Monday, October 20, 2008

2200 Clergy From Across the United States and Every Major Religious Tradition Support Marriage for Same Sex Couples -- Blessed Be!

I am so pleased to tell you that on Monday, the Religious Institute announced that more than 2,200 ordained clergy have signed our Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality.

They come from all 50 states (and D.C. and Puerto Rico) and represent more than 50 different faith traditions. They are rabbis, reverends, priests, bishops, elders, and imams. They include 100 of the best known religious leaders and thinkers in the United States, including the presidents and deans of a dozen seminaries and the elected leaders of eight major denominations, including the United Church of Christ, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assembly, the Union for Reform Judaism's Rabbis, the Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, and the Unitarian Universalist Association. We are also pleased that so many Catholic and Episcopal bishops joined the call for marriage equality, as well as Buddhist, Muslim and Hindu leaders.

We are grateful to all of the ordained clergy who are willing to publicly stand for marriage equality for same-sex couples. Read the list here. If you are clergy, please add your name. If you are a person of faith and your clergy person isn't listed, please forward it on.

And please speak up for the rights of gays and lesbians to civil and religious marriage.

We cannot allow the perception to continue that marriage for same-sex couples violates religious principles. As these 2,200 ordained clergy will tell you, there is strong theological support for blessing these unions and affording these couples equal rights under the law. As the Open Letter says, we know that "where there is love, the sacred is in our midst."

3 comments:

Unknown said...

It is a fallacy that all people of faith oppose equal marriage rights. In Canada, the Unitarians and Liberal Jewish Rabbis appeared before the Supreme Court in support of equal marriage rights. Representatives from all major faiths created a joint statement in support of equal marriage rights. For too long we have allowed fundamentalist to appear to speak for all of us. Rev. J. McRee (Mac) Elrod.

Kay & Sarah said...

THANK YOU, Rev. Elrod and the 2200 other ordained clergy!!

Anonymous said...

Which Catholic bishops supported this? I see "Old Catholic" bishops, but they are not in communion with Rome and it's inaccurate and misleading to refer to them as "Catholic" bishops.