[Apologetics] Sergius, Bacchus, and the growing myth of “early Christian gay marriage”

[Dianne Dawson]

Sergius, Bacchus, and the growing myth of “early Christian gay marriage”
by Thomas Peters on August 24th, 2010
 
Just as Dan Brown capitalized on ignorance and prejudice to sell copies of his 
bestselling The Da Vinci Code novel, some historians have tried to sell gay 
marriage by claiming that the early Christian martyrs Sergius and Bacchus are an 
example of Church-sponsored same-sex marriage.
 
Seriously?
 
With Judge Walker’s recent decision to declare same-sex marriage a 
“constitutional right”, gay-marriage proponents are in overdrive 
trying desperately to convince people on the fence that gay-marriage is the wave 
of the future – as well as the suppressed reality of the past.
 
Consider this article and headline by Daniel Maguire on AlterNet:
“Christian Right Bigots Are Hiding the Truth — Early Christians Condoned Gay 
Marriage”
 
Many of the world’s religions — including Christianity — supported same-sex 
unions, a reality obscured by modern-day shrill, conservative commentary.
 
Dan’s goal isn’t to convince us that his claims are true (I’ll show in short 
order how they’re false). His goal is instead to confuse and convince the 
majority of people who will never take the time to investigate his claims – the 
same people who read Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and came away believing that the 
historical evidence demonstrates conclusively that Jesus had a love-child with 
Mary Magdalen and that the Church has been hiding this embarrassing fact for 
centuries.
 
In other words, gay-marriage proponents who bring up the argument about Saints 
Sergius and Bacchus, like Dan Brown, are either totally deluding themselves 
about history because they can’t handle reality, or intentionally deceiving 
others about history because they stand to gain from twisting it.
 
The claim that Saints Sergius and Bacchus represent an example of 
Church-sponsored same-sex marriage was first put forward in 1994 by John Boswell 
in his book Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe. Boswell’s claims have been 
completely debunked by David Woods, Robin Young, and Brent Shaw (to name the 
first three authors I found during a simple internet search).
 
Some samples of the conclusions of their debunking:
“the comparison of the punishment of Sergius and Bacchus to the punishment of 
those convicted of homosexual offences is misleading at best.” – Woods
 
“the author’s painfully strained effort to recruit Christian history in support 
of the homosexual cause that he favors is not only a failure, but an 
embarrassing one.” – Young
 
“…same-sex marriages forged with the approval of the Christian church, and with 
its rituals? No. Such a reading is very misleading.” – Shaw
 
The last author – John Shaw – is actually sympathetic with same-sex marriage, 
but even he cannot stomach the idea of arguing for changing the future based on 
lying to yourself about the past. 
 
Dan Maguire and other gay-marriage proponents who call Christians “bigots” and 
claim we are “hiding the truth” would do well to emulate half the integrity of 
real historians who, whatever their personal beliefs may be, refuse to project 
those beliefs unto the historical record.
 
I think, furthermore, that we can identify a pattern among examples such as John 
Boswell and Judge Walker. Both men have violated the principles of their 
vocation (as a historian and judge, respectively) in order to further a 
personal, “activist” goal. Boswell’s arguments have been called into serious 
question by other historians, and even powerful supporters of legalizing 
same-sex marriage are uncomfortable with how Judge Walker has tried to force the 
issue. 
 
Nevertheless, even in the face of criticism from their own peers, same-sex 
proponents feel free to lash out violently against anyone who calls their claims 
into question.
 
As a defender of traditional marriage recently wrote about Judge Walker, does 
this sound like the behavior of people with an airtight logical case?


      
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