California Marriage Issue Divides Faithful

"Only" 14, states a flyer from the Protection of Marriage Committee backing Proposition 22, which would define marriage in California: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

Despite its brevity, the measure on the March 7 California ballot has sharply divided people of faith in the state and beyond. And few religious leaders are predicting how the voting will go.

A Southern Baptist, for example: "I don't believe homosexuality is normal," said the Rev. Rob Zinn, pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, Calif. "This isn't a civil rights issue. This is a moral issue."

Or a Reform Jewish perspective: "Why is it that so many cannot remember the simple religious teaching that we are--all of us and each of us, straight and gays and lesbians--we are all children of the Divine, Creator of the Universe?"

The question came in a letter from Rabbi David Saperstein of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C., sent in January to congregations of the Pacific Southwest Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

Along with other generally conservative Christian groups, California Southern Baptists line up in support of Proposition 22, which seeks to define marriage in California as strictly heterosexual. The Pacific Southwest Council of the UAHC opposes the measure, joined by numerous mainline Protestant leaders and others.

The campaign over Proposition 22--called the Limit on Marriage in the official California Voter Information Guide but the Protection of Marriage Initiative by supporters-- has made unexpected religious bedfellows, like the California Catholic Conference, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the California Southern Baptist Convention.

They're giving both volunteers and money to the effort. And the involvement of some church groups has stirred even more controversy.

The California Catholic Conference has contributed over $300,000 to the pro-Proposition 22 campaign, according to the Rev. Greg Coiro of the media relations office of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

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