Never one to miss the chance to smear Christianity and push gay marriage, the Huffington Post is hyping a new edition of an old book proposing that the ancient Christian church held gay marriages.
A sensationalist HuffPo sidebar lead with the teaser: “Ancient Christians held gay marriages?” On the HuffPo’s Gay Voices page, the banner was emblazoned with the provocative suggestion: “ANCIENT I DO’S?” The sub headline made it sound as if the story were breaking news: “Historian’s claims spark controversy.”
But what was the reason for all the HuffPo excitement? Fresh-off-the-presses research? Remarkable new discoveries? Incredible new evidence?
Nope. All that’s happening is a two-decades-old publication by gay historian John Boswell is going to be transferred into digital form. Boswell’s book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, originally published in 1994, proposed that ancient Christians performed gay marriage. The book has been harshly criticized as inaccurate and highly questionable.
Even HuffPo had to admit that Boswell’s supposed research “had many critics” and that his book’s biggest claim to popular approval came in being cited in the left-wing cartoon Doonesbury. Nevertheless, HuffPo hyped the “respected” historian who “championed” the idea of gay marriage in the ancient world, and repeated claims that “many of these unions were similar to contemporary same-sex weddings.”
“The debate sparked by his research is ongoing,” the HuffPo article concluded, finishing with a quote from liberal writer Annalee Newitz, who hoped that “those who have been banished today may be blessed tomorrow – just as they were over a thousand years ago.”
It looks like, with this latest incident of breathlessly hopeful reporting about anything that might, just might, be gay, HuffPo is just up to its old tricks.
