[This is a press release from The Pilgrim Press]

Same-sex Marriage? A Christian Ethical Analysis

[12-8-03]

"Heterosexuals have no monopoly on love and Marvin Ellison brilliantly shows in this book that the right to marry is a human right, not an award for being heterosexual."

-- Daniel C. Maguire, professor of moral theology, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"A must read for anyone who wants to take an informed position on this issue. Marvin 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. 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."

-- Mary L. Bonauto, civil rights director of GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders), and lead counsel in the Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and co-counsel in the Baker v. State of Vermont

In this new book, a progressive Christian ethicist at a mainline Protestant seminary 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. However, the author, Marvin M. Ellison, an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a professor of Christian ethics at United Church of Christ-related Bangor Theological Seminary, points out that marriage is not necessarily ideal for all lesbian or gay people, and that marriage is not for all straight people either.

In dialogue with both legal scholars and theologians, Ellison examines the strengths and weaknesses of how marriage traditionalists, advocates of same-sex marriage, and LBGT(lesbian/bisexual/gay/transgender) critics of marriage analyze the issues and frame their arguments. The book offers constructive proposals for revitalizing Christian sexual and family ethics and moving the debate forward, regardless of whether the right to marry is won or lost.

The book will officially publish January 1, 2004, and is being shipped to booksellers and reviewers during the month of December 2003.

Marvin M. Ellison is Willard S. Bass Professor of Christian Ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He received his Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Ellison is co-editor of Body and Soul: Rethinking Sexuality as Justice-Love (The Pilgrim Press, 2003), author of Erotic Justice: A Liberating Ethic of Sexuality (1996), and a principal author of the Presbyterian Church (USA) study document Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice (1991). He lives in Portland, Maine.