A church in Minnesota is taking some rather unusual action in response to the prohibition of gay marriage: It's considering refusing to marry straight people until the gay marriage ban is lifted. Intended to redress the current imbalance, the course of action was first put forward by a straight parishioner of the Saint Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, MN at a meeting two years ago. Since the proposal stood unchallenged, the church's pastor Anita Hill is now in the process of enacting a ban on civil marriage duties, though the congregation have yet to vote to approve the move.
If the ban does take effect, the church will continue to bless all unions, both gay and straight, but the civil paperwork needed to make a marriage legal will have to be done elsewhere. "We are looking at the function of our church in marriage ceremonies," said Reverend Hill in an interview with the local City Pages weekly. "Is it just to get it done in a pretty place? We're not in the wedding business; we're in the blessing business."
Though research undertaken for a recent book, UnChristian, found that 91% of outsiders perceived Christians as anti-homosexual, many Twin Cities churches have been quietly vocal in supporting gay rights. According to census information Minnesota has the third largest concentration of same-sex couples in the U.S. The Saint Paul-Reformation Church had previously challenged doctrine - and the authority of Lutheran leaders - when they ordained lesbian pastor Hill, who was in a committed relationship and refused to take the vow of celibacy required of gay clergy. Meanwhile at least three other churches in the Twin Cities area have enacted similar civil marriage bans in protest of the current laws.
"There is a mother in our congregation who gets teary thinking that her daughter might not be able to get legally married in that chapel she sits in every Sunday," says Reverend Hill, who previously spent five years serving as a diversity trainer for the Family Service of Saint Paul. The Daily Mantra applauds Reverend Hill for her trailblazing leadership, but would like to suggest that she change the name of her church's His 'N Hers Club (which meets at 4pm every third Thursday of the month) to something more all-encompassing.
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