Why Marriage Matters to Religious People and Communities
"America needs to know that many faith leaders and theologians from diverse religious traditions strongly believe that all people have a God-given right to lead lives which fully express love, mutuality and commitment—including the right to marry,"
— Reverend Debra W. Haffner, director of the Religious Institute, promoting the Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality
The Open Letter, which you can sign here, was developed at a colloquium of theologians sponsored by the Religious Institute, an ecumenical, interfaith organization dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society, and funded by Freedom to Marry.
Use the key resources below to learn more about why marriage matters to religious people and communities.
FROM EVAN WOLFSON:
INTERVIEW: Evan Wolfson brings a lawyer's clarity to the discussion of same-sex marriage "rights" and "rites"
BuzzFlash interviews Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry and head of Freedom to Marry. A review in the Oregonian said it best: "Armed with Wolfson's arguments, you could sell anyone with an IQ over room temperature on the wisdom and humanity of marriage equality."
SPEECH: Praying with Our Feet
In accepting an honor from Kolot Chayeinu, an engaged, progressive, Jewish congregation in Brooklyn at their annual gala celebration, Praying With Our Feet, Dancing With Our Souls, Evan Wolfson galvanized the audience with a call to action.
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WHERE YOU CAN GO TO GET INVOLVED OR LEARN MORE:
Metropolitan Community Churches on Marriage Equality
MCC is a Christian Church founded in, and reaching beyond, the Gay and Lesbian communities, embodying and proclaiming Christian salvation and
liberation, Christian inclusivity and community, and Christian social action and justice. MCC, a partner organization of Freedom to Marry,
offers various resources to support their commitment to marriage equality.
Faith in America
The mission of Faith In America, Inc. is the emancipation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from bigotry disguised as religious truth.
Religious Coalition for Equality
An interfaith association of lay persons and clergy committed to this twofold purpose: to educate Washington State citizens about and to advocate for marriage equality for all couples and the civil rights of all. Includes sermons.
The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies' (CLGS) Marriage Project
A resource for the general public, clergy, members of congregations, and the press, providing scholarly and religious resources on marriage in the United States with the aim of promoting views of marriage that are more open, more just, and more inclusive of all citizens regardless of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Latter-Day Saints for Marriage Equality
The purpose of these pages is to examine Civil Same-Sex Marriage from a logical, legal and doctrinal point of view and to address the issues raised by those opposing Civil Same-Sex Marriage.
Soulforce
A Freedom to Marry partner organization, Soulforce's purpose is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance.
Human Rights Campaign's Religion and Faith Program
This resource includes sermons, religions' & denominations' positions on LGBT issues, profiles, LGBT affirming religious organizations, and more.
The National Religious Leadership Roundtable
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's interfaith network of leaders.
Links to Resources from the Institute for Welcoming Resources
Materials here are listed as potential resources, not as an endorsement by the Institute for Welcoming Resources.
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PUBLICATIONS:
A Time to Seek
A Time to Seek, co-authored by Rev. Debra Haffner and Timothy Palmer, director of research and communications for the Religious Institute, is the first multifaith guide to address sexual orientation and gender identity issues. The study guide offers a concise review of current sociological, public health and scientific data, and considers key Scriptural passages in light of contemporary understandings of sexual and gender diversity. Debates over marriage equality and the ordination of lesbian, gay and transgender clergy are making headlines, these issues are much more complex than news reports can convey. A Time to Seek is intended to stand apart from the controversy, clarify the issues, and prepare people of faith with the information they need to engage thoughtfully and prayerfully in these discussions.
Costly Engagement
March 4, 2007
Are we called into the church to find spiritual sustenance for our own personal journeys, and to care for one another and make our church a safe and inclusive space for all who come here? Yes. That’s why our worship life, our caring ministry, our youth ministry, our sacred circles and other aspects of our church’s life are so important. And that’s why there seems to be broad agreement on amending our ONA statement to make the marriage rite of the church available to all couples in the church, regardless of their gender.
