Church Leader Endorses Gay Marriage

With a possible historic vote looming on a measure supporting same-sex marriage, the head of the United Church of Christ on Tuesday publicly endorsed the resolution for the first time.

The Rev. John H. Thomas said Tuesday that the church's General Synod "should affirm the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender persons" to have marriages "equal in name, privileges and responsibilities to married heterosexual couples."

"I believe our local churches, as they are able, should move toward the development of marriage equality policies," Thomas added during a speech at Emory University.

That remark drew a lengthy standing ovation from the audience of about 200.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050629/ap_on_re_us/church_gay_marriage_5

Most Americans are sick of them.

to oppose everything they say! Perhaps they should read: "How to win friends and influence people" because their tactics are only alienating them more.

Canada is now a precedent

Well, the UCCanada tends to be a little in the lead. ;)

http://www.united-church.ca/justice/

http://www.united-church.ca/moderator/short/2004/0131.shtm

... In the tradition to which I belong, we bring faith to the discussion of marriage. More importantly, it is faith that brings us to this discussion. Faith prompts that old question that stands at the heart of our experience as followers of Jesus; the question that runs like an aortic artery through the writings of the New Testament; the question that has haunted us from the very beginning and haunts us still: "Who is in and who is out?"

Christian faith brings us again and again to this question, as it brought our ancestors and will bring our children: "Who is in and who is out?" Our faith brought us here in the question of the ordination of women in the early years of The United Church of Canada. It brought us back again in the debate about divorce and remarriage in the 1960s. This same question is the essential element of our slowly dawning awareness about right relations with Aboriginal peoples: "Who is in and who is out?"

In the current discussion about marriage, the question looks like this: "Who will be invited to enter and live in the good house? Who will be welcome to give themselves to transformation by love in the honourable estate

... The General Council of The United Church of Canada has made clear its response. All those, regardless of sexual orientation, who are willing to give themselves to transformation by love in the honourable estate are welcome in marriage. I am aware that among ecumenical and interfaith responses to equal marriage, the United Church is mostly alone. Nevertheless, and with great respect for our partners and friends, I believe that the General Council has made the right response, true to the gospel and true to our tradition.

While the Moderator says that the mysterious "transformation" of marriage (and that there is where the business of church and state part ways, of course ;) ) cannot be "defined exclusively in the language of human rights", his question -- "Who is in and who is out?" -- is pretty much the sum of the language of human rights.

There *are* good Christians!

I haven't been formally associated with the UCCanada for nearly 40 years, but I still get proud of it from time to time.