Clergy Won't Certify Marriages

This is somewhat cool. It seems that some clergy are now refusing to perform heterosexual marriage until marriage becomes available to same-sex couples.

You have to admit, it would take courage to make a statement like that. Maybe more will take the lead. Of course, it's mainly happening with the Unitarians, who are more liberal than most anyone else. The Presbyterians have pockets of progressive thought, although our local Presbyterian Church in Coventry told us that we weren't welcome in their church. Their loss I say.

About a dozen clergy members from Connecticut and Massachusetts announced Friday they will refuse to sign marriage licenses for heterosexual couples until unions between same-sex couples are legally recognized.

Rev. Kathleen McTigue, senior minister at the Unitarian Society of New Haven, located in Hamden, helped to organize the effort. McTigue, who performs marriage ceremonies for both straight and gay couples, said it has long troubled her that she can sign a marriage license for one couple but not for the other.

"I feel like in the 17 years of my ministry, when I have officiated for marriages, I'm participating in a bias, an inequity that is built into the legal system," McTigue said. "The only way I know to stop participating in the bias to stop participating in the legal dimension of it."

The clergy members involved in this protest include Unitarian Universalists, a Presbyterian minister, a Jewish rabbi, and ministers from the United Church of Christ. A vespers service was to be held Friday in Hamden to announce the group's decision to refuse to sign marriage licenses. - Associated Press

Another store on this.