STATEMENT OF UCC HEAD: Rev. John H. Thomas

...United Church of Christ Book of Worship teaches that "Marriage is a gift of God, sealed in a sacred covenant. Through that love, husband and wife come to know each other with mutual care and companionship. God gives joy. Through that joy, wife and husband may share their new life with others as Jesus shared new wine at the wedding in Cana." Book of Worship further says that "the scriptures teach us that the bond and covenant of marriage is a gift of God, a holy mystery in which man and woman become one flesh, an image of the union of Christ and the church." The reference to "man and woman," to "husband and wife," cannot be denied. At the same time it must be confessed that these references are as likely to represent a description of the relationships the biblical writers and their later interpreters saw around them as they are a timeless prescription of what kind of relationships are to be privileged. And it is absolutely clear that the vocation of marriage described in Book of Worship--to offer care and companionship, to share joy with others, and to imagine the intimate unity of Christ and the church--is a vocation that same gender couples are able to live out as faithfully and as effectively as heterosexual couples.

In addresses in conference meetings this spring in Connecticut and Southern California Nevada, I have argued that much of the societal resistance to extending marriage rights to same gender couples reflects the same history of resistance we in the United States, and in the church, have shown toward extending citizenship to the stranger, the alien, the other. Throughout our history we have found ways to limit citizenship whether it was the refusal to allow women to own titles to property or have the right to vote, whether it is our ongoing resistance to grant immigrants, migrants, and refugees work permits or naturalization documents, whether it was a system that made some among us "three fifth" citizens and, until only recently in our history, denied them voting registration cards. Even our forebears in New England argued over who should be admitted to baptism when membership in the church and citizenship in the commonwealth were nearly coterminous. Withholding a marriage certificate remains one of the few remaining ways of limiting full citizenship to some among us who are perceived to be alien or "other." How do we square this with the frequent biblical admonition to "treat the alien in our midst as a citizen?" Not to tolerate. Not to grant second class status. But to treat as citizens.

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posted by Eve at 2:21 PM VOTE

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