Civilization and Its Malcontents
Maybe we need to come down from the high ramparts of the fight over “Civilization” and pay more attention to the need for “civility.” Perhaps our challenge today is to worry less about how changing gender roles and marital structures will destroy church and society and worry more about treating one another as we wish to be treated, as human beings who share a God-given human dignity.
A Catholic defense of marriage equality
In the past, the Church accepted homosexuality more openly and even had liturgies to celebrate same sex unions. There was a recognition that different sexual orientations are clearly part of God's plan for creation-some people are heterosexual and some are homosexual—this is the way God made us and we have no right to criticize God.
"Same-Sex Marriage: When Will It Reach Utah?"
Robert Wintemute writes, "Attempts to amend constitutions so as to make legal marriage impossible for same-sex couples are futile. Amendments of this kind are nothing more than temporary 'legal dikes' designed to create 'legal islands' in which a heterosexual majority can continue to discriminate against a lesbian and gay minority in relation to access to legal marriage. These amendments seek to strip the gay and lesbian minority of any possibility of seeking protection against such discrimination from either the legislature or the courts. Where such amendments have been adopted, they will eventually be repealed or invalidated, because the 'incoming tide,' i.e., the long-term international trend, will eventually bring full legal equality to our fellow human beings who happen to be lesbian and gay individuals, or members of same-sex couples, with or without children."
To Have and To Hold — Or Not: The Influence of the Christian Right on Gay Marriage Laws in the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States
This examines the role that the Christian Right has played in the passage or defeat of marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in each of the countries, with an in-depth analysis of why the Christian Right has been particularly successful in preventing marriage equality in the United States.
God is Still Speaking, About Marriage: Resource Guide
The 25th General Synod calls upon all settings of the United Church of Christ to engage in serious, respectful, and prayerful discussion of the covenantal relationship of marriage and equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender, using the "God is still speaking, about Marriage" study and discussion guide produced by Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ.
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NEWS:
United Church of Christ sees donation gain after supporting marriage equality
Donations to the connectional ministries of the United Church of Christ increased by over a million dollars in 2007 following its endorsement of marriage equality in 2005.
Think Evangelicals Vote in Lockstep? Meet the Routhe Family
Shifting demographics are affecting the views and votes of evangelical Christian voters, moving some to adopt more nuanced views of issues, including marriage equality. Peter Ilyan, who describes himself as a Christian environmental evangelist says, "So now when James Dobson says it's only gay marriage and abortion we should care about? One of our jokes is that gay married couples have the fewest abortions of anybody."
From the altar, a vow of protest
A Baltimore rabbi joined a small but growing band of clergy who have decided that they won't sign any marriage licenses as agents of the state until it allows gays and lesbians to marry. Some rabbis and ministers in states including Virginia, Minnesota, Michigan and Connecticut have told their congregants that when it comes to weddings they are in the business of religious ceremonies - only - and they have redirected couples to the local courthouse for the paperwork.
God spoke via MA court
The 2003 ruling on marriage equality was a turning point for me in learning to accept my lesbian daughter.
Putting Faith in Marriage Equality
In fact, the marriage equality movement has long had the support of members of a variety of faith groups. The group's list of supporting clergy gets longer every day, and about a year and a half ago, the list evolved into Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality. Marriage equality is not an us-vs.-them situation, at least it shouldn't be among people of faith.
It's not a mortal sin to work for justice
My husband and I have been married 49 years. We are the parents of five grown daughters, one of whom is a lesbian. I speak with passion concerning our experience, which is marked by intense sadness because of the alienation my daughter and others like her continue to suffer, especially at the hands of the Catholic Church.
Gays & the Church
As a gay man who has been partnered for 19 years, married in Canada in 2005 and parent of a 2-year-old, I can tell you that we are not attacking Catholics or marriage. We don't want anything more than what all other committed couples have: the tax, health, pension, visitation and death protections that are a part of marriage. These are not special rights. They are protections offered by the government, not the Catholic Church.
