fbpx
39.8 F
Spokane
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsWith Presbyterians in the yes column, mainline Protestants solidify gay marriage support

With Presbyterians in the yes column, mainline Protestants solidify gay marriage support

Date:

Related stories

Exploring the Richness of Holy Week: 2024 Spokane Area Easter Services and Events

Here is a list of the variety of services happening this Holy Week. This list is only a sample. If you don’t see your church and would like to have it added, please send your service times to Cassy Benefield at [email protected]

Two Palouse Churches to Sponsor Upcoming Viewing of ‘God & Country’

A one-time viewing of “God & Country” will take place on Saturday, April 13, at 2 p.m., at the Kenworthy Theater in Moscow, Idaho. the film looks at the implications of Christian nationalism and how it distorts the constitutional republic, but Christianity itself.

Utah Women’s Basketball Team Experiences Racism in Cd’A

Utah Women's Basketball Coach Lynne Roberts admitted at a press conference today her team experience "several instances of racial hate crimes" during their stay in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, last week (March 21).

Spokane’s Church-Based Homeless Shelters Receive Funding to Operate through the Summer

The Spokane City Council voted unanimously last week to extend the contract with Jewels Helping Hands to continue funding church-based homeless shelters through the summer.

Faiths Unite for 25-Mile Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage in Spokane

On March 30, Christians, Jews, Muslims and people from multiple faiths in Spokane and the surrounding area will embark on a 25-mile pilgrimage in solidarity and prayer for a ceasefire in Gaza and Israel.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img

(RNS) With the largest Presbyterian denomination’s official endorsement Tuesday (March 17), American mainline Protestants have solidified their support for gay marriage, leaving the largest mainline denomination — the United Methodist Church — outside the same-sex marriage fold.

Methodists, with more than 7 million members, rejected same-sex marriage at their last national conference, in 2012. They are likely to revisit the question at their next conference, in 2016, but a growing membership in Africa, where there is little acceptance of homosexuality, makes it unlikely the denomination will accept gay marriage.RNS-PRESBY-GAYS

Another denomination generally considered mainline, the American Baptist Churches USA, does not allow same-sex marriage, nor do a handful of smaller mainline denominations. But the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and now the Presbyterian Church (USA)  sanctify the marriage of two men or two women. The 3.8 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gives congregations the autonomy to decide for themselves.

“There is no group that has moved more quickly or more dramatically on this issue than white mainline Protestants,” said Dan Cox, research director of the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit that studies trends in American religion.

In 2003, 36 percent of white mainline Protestants supported gay marriage, compared with 62 percent in 2014, Cox said.

Graphic_gay-marriage_031815_LOW-RES600And though there is not one Protestant on the Supreme Court, the fact that an increasing number of the nation’s churches are inviting gay couples to the altar is likely to weigh on the justices as they consider upcoming cases that would allow them to make gay marriage a right.

Cox notes that among white mainline Protestants, Presbyterians and Methodists in the pews hold strikingly similar views on gay marriage. In that same 2014 PRRI survey, 69 percent of Presbyterians approved of same-sex marriage, while 67 percent of U.S. Methodists did.

“Support for gay marriage in these denominational families is quite strong,” Cox said. “It’s hard to say the churches are actually leading on this issue. They are reflecting where their followers already are.”

The Rev. Jeremy Smith, minister of discipleship at First United Methodist Church in Portland, Ore., said the Presbyterian vote reminds Methodists to ask themselves why their own doctrine is the way it is.

“Why is this still on the books?” he said. “In the Methodist Church we have been behind the culture.”

The majority of church-affiliated Americans belong to denominations that forbid gay marriage, including Roman Catholics, most Baptists, Pentecostals, evangelicals and Mormons.

Mainline Protestants, once the majority in America, have lost ground in recent decades to other denominations and to independent churches.

This week’s Presbyterian Church vote was long expected after 61 percent of General Assembly delegates voted in June to allow gay and lesbian weddings. That made the 1.8 million-member PCUSA among the largest Christian denominations to take an embracing step toward same-sex marriage.

But the change did not become church law until a majority of the 171 regional presbyteries, or geographic regions, voted to ratify the new language. The threshold was reached Tuesday when the Palisades Presbytery in New Jersey became the 86th to approve a change in the denomination’s constitution making marriage a commitment “between two people, traditionally a man and a woman.”

Lauren Markoe
Lauren Markoe
Lauren Markoe covered government and features as a daily newspaper reporter for 15 years before joining the Religion News Service staff as a national correspondent in 2011. She previously was Washington correspondent for The State (Columbia, S.C.)

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
spot_img
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x