Emory University News Release

Release date: Sept. 13, 2002
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Emory Lecture to Examine Same-Sex Unions And Christian Marriage

WHO: Mark D. Jordan, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Religion

WHAT: "Finding Christianity in the Quarrels over Same-Sex Unions," Annual Decalogue Lecture, presented by Emory University’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, and the Law and Religion Program of Emory Law School

WHEN: 12:15 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 18

WHERE: Tull Auditorium, Emory Law School, 1301 Clifton Road, Emory

PARKING: Visitor lot off Clifton Road at Gambrell Drive. Follow directional signs.

COST: Free and open to the public. For more information, call 404-712-8710.

The debate over how same-sex unions fit in to the context of Christian marriage will be the subject of the annual Decalogue Lecture by Mark D. Jordan, Asa Griggs Candler Professor in the Department of Religion at Emory University. In a lecture titled, "Finding Christianity in the Quarrels over Same-Sex Unions," Jordan will discuss the need to separate the question of church blessings for same-sex unions from the debate over their civil recognition. This separation is needed, he says, because of the ramifications any religious decision will have both inside and outside the church.

Jordan also will discuss how the blessing of same-sex unions provokes a radical reexamination of the grounds for Christian marriage in general. Only through such a reexamination, he says, will people begin to find Christianity in the quarrels over same-sex unions.

The lecture is presented by Emory’s Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, and the Law and Religion Program of Emory Law School. The two programs will sponsor the annual Currie Lecture in Law and Religion in October on "Sex and the American Church." The lecture will be presented by Luke Timothy Johnson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins in Emory’s Candler School of Theology, at noon, Wednesday, Oct. 9, in Cannon Chapel, 515 Kilgo Dr., Emory.