aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

United Church of Christ considers gay marriage

The United Church of Christ biennial national gathering is this weekend in Atlanta and they’re considering endorsing same sex marriage:

On Tuesday, Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, called for passage of the same-sex marriage proposal, his first-ever public endorsement of the measure.

The church’s General Synod “should affirm the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons to have their covenanted relationships recognized by the state as marriages equal in name, privileges, and responsibilities to married heterosexual couples,” Thomas said during a speech at Emory University.

One proposal from the UCC’s Southern California-Nevada Conference asks the General Synod, the denomination’s highest deliberative body, to affirm full civil and religious marriage for same-gender couples. If passed, the UCC’s General Synod would become the first mainline Christian body to support gay marriage.

A second resolution offered by eight congregations from around the country asks the Synod to affirm “traditional” marriage as “between one man and one woman.” A third proposal, from the Central Atlantic Conference, calls for a time of church-wide prayer, conversation and study on the issue…

Debate on the three proposals is expected Sunday, with a vote on the measures coming as early as Monday morning. The 1.4 million-member church has a history of supporting gays in its denomination, dating to 1972 when it ordained an openly gay minister and established a gay coalition.

They have a UCC blog that should be interesting to watch through the weekend. Whatever the outcome, it’s great that they’re considering the issue and that Rev. Thomas has called for its passage.

Via Josh Marshall who adds:

Here’s a good post about how ABC justified running an ad by Dobson’s Focus on the Family after rejecting the UCC’s ad [celebrating their church’s message of outreach and inclusion of gays and lesbians]. And here’s another on the UCC president’s endorsement of a resolution backing gay marriage.