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Presbyterian Church, USA, Approves Same Sex Marriage
Posted by Ron
Wednesday, March 18th 2015 @ 07:47:56 AM EST

This week the Presbyterian Church (USA) legalized same sex marriage when a majority of its local presbyteries voted to approve last June's General Assembly's vote redefining marriage as a union between two people. The USA Church is the largest Presbyterian Church of many smaller groups that have split off from the main denomination over the years on issues like slavery, the Confederacy, the US Civil War, racial integration, and women's rights to serve as church officers. (Photo above: An ordained church elder at the Second Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, poses at the church with his long-time lover Wesley Pennington.)

This acceptance of gay people is particularly meaningful to me as many of you know I served as a minister of that denomination for 17 years. I engaged in the battle for equality of all humans, gay, straight, and of any color, as well as supporting reuniting the northern and southern churches that had been split for over a hundred years because of the Civil War. From the pulpit I denounced the KKK when they twice burned crosses in our town; I marched on Washington, and I envied my friends who were on the Selma bridge on that bloody Sunday. I fought the good fight and lost every battle.

People who glimpse the future often lose the battles but not the war. Over the years, the Presbyterian Church has gradually put its votes on the side of the angels, and I am particularly proud of this latest achievement to treat gay people the way the Nazarene would have. Will I return to the church and that denomination? No, that ship has sailed, and I'll put in younger hands and minds the battles to make safe and democratic our future.

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