Presbyterian Church Votes To Allow Gay Marriages

The Huffington Post, Jaweed Kaleem, 06/19/2014

Gay marriage supporter Kara Speltz, center, of Oakland, Calif., holds hands

 with other supporters after the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church on

 Friday, July 9, 2010 voted in Minneapolis not to reconsider a motion seeking to

redefine the definition of marriage. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

In a monumental move, the nation's largest Presbyterian denomination voted Thursday to change its definition of marriage and allow its pastors to officiate same-sex ceremonies in states where gay marriage is legal.

By a vote of 429-175, leaders of the 1.76 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted during the biennial General Assembly in Detroit to change the denomination's Book of Order to describe marriage as being between "two people."

The decision opens a path toward gay marriage across the denomination's 10,000 churches.

A majority of the church's 172 regional bodies, called Presbyteries, must now approve the decision before it's official, a process that can take up to a year. But after years of failed efforts to get the church to approve gay marriages, LGBT activists and pastors said they were optimistic.

“This is a glorious day for the church and for LGBT people who have been seeking full inclusion here for decades,” Pittsburgh-based Rev. Randy Bush, the co-moderator of the board for pro-LGBT church group Covenant Network, said in a statement.

In a separate vote, 371 to 238, the church assembly also approved a measure to allow pastors who minister in places where same-sex marriage is legal, which currently includes 19 states and the District of Columbia, to officiate those weddings. That move is final and doesn't need further approval.

Many smaller, more conservative Presbyterian denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in America and Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, don't ordain gay people or official same-sex marriages.

But the decisions for the USA group, which came after hours of tense debate, follow years of discussions on the meaning of marriage in the church and a rapidly changing tide of support for religious and civil same-sex marriage. The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted in May 2011 to allow the ordination of openly gay men and women in same-sex relationships, and other Christian denominations have also increasingly ordained openly gay clergy.

The Episcopal Church started allowing same-sex marriage blessings last year, though individual priests have been performing gay marriage ceremonies for years in states where they are legal. The United Church of Christ has allowed same-sex marriages since 2005. Going further back, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations has officially supported same-sex marriages since 1996. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America allows individual church ministers to make decisions on gay marriages. Among Jews, two of the three major Jewish denominations, Reform and Conservative, allow same-sex marriages.

Like most religious groups that have policies allowing same-sex marriage, Presbyterians decided Thursday to let pastors who are against gay marriages make the choice to not perform them.

Some speakers at the assembly said they were afraid the decision would cause more conservative people to leave the church, which has been gradually losing members. As recently as 2010, the Presbyterian Church (USA) had 2.1 million members. According to the Presbyterian News Service, at least 100 congregations have defected in recent years, in part because of the church's increasingly liberal views on gay issues.

To combat splintering, Presbyterians voted to include language that marriage is not only between "two people," but also "traditionally of a man a woman" in the change passed Thursday.

While all Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations are affiliated nationally, congregations tend to differ widely in worship style and views on homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Liberal pastors are known to publicly and privately officiate same-sex marriages, but the church has censured some of these people. In one high-profile case in 2010, the church's highest court found a California minister guilty of misconduct for officiating gay marriage ceremonies.

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Kryon Q&A

Question: Dear Kryon: Regarding homosexuality or transsexuals. WHY are they the way they are and WHY are they not accepted in mainstream society?

Answer: [From the Kryon Office]

There is often a tremendous amount of information on subjects that are not necessarily part of the on-line magazine Q&A database. Kryon has been channelling for fourteen years, with 9 books covering many, many topics. Homosexuality was one of them from the very beginning. Please see our "Books index page" for subjects contained in the Kryon books: [http://www.kryon.com/direct.html]

An excerpt from Kryon Book 6, page 306

Question from the book: Dear Kryon, I am gay, and an enlightened man. I live in an American society that barely tolerates me, and actually has some laws against my way of life. The church I used to belong to cast me out as being evil and anti-God. I don't feel that I am violating some Human ethic. My love is as true as any heterosexual, and I am a light worker. Tell me what I should know.

Answer from the book: Dear one, less than two generations from now, there will be those who find this book and laugh at the quaintness of this very question. Before I answer, let me ask you and those reading this to examine a phenomenon about Human society and "God."

Thirty years ago, interracial marriage was considered to be wrong by the laws of God. Now your society finds it common. The spiritual objections around it were either dropped or "rewritten" by those divinely inspired and authorized to do so. Therefore, your actual interpretations of the instructions from God changed with your society's tolerance level--an interesting thing, indeed, how the interpretations of God seem to change regularly to match a changing culture!

The truth, of course, is that you find yourself in a situation that is known to create a test for you. Right now, in this time, you have agreed to come into your culture with an attribute that may alienate you from friends and religious followers. You have faced fear of rejection and have had to "swim upstream," so to speak, just as an everyday life occurrence. Your contract, therefore, has been set up well, and you are in the middle of it. Additionally, like so many like you, you have a divine interest in yourselves! You feel part of the spiritual family. What a dichotomy indeed, to be judged as evil by those who are the high spiritual leaders--interpreting God for today's culture.

Now I say this: What is your intent? Is it to walk with love for all those around you and become an enlightened Human Being in this New Age? Is it to forgive those who see you as a spiritual blight on society? Can you have the kind of tolerance for them that they seem not to have for you? Can you overlook the fact that they freely quote their scriptures in order to condemn you, yet they don't seem to have the love tolerance that is the cornerstone of their own message?

If the answer is yes, then there is nothing else you must do. Your INTENT is everything, and your life will be honored with peace over those who would cause unrest, and tolerance for the intolerable. Your sexual attributes are simply chemistry and setups within your DNA. They are given by agreement as gifts for you to experience in this life. Look on them in this fashion, and be comfortable with that fact that you are a perfect spiritual creation under God--loved beyond measure--just like all humans. But then you know that, don't you?