Isn't Marriage a Religious Institution?
Back| Home |Forward
Isn’t Marriage a Religious Institution?
Before one can really make sense of the issue of marriage for same-sex couples, it is important to distinguish between the state-created institution of marriage and religious marriage ceremonies performed in churches and other places of worship.
Rights and Rites: Legal Marriage vs. Religious Marriage
Legal marriage and religious marriage are entirely distinct from one another. Same-sex couples are seeking the right to civil marriage. At the same time, many individuals also are working within their own faith traditions to challenge the exclusion of same-sex couples from the rites performed by clergy.
A marriage license issued by the government unlocks the door to more than 1,000 securities, benefits, rights, and obligations that enable two people to properly care for each other and their family. A couple does not need to comply with any religious requirement to obtain a marriage license, nor does the license confer any religious approval.
On the other hand, while clergy are among the class of individuals who are authorized to solemnize a civil marriage, simply performing a religious marriage ceremony does not necessarily mean that the couple is legally married.
What some clergy seek is the right to perform legally binding marriages -- regardless of the gender of the marriage partners. Many religious congregations already perform rites for same-sex couples, even though such unions are not legally recognized by the government. Some of these denominations include:
· American Baptists
· Buddhists
· Episcopalians
· Presbyterians
· Unitarian Universalists
· Methodists
· Reform, Reconstructionist and some Conservative Jews
· The United Church of Christ
…and others
Some people incorrectly believe that places of worship will be forced to marry same-sex couples if such marriages become a legal option. This is simply not true.
Even if marriage becomes a legal option for same-sex couples, churches will always be able to decide for themselves whether to perform or recognize any particular marriage. Some clergy refuse to marry interfaith couples. Other clergy refuse to marry a couple if one member has been divorced. No court decision or legislative mandate can change these fundamental tenets of freedom of religion, which are guaranteed in the U.S. and California Constitutions.
No one has proposed that church or religious institutions be forced to perform marriages for same-sex couples. The decision to bless any union should, and will always, rest with the clergy involved. LGBT advocacy groups strongly agree.
In fact, AB 849, the bill sponsored bv Equality California and authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno that was passed by the California legislature in September 2005, which would have permitted same-sex couples to marry, reaffirmed this basic principle, stating “[n]o priest, minister, or rabbi of any religious denomination, and no official of any nonprofit religious institution authorized to solemnize marriages, shall be required to solemnize any marriage in violation of his or her right to free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or by Section 4 of Article I of the California Constitution.” AB 849 was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
The separation of church and state prevents proponents of any religion from utilizing the government as a tool of tyranny over believers of a different faith. While every faith community must make its own decisions regarding morality and marriage, there should be respect for the right of same-sex couples to have equal access to civil marriage.
Rev. William Sinkford, President, Unitarian Universalist Church
“The Unitarian Universalist Association has a long-standing and deeply held religious commitment to support full equality for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender people, and [the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts striking down the prohibition of marriage for same-sex couples] is a significant step forward in guaranteeing that the rights enjoyed by heterosexual couples in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are also available to its bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgender citizens.
Unitarian Universalists today celebrate this ruling, and we again dedicate ourselves to work for justice, grounded in faith, which calls us to support everyone’s full humanity, everyone’s ability to love, and everyone’s value in the world.” Unitarian Universalist Church website, http://www.uua.org/president/031118.htm
