The Cleveland-based United Church of Christ (UCC) on Monday filed a groundbreaking federal lawsuit, arguing that North Carolina’s marriage laws are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, claims that the laws defining and regulating marriage as being between a man and woman restrict UCC ministers from performing their religious duties and, therefore, are unconstitutional. It marks the first time a national religious organization has accused a state’s marriage laws of restricting freedom of religion.
“The United Church of Christ is proud to defend the religious freedoms upon which this nation was founded,” the Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, general minister and president of the UCC, said in a prepared statement. “It is unfortunate that even today, laws are designed to treat gay and lesbian people unequally. In its efforts to restrict gay marriage, the State of North Carolina has restricted one of the essential freedoms of our ministers and of all Americans.”
The denomination adopted its Equal Marriage Rights for All resolution on July 4, 2005. It affirms “equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender” and declares that “government should not interfere with couples regardless of gender who choose to marry and share fully and equally in the rights, responsibilities and commitment of legally recognized marriage.”
The UCC says North Carolina’s laws, which ban marriage between same-sex couples, make it illegal for its ministers to perform a religious marriage between same-gender couples. The denomination is seeking a preliminary injunction that would allow ministers to choose whether to perform a religious marriage between same-sex couples.
UCC has more than 5,100 congregations nationwide. It adds the lawsuit to a list of firsts, including its status as the first mainline denomination to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, the first predominately white denomination to ordain an African American and the first mainline denomination to support same-sex marriage.
Colette Jenkins can be reached at 330-996-3731 or cjenkins@thebeaconjournal.com. She can be followed at www.twitter.com/ColetteMJenkins.