Proposition 8 and the Mainlines

In a piece oddly titled “ A Quiet Struggle Within the Gay Marriage Fight ,”(for it has not been quiet) Matt Smith writes for the New York Times via the Bay Citizen juxtaposing the Proposition 8 question in California with the internal struggle of mainline Protestant churches over question of homosexual marriage and ordination:

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit earlier this month upheld a decision declaring Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage, unconstitutional. The ruling represented a milestone in the secular struggle over gay rights. In the shadow of that struggle, however, a quieter battle is being waged within churches over whether gay people can be married and ordained. Long before the issue of same-sex marriage grabbed the spotlight, liberal Protestant pastors in Northern California were fighting against church rules prohibiting ordination and marriage of homosexuals.

The United Methodist Church seems to be “the last holdout among major mainline Protestant groups,” while nearly all the rest have gotten on board with gay marriage and ordination.