Progressive Christians see hope for gay marriage

[Ian David]

MASSACHUSETTS-BASED CHRISTIAN THINK TANK, INSTITUTE FOR PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY, HOLDS WINTER SYMPOSIUM

A progressive Christian organization held a winter symposium on Feb. 23-24, at First Church in Cambridge, offering up an ecumenical, liberal vision of the Christian tradition, gay marriage, and political action - one not often heard in public discourse.

Incorporated in Massachusetts, the Institute for Progressive Christianity (IPC), an academic think tank, sponsored the event, which drew about 50 people.

"The message of Christianity has to be for full freedom and equality," said Richard Parker a lecturer at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, who also urged attendees "to be who you are, the emerging majority of progressive Christianity" and not to be defined "in reaction to the last 30 years" of the Religious Right's ascendancy in American politics.

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Same-sex marriage panel at the Institute for Progressive Christianity symposium. Back row: Otis Gaddis, Gina Farag, and Zeus Yiamouyiannis; front row: Rev. Pam Werntz, Rev. Anne Fowler, and Justin Lee. (photo: Chuck Colbert)

That theme was no more apparent than during the marquee panel discussion of same-sex marriage organized by Otis Gaddis III, who discussed the witness of gay marriage as a "moral good" in "Christian theology." He also suggested assuming a "non-defensive," forward-focused outlook, pointing to a recent University of California and Los Angeles poll that shows 61 percent of college freshmen favor same-sex marriage. "We must own, by faith, that the future will be more just," Gaddis said.

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