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How Homosexual Marriage Differs from Historical Marriage

Won't homosexual marriages look much like traditional marriages? There is no reason to expect so. A few obvious differences:

  • Traditional marriages and the children of those marriages are supported, nourished, and sustained by churches, their congregations and parishes, and other communities of faith. Although love (affection) is part of the glue that keeps families together, it is a marriage founded in faith, in submission to God and to one another, that provides the strongest bond.
  • Although a few church congregations in Connecticut have endorsed "covenantal" same-sex marriages,3 the vast majority follows scriptural teaching in this area.

3 The largest Protestant denomination in Connecticut is the United Church of Christ. At its annual meeting in 1989, delegates from Connecticut UCC churches adopted a resolution that led to the ordination of homosexual clergy and encouraged congregations to become "open and affirming," meaning that sexually active homosexuals could be admitted to the fellowship of believers, sharing authority over church matters with other members. The resolution is not binding on member churches. Fewer than 10% of UCC churches in Connecticut have become "open and affirming," no doubt due in part to the clear scriptural authority in the Old and New Testament condemning homosexual activity (and all sex outside of marriage) as sin. Other "main-line" American Protestant denominations are currently facing this issue

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