[Vision2020] 07 05 05 Ny Times: United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex Marriage

[donald toogood]

That headline says the church did it. But if you read on down it was just
most of 800 delegates. The people in the churches didn't have any say in
it. No wonder churches like this are losing their members. The big shots
in the churches are making it so they don't stand for anything at all.
They'll go ahead and do something they know is wrong just so a few people
won't badmouth them. Well maybe it makes them feel better, but pretty
soon they'll be preaching to empty churches. Just like it says in this
article, some of the churches are probably gonna get out of that religion
if they let this gay marrying thing go.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: "Art Deco"
  To: "Vision 2020"
  Subject: [Vision2020] 07 05 05 Ny Times: United Church of Christ
  Backs Same-Sex Marriage
  Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 08:11:21 -0700

>From The New York Times July 5, 2005



United Church of Christ Backs Same-Sex Marriage
===============================================

By SHAILA DEWAN

ATLANTA, July 4 - The United Church of Christ became the first mainline
Christian denomination to support same-sex marriage officially when its
general synod passed a resolution on Monday affirming "equal marriage
rights for couples regardless of gender."

The resolution was adopted in the face of efforts to amend the
Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. It was both a theological
statement and a protest against discrimination, said the Rev. John H.
Thomas, the president and general minister of the denomination, which has
6,000 congregations and 1.3 million members.

"On this July 4, the United Church of Christ has courageously acted to
declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights
of gay - of same-gender - couples to have their relationships recognized
as marriages by the state, and encouraging our local churches to
celebrate those marriages," Mr. Thomas said at a news conference after
the vote by the General Synod.

The synod's decisions are not binding and the vote will not require
pastors to provide marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. Some United
Church of Christ ministers already perform such ceremonies.

While the United Church of Christ has not had the widespread divisions
other major denominations have experienced over homosexuality, some
member churches had said that such a vote could prompt them to leave the
denomination, and one group called for Mr. Thomas's resignation when he
announced his support of the resolution.

One amendment offered on the synod floor, and accepted, added a phrase
acknowledging the "pain and struggle" passage of the resolution would
create.

Yet the resolution, submitted by the church's Southern California-Nevada
Conference, appeared to have overwhelming support on the synod floor,
where the vote was done by a show of hands among the roughly 800
delegates after about 45 minutes of debate.

"Every indication was that it was going to go that way," said Brice
Thomas, 42, a United Church of Christ pastor in Lebanon, Ohio, who is
gay. "But still, to hear it come to a vote and see it processed in such a
positive way to me was transformative."

Some, like Harlan Hall, a delegate from Wisconsin, supported a failed
effort to change the resolution to apply to "covenanted relationships"
rather than legal marriage. "As a well-over-30-years-old, heterosexual
white male capitalist, who seems like he's losing his position in the
church - but still can vote, I am in favor of the proposal," Mr. Hall
said. "I could find it much easier to sell back home."

But another delegate, Gregory Morisse, who opposed the amendment, said,
"Covenanted relationships are not under constitutional threat."

Hector Lopez, a minister from a small Latino church in Southern
California, said he was not at first enthusiastic about same-sex
marriage. But after officiating at about a dozen such ceremonies in
Oregon and seeing the respect and commitment of the couples, he said, "I
experienced a passionate conversion."

Several major religious groups permit same-sex unions, but do not give
them the same status as marriage, including the Episcopal Church, with
about 2.3 million members; the Evangelical Lutheran Church, with 5
million; and Reform Judaism, with 1.7 million.

"Today's word is not the last word in the U.C.C. about marriage," Mr.
Thomas said. "It is a crucial and groundbreaking first word in a
difficult but important churchwide discussion."

He said the church strove to have "diversity without division, unity
without uniformity." His hope, he said, is that "we will not run from one
another, because if we run from one another we run from Christ."

There was some evidence that the denomination could comfortably encompass
dissenters, in part because the mood after the vote was more conciliatory
than triumphant. The Rev. Barbara Headley, pastor at a predominantly
black United Church of Christ church in Hartford, said she voted against
the resolution and that many blacks were more "orthodox" in their
interpretation of Scripture.

"There are those of us who live in the tension of affirming love and
relationships for people who have not had enough of that, and feeling
like the theological evidence for it just hasn't been presented," she
said.

Ms. Headley was with Beverly Deloatch, another black delegate from
Connecticut, who said, "I voted for it, and I agree with everything she's
saying."

Jeanette Mott Oxford, who described herself as the first openly lesbian
member elected to the Missouri House of Representatives, said she was
pleased by the "brave prophetic witness" of the vote, but "very concerned
about my brothers and sisters who may be hurt by this."

The United Church of Christ prides itself on being in the forefront of
human and civil rights issues. On its Web site, the denomination says it
and its predecessors were among the first churches to take a stand
against slavery, in 1700, the first to ordain a woman, in 1853, and the
first to publish an inclusive-language hymnal, in 1995.

Its slogan, "God is still speaking," is meant to suggest that the Bible
is not the sole source of divine instruction, and that Scripture must be
interpreted in today's context.

The equal marriage rights resolution states, in part, "Ideas about
marriage have shifted and changed dramatically throughout human history,
and such change continues even today." It continues, "In the Gospel we
find ground for a definition of marriage and family relationships based
on the affirmation of the full humanity of each partner, lived out in
mutual care and respect for one another."

Last year, two major networks refused to broadcast a United Church of
Christ commercial that showed two bouncers standing in front of a church,
allowing some people to come in and refusing others, including nonwhites
and a gay couple. "Jesus didn't turn people away," the text said.
"Neither do we."


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