Posted on 06/28/2006 6:04:33 AM PDT by wagglebee
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 OMalley 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, ECUSAs 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
These jerks seem to think the Bill of Rights is contained in the Bible. Seems to me the Bible has some rather negative things to say about fudgepackers.
We might as well invest in some printing plants because a whole bunch of Bibles need to be reprinted because all passages which could be deemed offensive to anyone MUST be removed.
I doubt the Quakers and the United Methodists would vote for such a resolution either.
BTW, notice that the MSM headline says it is a Christian clergy group, and then admits much later in the article that the Unitarians are the largest part of the group - which means it is not Christian but interfaith.
You do realize that is exactly what is happening. In many countries, parts of the Bible are "hate speech".
I surfed around their website - their Board has no SBC members. They may have acquired an apostate from somewhere. I was SB before becoming Catholic and I know, KNOW, the SBC will never sign on to gay "marriage."
Incidentally, their "Catholic" lay member goes by the name "Charles Martel." I'll bet $100 he wasn't christened with it.
Also in the Christian "clergy" group, I notice two of the 12 are titled not as a Reverend or Rabbi but as a "Roman Catholic Liaison", which is hardly a title I've heard used for a member of the CLERGY.
An more accurate headline might be:
This isn't from the lamestream news, LifeSiteNews is very conservative (they primarily deal with pro-life and morality issues), I think they just used that in the title, because most of the others are (at least in name) Christian.
Um, no. If you loved the Church you would stand up FOR her virtue rather than stand up to her obstinance.
I thought they were reposting a wire feed.
*snicker*
Probably really a member of the Jimmy Carter wing of the Southern Baptists -- the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
ECUSA translation: "In the ECUSA, everything's up for grabs. The Bible makes a good doorstop, but don't get carried away and actually read it."
You are so right redgolum!
You have to give credit to the liberal left, they have cobbled together a huge coalition of SINGLE ISSUE ACTIVISTS that are at war with just about anything we would consider Normal Christian Values.
You can be sure, whatever you may say or do, someone from that coalition of death will be offended. You now know where they came up with the phrase "Our strength is in our diversity". It certainly does not apply to us but for the left, the plethora of single issue activists are their strength.
So, we have several more queers in the clergy telling the CAtholics, who just purged the queers molesting kids from their ranks, being asked to rejoin hands with more queers. How stupid can you get?
I don't know that this was the intended message of the catholic church, but it's accurate in either case. Wake up and smell the apostasy.
These guys are idiots. They need to get a reality check. They are asking the oldest and largest Christian church to change its dogma (non negotiable points of doctrine) simply because they "feel" bad. It never ceases to amaze me that the Church has to even receive these dupes of darkness, but, Christ would have us love the sinner.
I do, however, wonder sometimes whether the Church involves itself somewhat too often in political matters. She always seems to stray far from the paths of Godliness whenever She does that. Whether in Medieval times or today, the Church's mission is the salvation of souls, not the remaking of the world, and some times she tends to forget that; to her peril!
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