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Interfaith Clergy Group Demands Catholic Church Abandon Opposition to Gay "Marriage"

By Hilary White
 
BOSTON, June 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of clergy including members from a number of mainline Christian denominations and other religious organizations, including a number of Catholics, is calling on the Catholic hierarchy to end its opposition to homosexual “marriage,” claiming that it is in violation of “religious freedom”.
 
The group, calling itself the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry, will release an open letter to Cardinal Sean O’Malley and Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts asking the Catholic hierarchy “to respect religious freedom and stop lobbying for a constitutional amendment that would deny civil marriage rights to couples married by other denominations.”
 
The group consists of clergy from the American Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Quaker (or Society of Friends), Southern Baptist and United Methodist denominations.
 
The letter says that although the group disagrees with the “position” of the Catholic Church that homosexual acts are gravely sinful, they “honor your right to believe as you wish.  We respect your right to practice your faith according to your laws.”
 
That “honor” reaches only so far as the strictly private sphere however. Public defence of Traditional marriage is beyond the pale.
 
“You are promoting prejudice through your political campaign, intentionally or not,” the letter says.
 
“By proclaiming homosexuality and same-sex unions to be universally immoral and worthy of second-class status under state law, you are sending a message that our faith communities are immoral.  You are harming us and our families and your own faithful as well.  Thousands of Roman Catholics have signed our Roman Catholic Statement in support of marriage equality.  They have signed out of their pain and their love and concern for the Church.”
 
The largest group in the Coalition is from the Unitarian Universalist church – a non-Christian organization – followed by the Episcopalians.
 
In meetings last week, the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA) pushed the Worldwide Anglican Communion to the point of disintegration by refusing a moratorium on ordaining homosexual bishops and other clergy. Last week, ECUSA’s House of Deputies voted overwhelmingly to refuse to consider a resolution that affirmed Jesus Christ as the "only name by which any person may be saved,” a defining Christian doctrine.
 
Read the full text of the letter:
http://www.rcfm.org/LettertoRCBishops.htm

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