Saturday, July 10, 2010

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Approves Partnered Gay Clergy

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has tentatively joined the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the United Church of Christ and the Unitarian Church in allowing partnered gay and lesbian clergy. Like the ELCA and the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterians have so far, however, reserved the term "marriage" for heterosexual couples only. As a result, the religious based anti-gay laws in the USA are increasingly giving special rights and privileges to one particular form of Christianity - the Southern Baptists and Fundamentalists - in a more and more glaring contradiction to the nations supposed guarantee of religious freedom and separation of church and state. One has to wonder when these enlightened - and general far better educated - religious denominations are going to begin to object to the legal discrimination inflicted upon their members. Frankly, it is way beyond time that religious leaders other than the gay-haters start speaking out loudly and demanding that the media present their side of the issue and not just that of the professional Christians who are Christian in name only. Here are highlights from the Kansas City Star:
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Hours after giving their blessing to ordaining noncelibate gays and lesbians, leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) declined late Thursday to change the church's definition of marriage, in effect refusing to allow same-sex marriages within their denomination.
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The gay ordination proposal, which did pass, still must be approved by the majority of the church's 173 local "presbyteries," or district governing bodies, within the next year before it can take effect.
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Only a few mainstream Christian denominations now conduct same-sex marriages, but many, like the Presbyterians, are debating the issue as uncertainty grows over churches' role in such marriages, now the law of the land in five states and Washington, D.C.
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Legalized gay marriage "puts pastors in a bind," Bolbach said. "Let's say you have gay or lesbian members of your congregation who want to get married. The law allows it. What are they supposed to do?" The Presbyterians' discussion was "a reflection of what's going on in the secular world," she said.

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