{"id":1319,"date":"2012-01-24T11:24:39","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T16:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2012-01-24T11:30:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-24T16:30:59","slug":"washingtons-gay-marriage-debate-clergy-vs-clergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2012\/01\/washingtons-gay-marriage-debate-clergy-vs-clergy.html","title":{"rendered":"Washington’s Gay Marriage Debate: Clergy vs. Clergy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I reported for Reuters at the Washington state Capitol yesterday<\/a>, covering the public hearings on a gay marriage bill — and in between, the breaking news\u00a0that the state Senate now has enough votes to pass the bill. (The House already had enough votes.) It now appears that Washington’s lawmakers will legalize gay marriage next month, while opponents work on gathering the 260,000-plus signatures they need between now and July 6 to put the issue on the November ballot, confident that voters will overturn the law,\u00a0 Prop. 8-style<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From a religion reporting perspective, the interesting angle was seeing clergy take different sides in their testimony. On the pro-gay marriage side,\u00a0the speakers included Rabbi Jonathan Singer (of Seattle’s \u00a0Temple Beth Ami, a Reform Jewish congregation),\u00a0an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America bishop<\/a>, and a United Church of Christ pastor. On the opposing side, the speakers included the Catholic Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle, an African-American church pastor, a\u00a0Seventh-day Adventist pastor\u00a0and a range of white evangelical voices.<\/p>\n

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Conservative families rallied against a gay marriage bill at the Washington State Capitol on Monday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christian groups also helped rally several hundred people, including (homeschooled?) children, outside the Capitol in favor of traditional marriage.<\/p>\n

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It was a very long day, and I was surprised that none of the legislators simply gave up, after hearing all these conflicting faith-based views, and suggested that they just not take religious beliefs into account either way. But I guess that would be bad politics, even in the great unchurched Pacific Northwest. From my notes:<\/div>\n
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Most Washingtonians do not belong to any congregation. Catholics, about one-sixth of the state\u2019s population, make up the majority of religiously affiliated Washington state residents, followed by evangelical Christians, according to data distributed by the Association of Religion Data Archives.\u00a0Gov. Chris Gregoire, herself a practicing Roman Catholic, does not believe this issue poses conflict for religious groups, given that clergy would remain free not to perform or recognize same-sex unions, said Karina Shagren, Gregoire\u2019s spokeswoman. But the language leaves too much room for doubt, said Pastor Joe Fuiten, of Cedar Park Assembly of God in Bothell, who has been rallying evangelical Christians against the legislation.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I reported for Reuters at the Washington state Capitol yesterday, covering the public hearings on a gay marriage bill — and in between, the breaking news\u00a0that the state Senate now has enough votes to pass the bill. (The House already had enough votes.) It now appears that Washington’s lawmakers will legalize gay marriage next month,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[46,205,175,13,176,154,588,589,60,93,26,28,165,591,289,593,592,174,590],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-black-church","tag-catholic-church","tag-elca","tag-evangelical-christians","tag-evangelical-lutheran-church-in-america","tag-gay-marriage","tag-gov-chris-gregoire","tag-gov-christine-gregoire","tag-homosexuality","tag-jewish","tag-jews","tag-judaism","tag-lgbt","tag-reform-judaism","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-seventh-day-adventist","tag-ucc","tag-united-church-of-christ","tag-washington-state-legislature"],"yoast_head":"\nWashington's Gay Marriage Debate: Clergy vs. Clergy - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2012\/01\/washingtons-gay-marriage-debate-clergy-vs-clergy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington's Gay Marriage Debate: Clergy vs. Clergy - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I reported for Reuters at the Washington state Capitol yesterday, covering the public hearings on a gay marriage bill — and in between, the breaking news\u00a0that the state Senate now has enough votes to pass the bill. 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