It became very controversial, it even came to a point where she was about to be stripped off her Mis CA crown.

On one side, some friends of mine (really close ones) said Miss California, by rejecting same sex marriage, claims to be a Christian but is inaccurately representing it by her actions. On another side, a friend of mine said we should stop criticizing her for the other things that she’s doing and instead praise her for taking a stand. I hope to defuse the tension a bit by giving my own (hopefully diplomatic) stand.

First of all, in my opinion, Ms. CA did a great job at answering the pageant question. I’m not saying whether I agree or disagree with her answer. All I’m saying is she did a great job. She was asked with a controversial question, what else can you expect but a controversial answer. What she did is simply to answer the question with conviction — exactly what a pageant like this requires. If she answered differently with the same conviction, she will still get an A from me. 

Secondly, in my understanding, as far as civil rights are concerned, this is not an issue whether same sex marriages are moral or not. The issue is the definition of marriage — is marriage between a man or a woman, or is it time to redefine its meaning? You only have two choices and Miss CA took the former definition.

And lastly, while I think Miss CA did a great job in standing for her Christian conviction, it is true that some reports did say that she was inconsistent with it. But, on the other hand, isn’t that an issue for all of us? I mean, who can say that we’re always consistent with our own beliefs? Isn’t that the goal of a growing Christian — little by little to become like Jesus and be consistent with our beliefs? In the meantime, we’re all going to mess up. But thank God for his grace.

I do have my own opinion on gay marriages. But since I do not live in the US nor this is going to be an issue here in the Philippines, at least for now, I’m just going to hold my piece. In any case, US President Obama — largely liberal president whom I suppose supports gay marriages, and Rick Warren, an evangelical pastor that rejects it, are friends. Warren prayed for Obama on the inaugural. I think it’s the best way to say that we can all live together in harmony even if we have different convictions.

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