It seems that over one-hundred and eighty clergy members of nine different deonominations in Vermont have made a public declaration of their support for gay marriage in that state.  This move is just in advance of consideration of a gay marriage bill by that state's Senate Judiciary Committee.

Currently, Vermont already has gay "civil unions", (the first state in the country to allow the practice), but that's not enough for these guys.  They've decided that it such an important issue that it's necessary for them to come out from behind the pulpits and stand up for calling evil good - and demand that the state sanction it. 

Some clergy told reporters at a press conference today they had the support of their congregations, but not necessarily the support of their churches' governing bodies.

"Both congregations would on the whole support our church celebrating and their pastor officiating at a gay marriage," said Rev. Rebecca Clark, who serves both the Grace United Methodist Church in Plainfield and the Trinity United Methodist Church in Montpelier. "But it still would not be permitted by the United Methodist Church. Although the majority of United Methodists in Vermont support gay marriage and have supported civil unions in our own legislation, the United Methodist Church sets its polity as a global body. The global body has a different stance."

Well isn't that just awful?  "They're" enlightened...and want to support gay marriage...but those uninformed, unenlightened people in our leadership....  Whatever. 

When you see things like this, it explains a lot about the slow withering of many of the old "mainline" Protestant denominations.  You can't really expect a church that makes apologies for sin - much less advocates sanctioning it - to be "alive" and growing.

But hey, maybe that's their plan.  To have anyone with any real faith left in their churches to throw up their hands and go somewhere else...leaving liberals like these in complete control.

And while we're on the subject, this just puts the lie to the whole idea that was orginally behind the gay "civil unions" arrangement - that it was about them having the "right" to things like hospital visitation, insurance, etc..., not about being "married".

And know, here we are...  Another day, and more demands to go further down the slope.

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