Bush's distracting agendas are crumbling one by one:
1. Constitution amendment against burning the flag which is sponsored by Duke Cunningham. The sponsor is in legal problem.
2. Social security: the country does not buy snake oil
3. Karl Rove: you know the story
4. Constitution amendment against same sex marriage. He thought the the Christian group are all for it. Check this news:
Mainline church OKs same-sex marriage
United Church of Christ votes
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE AND COX NEWS SERVICE
July 5, 2005
ATLANTA – The United Church of Christ became the first mainline Christian denomination to officially support same-sex marriages when its general synod passed a resolution yesterday affirming "equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender."
The vote set off a celebration in the Georgia World Congress Center. Gay couples hugged one another. Some wiped away tears. A group of UCC delegates joined hands afterward and sang "Amen." But other delegates rushed from the hall warning of schism within the 1.6 million-member denomination.
The resolution was adopted in the face of efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. It was both a theological statement and a protest against discrimination, said the Rev. John Thomas, the president and general minister of the denomination.
"On this July 4, the United Church of Christ has courageously acted to declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights of gay – of same-gender – couples to have their relationships recognized as marriages by the state, and encouraging our local churches to celebrate those marriages," Thomas said at a news conference after the vote by the General Synod.
The synod's decisions are not binding and the vote will not require pastors to provide marriage ceremonies for gay couples. Some United Church of Christ ministers already perform such ceremonies.
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While the United Church of Christ has not had the widespread divisions other major denominations have experienced over homosexuality, some member churches had said that such a vote could prompt them to leave the denomination, and one group called for Thomas' resignation when he came out in support of the resolution. One amendment offered on the synod floor, and accepted, added a phrase acknowledging the "pain and struggle" that passage of the resolution would engender.
Yet the resolution, submitted by the church's Southern California-Nevada Conference, which represents 133 congregations, appeared to have overwhelming support on the synod floor, where the vote was done by a show of hands after about 45 minutes of debate.
"Every indication was that it was going to go that way," said Brice Thomas, 42, a United Church of Christ pastor in Lebanon, Ohio, who is gay. "But still, to hear it come to a vote and see it processed in such a positive way to me was transformative."
Opponents told the synod that the resolution ignores Jesus' declaration that marriage is between a man and woman.
One group, Biblical Witness Fellowship, fought unsuccessfully for the resolutions' defeat. It's executive director, the Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, dismissed the UCC's slogan – "God Is Still Speaking" – which some supporters of the resolution used to justify their position.
"God is still speaking; but they're speaking for God," Runnion-Bareford said. "They're going to redefine marriage speaking in the name of God. It's quite arrogant. Who dropped dead and left them in charge?"
Hector Lopez, a minister from the church's Central Pacific Conference, said he was not initially enthusiastic about gay marriage but, after officiating at about a dozen such ceremonies in Oregon and seeing the respect and commitment of the couples, he said, "I experienced a passionate conversion."
Several major religious groups permit same-sex unions, but do not give them the same status as marriage, including the Episcopal Church, with about 2.3 million members, the Evangelical Lutherans, with 5 million, and Reform Jews, with 1.7 million. "Today's word is not the last word in the UCC about marriage," said Thomas. "It is a crucial and groundbreaking first word in a difficult but important churchwide discussion."
He said the church strove to have "diversity without division, unity without uniformity." His hope, he said, was that "we will not run from one another, because if we run from one another we run from Christ."
The United Church of Christ prides itself on being in the forefront of human and civil rights issues. On its Web site, the denomination says it and its predecessors were among the first churches to take a stand against slavery, in 1700, the first to ordain a woman, in 1853, and the first to publish an inclusive-language hymnal, in 1995. Its slogan, "God is still speaking," is meant to suggest that the Bible is not the sole source of divine instruction, and that Scripture must be interpreted in today's context.
The equal marriage rights resolution states, in part, "Ideas about marriage have shifted and changed dramatically throughout human history, and such change continues even today." It continues, "In the Gospel we find ground for a definition of marriage and family relationships based on the affirmation of the full humanity of each partner, lived out in mutual care and respect for one another."
Last year, two major networks refused to broadcast a United Church of Christ commercial that showed two bouncers standing in front of a church, allowing some people to come in and refusing others, including non-whites and a gay couple.
"Jesus didn't turn people away," the text said. "Neither do we."
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