05/03/2004: "Methodists oppose gay marriage"

I didn't see this in any major media report on Saturday's events at the UMC General Conference. But it's sure to put Bob Edgar and the folks at Riverside Drive (not to mention plenty of United Methodist big shots) in a lather:

On Saturday, May 1, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church voted to add language to the denomination's Social Principles endorsing "laws in civil society that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman."��The vote was 625 to 184 among the delegates from around the world, who meet every 4 years to establish the 10 million-member denomination's policies.

Mark Tooley, director of the UM Action Committee of the Institute on Religion and Democracy�thanked the General Conference for opposing same-sex "marriage" in civil law.

It is perhaps the first instance of a mainline Protestant denomination in the U.S. taking a specific position on this issue, as Americans debate a proposed constitutional amendment and other responses to court demands in Massachusetts and elsewhere to legalize same-sex "marriage." (From IRD.)

It isn't exactly the first time, since the Executive Council of the United Church of Christ put out a statement last week calling for the defeat of a federal marriage amendment or state amendments, as well as the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and all similar state statutes. It is, however, the first time that I know of that a mainline denomination has taken the stand the UMC has approved. Many thanks to Tooley, the sponsor of the language, and to the overwhelming majority of GC delegates for taking this stand.