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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

United Church of Christ takes a HUGE Step Forward

It's finally happened. A mainline Christian denomination has nationally endorsed Gay Marriage. Did you hear that? CHRISTIANS for Gay Marriage!! Whodathunkit?! Naturally it had to happen on the 4th of July, a day when Americans celebrate freedom and equality.

The United Church of Christ, which has some 6,000 plus congregations and over 1.3 million members voted today to affirm the civil rights of gays and lesbians to have their marriages recognized by the government of the United States. The resolution, passed by a show of hands by the General Synod, calls for member churches to consider wedding policies "that do not discriminate against couples based on gender."

Naturally a few redneck southern churches were upset by the vote. Reverend Brett Becker of the St. Paul United Church of Christ in Cibolo, Texas, made noises about leaving the UCC Synod, but the vast majority agreed with Brice Thomas, a gay pastor from Lebanon, Ohio who said, "Every indication was that it was going to go that way. But still, to hear it come to a vote and see it proceed in such a positive way to me was transforming."

"I experienced a passionate conversion," said Hector Lopez, minister, Southern California. He administered a number of gay weddings in Oregon and was affected by seeing the respect and commitment of gay couples.

Will this be a stepping-stone path for other US church organizations to follow? It's too early to tell. But it certainly will go a long way to proving to the American citizenry that the marriage of two committed same-sex people is not unnatural and perfectly in-line with Scripture. The text of the resolution:

The marriage equality resolution (1) affirms equal marriage rights for couples
regardless of gender and declares that the government should not interfere with
couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully in the rights,
responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized marriage; (2)affirms equal
access to the basic rights, institutional protections and quality of life
conferred by the recognition of marriage, (3) calls for an end to rhetoric that
fuels hostility, misunderstanding, fear and hatred expressed toward gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, (4) asks officers of the church to
communicate the resolution to local, state and national legislators, urging them
to support equal marriage rights, (5) calls upon all settings of the church to
engage in serious, respectful and prayerful discussion of the covenantal
relationship of marriage and equal marriage rights, (6) calls upon
congregations, after prayerful, biblical, theological, and historical study, to
consider adopting Wedding Policies that do not discriminate against couples
based on gender, and (7) urges congregations and individuals of the UCC to
prayerfully consider and support local, state and national legislation to grant
equal marriage rights to couples regardless of gender, and to work again
legislation, including constitutional amendments, which denies rights to couples
based on gender.

posted at 11:53:00 PM by Marcia Ellen

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