Presbyterians backing gay marriage repeat old error
The Layman Online, December 13, 2006
The Maryland Court of Appeals heard arguments on Dec. 12 from lawyers representing homosexuals who want the state’s highest court to rule against the Maryland law that prohibits civil marriage for homosexual couples.
The Sun of Baltimore reported that Presbyterians were among those a group of about 50 activists who greeted the plaintiffs with such signs as “Presbyterians support same-sex marriage,” repeating an error made by Elenora Giddings Ivory, the chief national lobbyist for the Presbyterian Church (USA).
In May 2004, Giddings Ivory told a rally of people who support extending marriage rights to same-gender couples that “the Presbyterian Church General Assemblies have affirmed the civil right of same sex-couples to civil marriage.”
But Presbyterian polity does not sanction civil marriage for homosexual couples, although several Presbyterian ministers have conducted such services and Presbyterian courts refused to discipline them.
The Sun quoted Donald Stroud, one of the participants in the rally for the change in Maryland’s law. Stroud, an ordained minister and a practicing homosexual, was one of several Presbyterian ministers accused of violating his ordination vows by defying Presbyterian polity, but the case against him was dismissed by the Presbytery of Baltimore.
“We came to show our support for the plaintiffs in their efforts to secure equal access to civil marriage,” Stroud told The Sun. “We as a people of faith know it’s very important to affirm the dignity and worth of all people, and at this point in time gay and lesbian couples in the state.”
The Maryland Court of Appeals, which is the highest court in the state, conducted a one-hour hearing. It could be months before the court gives its decision.
Attorneys for 19 gay and lesbian couples asked the court to consider same-gender marriage a civil rights issue. Maryland’s assistant attorney general, Robert A. Zarnoch, asked the court to declare that the legislature is the proper forum for the issue.
The Sun said the seven judges hearing the case asked few questions.