Methodist Bishop Supports Marriage Equality in Illinois

United Methodist Bishop Sally Dyck chimed in today to support the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, a same-sex marriage bill moving through the Illinois legislature.

Bishop Dyck’s statement, published by the Reconciling Ministries Network, affirms marriage as a religious institution that enriches the lives of couples, their children, and their communities:

I believe in the institution of marriage as the source of emotional and legal stability and security for families and communities…I believe in marriage because it also is the institution that best provides for the well-being of children. I believe that children need to have parents who have the emotional and legal benefits of marriage as well as parents who are active in their lives.

Bishop Dyck goes on to lament her many friends and acquaintances who are denied these benefits of marriage because they are in a same-sex relationship.

Even if Illinois legalizes same-sex marriage, the rules of the United Methodist Church prevent Bishop Dyck and other United Methodist clergy from performing same-sex wedding ceremonies. The denomination’s Book of Discipline continues to define homosexuality as “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Depsite these rules, over 1,1000 United Methodist clergy have pledged to perform same-sex marriages in the course of their normal pastoral duties.

During the denomination’s most recent Annual Conferece, Bishop Melvin Talbert praised this defiance as “an act of biblical obedience” designed to challenge “unjust and immoral and derogatory words of discrimination and laws that are doing harm to our GLBTQ sisters and brothers.”

Photo via Reconciling Ministries Network