By Bob Allen
Comments on gay marriage by celebrated Kentucky farmer and author Wendell Berry that received widespread media attention in January are now available for online viewing.
Georgetown College announced Feb. 20 the posting of Berry’s address, delivered Jan. 11 at a pastor’s conference titled “Following the Call of the Church in Times Like These,” on the college website.
The hour-long video includes a critique by Baylor professor Scott Moore of isolated comments attributed to Berry that seemed to represent a shift in the author’s previous thinking on the sanctity of heterosexual marriage, followed by Berry’s response.
Berry’s comments, reported exclusively by ABPNews.com, were repeated in media outlets and blogs across the country. They also received attention from Berry scholars, including the editorial board of Front Porch Republic, a website dedicated to topics like consumerism and laissez-faire capitalism that are frequently addressed in Berry’s books and essays.
In his Jan. 11 speech, Berry, winner of the National Humanities Medal in 2010 and 2012 Jefferson lecturer for the National Endowment for the Humanities, said Christian opponents of same-sex marriage want the government to treat homosexuals as a special category of persons subject to discrimination, similar to the ways that African-Americans and women were categorized in the past.
Berry, who in the past described marriage as a pre-modern social institution linked to procreation and who criticized its devaluing by the sexual revolution, more recently is on record saying the sexual practices of consenting adults should not be subject to the government’s approval and that domestic partnerships in which same-sex couples devote their lives to one another ought to receive the same spousal rights, protections and privileges afforded to heterosexuals.
The video of Berry’s address is here.
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