The Newsweek Same Sex Marriage Kerfuffle

And it's no surprise, the blogosphere is in an uproar.  Everyone's started in their respective corners and come out swinging.

On the right, Al Mohler predictably says that Miller's is an agenda-driven piece and that it avoids the commonsense interpretation of biblical passages.  In a nice literary flourish, he puts the phrase "progressive scholars" in scare quotes, hardly hiding his scorn for such a foul tribe.  He lands the plane where his own tribe often do, blaming the MSM for having a scary-elite-liberal bias:

The national news media are collectively embarrassed by the passage of Proposition 8 in California.  Gay rights activists are publicly calling on the mainstream media to offer support for gay marriage, arguing that the media let them down in November.  It appears that Newsweek intends to do its part to press for same-sex marriage.  Many observers believe that the main obstacle to this agenda is a resolute opposition grounded in Christian conviction.  Newsweek clearly intends to reduce that opposition.

Erin, guest-blogging for Rod, takes particular aim at Meacham, who is known in Washington circles as a faithful, if progressive, Episcopalian.  She lets Larison do her talking for her, and then sums it up with a broadside against our supposedly relativistic age that must make Rod's vacation even more relaxing:

[This] battle among Christians is a battle over Christian morality, over the notion that God does indeed expect His faithful followers to conduct themselves according to moral standards which are expressed in the Bible and taught faithfully in Christian tradition. Our relativistic age has had a problem with the whole idea, and is constantly re-inventing the notion of morality to mean whatever we want it to mean.

Mollie Ziegler at GetReligion is particularly torqued.  She applies the phrases "unvelievable ignorance," "grossly unfair" and "junior high" to Miller -- and that's just about the first paragraph of the essay!  In three separate posts, Ziegler accuses Miller of hermeneutical hackery, error-riddled and emotion-driven journalism, and cherrypicking her sources.

Predictably, Christianity Today, NRO, and The American Spectator all come out swinging, too.

In the center, a couple of Bnet bloggers try to stay above the fray. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield finds Miller's exegesis lacking since she both excoriates conservatives for using singular verses out of context and herself uses singular verses out of context.  "Deep down," he writes, "neither group really cares as much about the Bible, as they do about the conclusion which they have reached on gay marriage and about having God on their side."

Steve Waldman, a Newsweek alum, and now my boss's boss here at Bnet, is dumbfounded that Meacham has taken Newsweek, seemingly overnight, from a newsweekly to an "out-and-out opinion-oriented magazine."  Steve promises a follow-up post on the substance of the article itself, which he thinks, "does raise some very legitimate and provocative points." 

On the left, Paul Raushebush calls Miller's piece "excellent and provocative," but then merely copies and pastes the first several paragraphs from newsweek.com.

Gay.com declares,

In less than 3000 words, Ms. Miller produces one of the more reasoned and calm studies to date on the context and role marriage is given in religious text. At the same time, sincere respect is demonstrated for the core messages of the Bible, including the importance of family and the gift of love.

Susan Smith, on the Meacham-edited On Faith team blog, sings Millers praises,

The sad thing about all this is that we religious types make our insecurities, issues and fears the issues of God. The Bible does not support that. The Bible supports a life that mandates that we help all people feel the love, acceptance and presence of God. That would be everyone, gay and straight, black and white, rich and poor.

The rest of the left, as far as I can tell, is thus far silent.  Nothing at Huffington, the DailyKos, [UPDATE: DailyKos take here] The New Republic, Mother Jones, or the Utne Reader.  The right may be right that the media tilts left, but as one who is progressive and religious, I'm particularly pissed at how little play religion gets in the progressive press.  This dust-up is a case-in-point.

My own take: I appreciate what Meacham is trying to do.  I have a great deal of respect for him, and I think he's in a very tough spot, what with the media sand shifting beneath his feet.  MSNBC made the shift to being outwardly on the left.  As a result, they are kicking CNN's subtly leftist butt in primetime, and running neck-and-neck with FOX.  It makes a lot of sense for Newsweek to run more opinion pieces more often.

But the problem, methinks, is that Miller has not established a reputation as a pundit, and Meacham threw her to the lions.  He knew she'd be savaged by the right, as he notes in his column, but I think she was thoroughly unprepared.  As such, she is deservedly being taken to task for cherrypicking her sources and her biblical scholars, and for not conveying the many complexities and nuances of the SSM debate.

On the other hand, there's only so much you can say in 3,000 words.  That's why I'm so disappointed that none of the major mags on the left have come to her defense.  But I know why they haven't: THEY DON'T HAVE ANY WRITERS WHO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT RELIGION!!!  (Yes, I'm shouting.)

Hopefully Rod and I can add more light and less heat to this debate.

[UPDATE: Andrew, back from vacation, weighs in.]