I am a huge supporter of same sex marriage and attend a Church in Boston (Church of the Covenant) that has been a leader in the movement for treating all people the same when it comes to their rights within our church.
I'm beginning to see more incorrect articles talking about Churches being forced to marry same sex couples. This is incorrect. Even with the changes in laws in the several states that now support same sex marriage, no church has ever been forced to marry a couple if that act is against their set of beliefs.
There is a separate set of discussions going on entirely within the Churches themselves, about same sex marriage. In some churches, weddings are celebrated regardless of gender of the couple. In others, it is very unlikely that same sex marriages will ever be held.
The point is that there is a difference between the religious act of marriage and the civil legal act of marriage. The first involves a faith-based interpretation of a couple's commitment to each other, the second involves the state's legal-based interpretation of the same.
In fact in Massachusetts (I don't know how this works in other states) when we got married 35 years ago, the minister and rabbi who married us (that's another story) said at the end of our ceremony "Therefore, by the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you ..." In that one sentence, the two ceremonies (religious and civil) were linked. But there is nothing that forces a religious organization to say those words if they do not believe them.
I'm beginning to see more incorrect articles talking about Churches being forced to marry same sex couples. This is incorrect. Even with the changes in laws in the several states that now support same sex marriage, no church has ever been forced to marry a couple if that act is against their set of beliefs.
There is a separate set of discussions going on entirely within the Churches themselves, about same sex marriage. In some churches, weddings are celebrated regardless of gender of the couple. In others, it is very unlikely that same sex marriages will ever be held.
The point is that there is a difference between the religious act of marriage and the civil legal act of marriage. The first involves a faith-based interpretation of a couple's commitment to each other, the second involves the state's legal-based interpretation of the same.
In fact in Massachusetts (I don't know how this works in other states) when we got married 35 years ago, the minister and rabbi who married us (that's another story) said at the end of our ceremony "Therefore, by the power vested in me by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, I now pronounce you ..." In that one sentence, the two ceremonies (religious and civil) were linked. But there is nothing that forces a religious organization to say those words if they do not believe them.
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