Minnesota will have a state constitutional amendment on the ballot this November that would outlaw gay marriage, if it passes. As you can imagine, this has generated a lot of controversy.
Yesterday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA: the "mainline" Lutheran denomination, and the largest denomination in Minnesota) at a meeting of the Minneapolis Synod, overwhelmingly adopted a motion to oppose the anti-marriage amendment.
There was no recorded tally of the votes, from about 700 representatives of ELCA churches in the Minneapolis area. Instead, delegates held up cards representing either green "YES" votes or red "NO" votes.
Photo: Jim Gehrz, StarTribune
The photo in today's StarTribune shows only a sea of green, with nary a red card visible, an overwhelming show of support for gay rights from the delegates.
Minneapolis is the nation's largest ELCA synod, representing over 188,000 members; in the state as a whole, there are about 800,000 ELCA members.
"What we've heard today is the Lutheran Church is about welcome, and we proved that with the statement we made," said Lauren Morse-Wendt, a mission developer with Edina Community Lutheran Church and one of the resolution's authors. "I believe the people of Minnesota need to know that people of faith stand up for all families. This marriage amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman is a discriminatory amendment which would deliberately deny justice to a portion of the population of Minnesota."
While Lutheran bishops have been silent on the issue, it appears that the laity is making its voice heard. The Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul has already come out strongly in favor of the official Catholic position.