In Stand For Marriage Equality, Church Cuts All Unions
It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, you can't get legally married at Lyndale United Church of Christ. The small, liberal church in south Minneapolis was the first of several Twin Cities congregations last year to stop performing civil marriage ceremonies as long as gay marriage is illegal. These churches, and a handful of others around the country that took the same step, will still hold a religious ceremony to bless the unions of straight and gay couples -- but straight couples must go separately to a judge or justice of the peace for the marriage license. "If you feel that gay and lesbian people are loved and credited by God, then how can we continue to discriminate against our brothers and sisters?" asked Rev. Don Portwood, the reserved Nebraska native who's been lead pastor at the 120-member Lyndale United Church of Christ for 27 years.
Study: Youth see Christians as judgmental, anti-gay
Survey research of people ages 16-29 show a majority view Christianity as hypocritical and anti-gay; attitudes about gay people are driving a
negative image of the faith. "The anti-homosexual perception has now become sort of the Geiger counter of Christians' ability to love and
work with people," said said David Kinnaman, Barna Group president and author of the book, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks
About Christianity.
Remembering Who We Will Be: The United Church of Christ and LGBT People in 2057
Read Harry Knox's powerful speech, which describes the historic transformation the UCC church has brought to LGBT people and their families and offers a vision for the future built on their powerful witness for LGBT equality.
COLUMN: Do Southern Baptists really support 'Biblical' marriage?
Before marriage was elevated to a sacrament during the Council of Trent (1563), it was not regarded as sacred. The ideas that marriage must be licensed by the state or sanctioned by the church are modern innovations that go beyond the biblical tradition. Our modern definition of the traditional marriage based on love, trust, vulnerability and commitment is neither traditional nor biblical. In fact, what we call the traditional marriage is quite a modern invention (since about the 17th century).
New paper calls marriage equality "moral good"
A new Christian think tank has issued the articulation of marriage equality as "a moral good" that "spiritually liberates straight people as well as gay people."
A Muslim-American reflection on WI's civil-union ban
Today, some Muslims are content with civil-union bans because they identify with certain values of these restrictions and because they do not see such a ban largely affecting their communities. However, tomorrow could be a day where the government, under the same authority, bans Hijab. Reflecting a trend from European countries, many Americans could proclaim that they distrust Hijab and feel that it is oppressive towards women. Regardless of how we as Muslims feel, the argument could be made that aspects of our lifestyle contradict some values of the American majority. In the same way those seeking civil unions are struggling at this moment, our lifestyle could also be subject to a legal popularity contest. What will we do then?
OPINION: Anti-marriage stance loses religion's credibility
Religion's only real commodity, after all, is its moral authority. Lose that, and we lose our credibility. Lose credibility, and we might as well close up shop. It's happened to Christianity before, most famously when we dug in our heels over Galileo's challenge to the biblical view that the Earth, rather than the sun, was at the center of our solar system. This time, Christianity is in danger of squandering its moral authority by continuing its pattern of discrimination against gay and lesbian people.
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MULTIMEDIA:
NC pastor asks why religion is being used to deny marriage to gays and lesbians
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Rev. Reggie Longcrier, pastor of Exodus Missionary Outreach Church in Hickory, NC, submitted a question on marriage equality for the CNN's YouTube Presidential debate. It's a powerful, short and simple video from a non-gay pastor who understands the connection between marriage and civil rights.
Religion Politics and Gay Marriage
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BuzzFlash interviews Evan Wolfson, author of Why Marriage Matters: America, Equality, and Gay People's Right to Marry and head of Freedom to Marry. A review in the Oregonian said it best: "Armed with Wolfson's arguments, you could sell anyone with an IQ over room temperature on the wisdom and humanity of marriage equality."
A resource for the general public, clergy, members of congregations, and the press, providing scholarly and religious resources on marriage in the United States with the aim of promoting views of marriage that are more open, more just, and more inclusive of all citizens regardless of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
Rev. Reggie Longcrier, pastor of Exodus Missionary Outreach Church in Hickory, NC, submitted a question on marriage equality for the CNN's YouTube Presidential debate. It's a powerful, short and simple video from a non-gay pastor who understands the connection between marriage and civil rights.
