A spontaneous prayer about the DOMA ruling

Last updated on: June 26, 2013 at 11:49 am by John Shore

A spontaneous prayer about the DOMA ruling 2013-06-26T11:49:35-06:00 John Shore

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As you’re probably by now aware, today the Supreme Court declared a 1996 law denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples (the shamefully named Defense of Marriage Act) unconstitutional.

When huge things happen in my life—things I know I can no sooner consciously process than I can fly a space shuttle—I turn to God. In this case, I want to thank God. I just learned of this ruling. So I thought that I would type my thanks/prayer as they’re actually happening in my heart and mind, and so in that very direct and personal fashion commune with you around this mind-bogglingly joyful occasion.

Dear God:

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We’re slow. We’re afraid; we take our time; we’re always happy to let the next guy solve the problem we started.

We know justice needs doing; we balk at doing it ourselves.

But gottdangit if all along you’re not watching: if you’re not caring, if you’re not tracking our relationship with the justice that we so readily claim that we want.

And slowly but surely, inch by inch–and despite our constant and petulant resistance–you move us toward that justice. You walk us to the truth. You bring us to do the thing that must be done: the right thing, the truthful thing, the thing that it was always your will that we do.

Finally and gloriously, you make your will ours.

You make us win. You do that to us first as individuals, and then as a nation. And I know that you are doing the same thing to all of us, to the whole human race.

Thank you for this victory today. We need to know that justice can be done. And once again you have shown us what we so often fail to remember and believe, which is that we—us, ourselves, right here, right now—are the means by which your justice—being the truth of the love you instilled within us—is realized, presented, practiced, done out here in this cruel world we know.

Today the weak have been defended, the vulnerable protected, the persecuted relieved.

Today is your day, Lord. Today is our day. Today is a day for everyone who loves love. And that, whether any given person realizes it or not, does, and must, include us all.

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