November 15, 2000|By John Rivera | John Rivera,SUN STAFF
WASHINGTON - In a rare show of broad-based ecumenical agreement, leaders from the nation's Roman Catholic, evangelical and mainline Protestant churches yesterday issued a declaration on marriage that calls for a recommitment to "God's first institution," and decries the high rates of divorce, cohabitation and children born to unwed mothers.
The Christian Declaration on Marriage was issued by the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals and the National Council of Churches, groups with sharp doctrinal differences in many areas, but which found common ground on this topic. It is the product of a task force convened by Bishop Kevin Mannoia, the president of the NAE who is spurring efforts to encourage evangelicals to reach out to other Christian churches.
"A collaboration at this level is a great joy," said Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, representing the Catholic bishops.
The document, which emphasized that marriage is "a holy union of one man and one woman," sounded an alarm about divorce and an indifference to matrimony that threatens the nation, a theme echoed by the religious leaders.
"By their very nature, broken marriages and counterfeit alternative relationships such as cohabitation and same-sex unions fail to impact and benefit society in the manifold ways that society is blessed by intact, committed heterosexual marriages," said Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The declaration noted that because three-quarters of all marriages are performed by clergy, churches are in a key position to provide such ministries as premarital counseling and help for couples experiencing marital difficulties that will reverse current trends. It calls for a Summit of Church Leaders to convene to hammer out concrete strategies, particularly for collaboration at a local level.
The marriage declaration was released on the second day of the U.S. Bishops' fall meeting, which was marked by a protest by an interdenominational group of gay and lesbian Christians that resulted in about 100 arrests, including the Rev. William Sloan Coffin, the former Yale University chaplain and civil rights activist. The protest took place at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, miles from the downtown hotel where the bishops are meeting.
The protesters, who represented Dignity/USA, a group of gay and lesbian Catholics, and Soulforce, an interdenominational organization pressing for full inclusion of homosexuals in Christian churches, blocked the driveway to the shrine. Washington police began arresting them about 11 a.m., placing plastic handcuffs around their wrists as a group of supporters across the street sang and cheered them on.
"We're asking the bishops to apologize for thousands of years of spiritual violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people," said Laura Montgomery Rutt, a spokeswoman for Soulforce. "Dignity is not allowed to worship on church property. We're asking the bishops to allow Dignity to worship in their churches. ... We're asking the bishops to allow priests to say Mass for Dignity."
Soulforce organized similar protests and civil disobedience at several denominational meetings this summer, including the Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Southern Baptists.
The bishops did not issue an official response, but Bishop Joseph A. Galante of Dallas noted that he and another bishop met with members of Dignity and Soulforce on Saturday. Galante said that "fidelity to the Gospel teaching on marriage and sexuality is an essential part of our discipleship of Christ." He also said the church denounces violence against homosexuals and quoted the church's catechism, which says people with a homosexual orientation "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity."
