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Sunday, June 22nd, 2014

Nation’s Largest Presbyterian Denomination Embraces Same-Sex Marriage

Author:     JACK JENKINS
Source:     Think Progress
Publication Date:     une 19, 2014 at 5:35 pm
 Link: Nation’s Largest Presbyterian Denomination Embraces Same-Sex Marriage
Stephan:   This is a significant bit of good news. The Theocratic Right sucks all the oxygen out of the room when we think or talk about Christianity. It is hard to remember that the Fundamentalists are actually a fragmented minority. Angry, fearful, and loud, but a small fraction of the Christian faith. And the same is true in Islam and Judaism. Similarly the rest of the faith, in each religion, are decent hardworking people who see their faith as a path to becoming a better person. Here is a shining example.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), or PC(USA), took two major strides to embrace same-sex couples Thursday afternoon. While convening at their denominational convention in Detroit, Michigan, the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination voted to allow its pastors to officiate same-sex weddings in states where it is legal, and passed another overture that could change official church documents to include a more inclusive definition of marriage.

The two pieces of church legislation embrace marriage equality in different ways. The first is an ‘Authoritative Interpretation,” or AI, which allows PC(USA) pastors to officiate same-sex marriages in places where it is legal. The AI, which passed with 61 percent of the vote, allows Presbyterian pastors to decide on their own whether or not to perform same-sex weddings, and takes effect immediately.

The second overture, which passed with 71 percent of the vote, initiated a process of changing the denomination’s official language on marriage. The old language defined marriage as ‘a civil contract between a woman and a man,” but the overture moves to replace it with language that includes the sentence ‘marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives.” […]

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