These Religious Leaders Are Celebrating Marriage Equality | ThinkProgress [View all]

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Yet even as Huckabee and others invoked God in their opposition to the court’s decision, the move to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide was actually lauded by a multitude spiritual leaders and religious communities across the country. In fact, despite conservative claims to the contrary, people of faith are deeply supportive of LGBT rights in the United States, as recent polls show majorities of nearly every major American Christian group now back marriage equality.

Several Christian organizations, for example, issued statements celebrating the change, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), which voted earlier this year to endorse marriage equality as a denomination.

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Over in Portland, Oregon, pastors and delegates attending the annual conference of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) — which has a long history of supporting LGBT rights — responded to the news with prayerful glee. Rev. Nathan Ryan, a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told ThinkProgress that he heard people shouting as information about the case began to trickle in, with many LGBT Unitarian Universalists excitedly texting friends during worship soon thereafter.

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Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Ohio, the annual assembly of the United Church of Christ (UCC) reportedly burst into cheers upon hearing the news, with many rushing down the block to join a rally and pray to “thank God for bestowing equality on all couples, and for an end for other discrimination and violence against God’s children.” UCC pastors then erected a tent to recruit ministers to wed same-sex couples, and many began blessing unions in front of city hall.

The news triggered a similar response in Salt Lake City, Utah, where members of the Episcopal Church — which, like the UCC, ordains openly LGBT people and technically already allows many priests to officiate same-sex marriages — were debating whether or not to approve a full, formal embrace of marriage equality. According to the Episcopal News Service, people began applauding in various committee meetings throughout the convention center as they learned of the decision, and several longtime supporters of LGBT rights within the church expressed joy at the new law.

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