by
Sylvia Dooling
_(Imagine this scene occurring at your house this week.)_
Eight year-old Joshua comes bursting through the door after school.
_’Mommmmm! I’m home!”_
_’Hi, Joshua, how was your day?”_
_’It was okay. You know, it was pretty boring!”_
I responded with a smile. _’Joshua, I thought your teacher told you that you
weren’t ever supposed to use the ‘B’ word. Would you like some cookies and
milk?”_
_’Yeah!”_
Wanting to know if anything significant was going on in my son’s head, I sat
and watched him gulp down the warm cookies I’d fixed him a short while
earlier. You know, it’s one of those things Mom’s do to build memories.
Joshua was rather quiet, and then he looked up and asked me with questioning
eyes, _’Mom what’s a Same Sex Union?”_
Oh, my! Here it is. One of the questions you hope doesn’t come up for at
least 100 years of your child’s life. Even then, I wasn’t expecting it to
come up quite this way.
_’What do you mean? Where did you hear that?”_
_’Well my friend Isaac asked me if I’d come to church with him on Sunday. He
said his dad and Sam were going to be blessed in a Same Sex Union. I don’t
really know what that means.”_
I took a deep breath, and thought to myself, _”How am I going to explain
this one to an eight year old boy?”_
_’Joshua, it sounds to me like Isaac’s Dad is very special friends with a
man name Sam.” _
Okay, so far so good. So what do I say next?
_’This friendship, Joshua they want their friends in church to make their
friendship … holy.”_
Joshua interrupts me. _’Gosh Mom, that sounds really cool! Maybe we could
ask them to have a special service for Brad and me? We’re best friends!
Maybe they’d even have a cake; you know, like a party!”_
I knew I was in trouble.
_’No, Joshua. That’s not really what I’m talking about.”_
_’Well, what ARE you talking about, Mom? I’m going to ride my bike to _
_Brad’s house as soon as I’m through here. So, what is a Same Sex Union? Can
I go?”_
_’Joshua, you’re going to have to give me some time to think about this. I’m
going to need some help when your Dad gets home. Can we talk about this
later?”_
_’Okay, Mom. But I’m going to need an answer by tomorrow.”_
READ THE MAY 22, 2000 DECISION OF THE PERMANENT JUDICIAL COMMISSION OF THE
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SAME SEX UNIONS [1]
[1] http://www.pforum.org/pjc/hudsonriver.htm