The Presbyterian Church Breathes an Enlightened Breath of Fresh Air...
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
As the Presbyterian Church voted to allow same sex marriages another large step has been taken in the long march to marriage equality. Perhaps sooner rather than later the day will finally arrive when all people realize that someone else's same sex marriage does not change or affect their traditional heterosexual marriage.
From The New York Times.
Old bigotry always dies a slow death. Especially man made institutionalized religious bigotry. But eventually bigotry does die.
Read the rest of the story BELOW THE FOLD.
Via: Memeorandum
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth
As the Presbyterian Church voted to allow same sex marriages another large step has been taken in the long march to marriage equality. Perhaps sooner rather than later the day will finally arrive when all people realize that someone else's same sex marriage does not change or affect their traditional heterosexual marriage.
From The New York Times.
DETROIT — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted at its General Assembly on Thursday to change its constitution’s definition of marriage from “a man and a woman” to “two people,” and to allow its ministers to perform same-sex marriages where it is legal.
Both measures, passed by large majorities, are a reversal for a church that in 1991 and in 2008 barred its pastors from performing same-sex marriages, and that has held ecclesiastical trials for ministers who violated the ban and blessed gay couples.
The Presbyterian Church, a historic mainline Protestant denomination that spans a broad spectrum from liberal to conservative evangelicals, has been mired in the debate over homosexuality for about three decades. The General Assembly’s decision in 2010 to ordain openly gay ministers caused many congregations, including some of the largest, to depart.
The convention hall fell silent as the vote counts were announced, in deference to a plea by the church’s moderator, leading the session, to be respectful of the divide.
“There were some of us with tears of joy, and some of us with tears of grief,” said the Rev. Susan De George, stated clerk of the Hudson River Presbytery, in New York, a lesbian minister who years ago was among those brought up on charges for blessing same-sex unions. “After the vote, the first thing I did was to text a friend on the other side of the issue.”
The Presbyterians follow other religious groups that have taken similar steps, including the United Church of Christ, which affirmed “equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender” in 2005; Quakers; the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations; and the Reform and Conservative movements in Judaism.
The vote giving discretion to ministers to marry gay couples takes effect on Sunday, at the close of the General Assembly.
But changing the definition of marriage in the church’s Book of Order would still require ratification by a majority of the church’s 172 regions, or presbyteries — a yearlong process. At the assembly in Detroit, the measure passed overwhelmingly — 71 percent to 29 percent — but only after an amendment that altered the language of the change from “two people” to “two people, traditionally a man and a woman,” a nod to conservatives who would otherwise have voted against it.
Old bigotry always dies a slow death. Especially man made institutionalized religious bigotry. But eventually bigotry does die.
Read the rest of the story BELOW THE FOLD.
Via: Memeorandum
Now there's a church that's definitely come a long way since I was a kid. God bless 'em.
ReplyDeleteThey were always ahead of the pack on these sorts of issues. One could say libertarianism actually came out of Presbyterianism.
ReplyDeleteJMJ
Jersey is usually right, but on this one? I've got to say I strongly disagree. Libertarianism came out of a desire for the greedy rich to have a political ideology that justified their greed... without the social conservatism that has nothing to do with protecting their wealth.
DeleteYes Will, they have came a long way, as have most man made religions. I have always considered myself fortunate that my parents were wise and allowed their children to be exposed to all denominations without tipping their hand towards any. Thus my exposure to Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Catholic, and others, which was for me a real eye opener. Their lack of religous loyalty to a particular religous doctrine in favor of accepting true spirituality gave me and my sidlings a good foundation. It made it easier to see through and beyond religous bigotry of 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteChange is a very slow process in doctrinaire man made religion. But as this article shows it can and does happen.
It is unfortunate, however, that they made an anti-Israeli resolution at the same conderence.They can't be perfect.At least it was a narrow vote, and it can go the other way later.
ReplyDelete