Clergy for Marriage Equality
by Christine Stuart | April 19, 2007 4:43 PM
Posted to State Capitol
Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality, a group with nearly 200 members, gathered Thursday to ask lawmakers and the governor to pass a bill that would change the name of civil unions to marriage for same-sex couples.
“We do not believe state marriage statutes ought to perpetuate discrimination against same gender loving people,” Rev. Josh Pawelek (pictured) said.
“When any two people find each other and choose to spend their lives together, the union should not only be recognized, but celebrated,” Rabbi Kim Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal told the story of Hillel, one of the earliest rabbis. She said Hillel was taunted by a man who asked the leader to teach him the Torah while standing on one foot. She said Hillel lifted one foot and said, “‘What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor’: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary.”
She said clinging to Hillel’s statement, “we get the directive that treating others as we would want to be treated is the basis for religious traditions. We must evaluate all of our actions in accordance with this command.”
While the bill may pass the legislature, Gov. M. Jodi Rell has said she would veto it, even though approved the legislation that created civil unions. Pawelek said the clergy would request a meeting with her and try to change her mind. He asked Rell to consider “going down in history as the first governor in the United States to say yes to marriage justice for gay and lesbian families.”
Comments (3)
Posted by: A.P. | April 20, 2007 9:11 AM
This is too ridiculous to believe. Why didn't Hillel advocate gay marriage? Because he knew it was an abomination before God and the penalty was death. This secular humanism is just going too far. You can't change the design of the universe to suit your personal preferences. It has never been man and man or woman and woman. That's not how things were designed. If that were the case there would be no people on the earth. It is what it is. You can't change that!
SORRY!
Posted by: dafeder | April 20, 2007 11:57 AM
At what point are current marriage laws impinging on the free practice of religion, as expressed by these ministers and rabbis? Isn't fighting for the ubiquitous expression of religion what the Bush Justice Department is all about? (Or is it really just about ceding the public sphere to the Bushies' religion of choice?)
So here's the solution: make all marriage "civil union" from the perspective of the state. Allow any two people to take part, according to their individual civil rights -- no minors, no pets, no groups, but no gender assumptions. Civil rights are gender-blind. Leave the religious and moral valuation to the religious and moral leaders. They'll differ, of course, but that's actually freedom of religion. Remember when freedom of _any_ religion was a _good_ thing?
Posted by: Kerri | April 20, 2007 2:09 PM
Glad to see Rev. Josh representing. I think it's noble that he has taken an open stand as a clergyman on such an issue that has been presented as the "religious versus the damned."