As the New Jersey legislature prepares to take up a full marriage equality law it is important to recognize the broad levels of support from Catholics:

Catholics, 46 percent of all respondents, generally support same-sex marriage and 53 percent believe that if the Legislature approves a gay marriage bill, it should be accepted. They do not see the issue as one of the most important facing the state – 46 percent say the issue is “not at all important.”

“As with several social issues, many Catholics support a more liberal public policy than does the Church itself,” said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll and professor of political science at Rutgers University. “Given that Catholics comprise the largest religious group in the state, this makes a difference in overall support for gay marriage in New Jersey, especially since a majority of Protestants – many of whom are Evangelicals – oppose the bill.”

Click here to read more about support and opposition by different faith communities in New Jersy.

As the New Jersey legislature prepares to extend full marriage equality, an African American Minister speaks about how his experience in the civil rights movement and Bruce Springsteen go hand in hand with support for the rights of all to marry, regardless of their sexual orientation:

The Civil Rights Movement ”back in the day” has become alive in this “Movement.” As an African American clergyman who was a foot soldier in the “Movement,” I have no time to debate the differences in the struggles of black persons and the struggles of gays and lesbians. Of course there are differences! But, prejudice, bias, and bigotry are prejudice, bias and bigotry whether directed at persons who are black, or persons who are gay. I long for the day when more persons in the African American community will become advocates/allies of gay rights, and more gay persons will become allies/advocates of the many issues important to the black community. I have for years sought to be a “bridge over the troubled waters” that divide the poor black and brown community and the gay community. The passage of the marriage equality bill may signal the beginning of new efforts to deal with the education and econonomic issues that confront

poor brown and black people.

One of my friends and mentors is a writer and teacher who lives in Amherst, Massachusetts. She writes of those who stand on the side lines, who are afraid to take a stand, who are infected with the anger and bitterness of others. She says of writing, but it applies to me as I live my life as a clergyman or to Bruce Springsteen as he lives his amazing public life as a musical icon, and to all of us who support marriage equality and all of life.

My friend writes words that really ring true when she says “the issue is not whether our writing will be political. If we are silent, our silence is political. If we write our writing is political. No one has seen the night sky exactly from your trajectory. No one has loved exactly the people and places you have loved. Who will tell that part of the earth’s story, if you do not?”

Read more from Rev. Gil Caldwell at Liberty Education Forum.

The Washington Post opines about how Washington D.C.’s City Council and the Archdiocese could work together:

THE DISTRICT’s same-sex marriage bill continues on its path to passage. So, too, does the battle between the D.C. Council and the Catholic Church over whether and how the Archdiocese of Washington would be able to comply with city law without violating church tenets. Council members David A. Catania (I-At Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) have offered a fair compromise, which the church should accept.

The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment of 2009 would not require religious organizations to perform same-sex marriages. But if the bill becomes law, church groups that have city contracts would have to provide spousal benefits to their gay and lesbian employees. Catholic Charities believes this would force it to recognize those relationships. The same concern applies to adoption services for same-sex couples.

Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl has been trying to secure a religious exemption in the bill. The latest attempt came during a meeting on Monday. The language proposed would allow a religious group not to provide, among other things, “privileges, advantages, benefits, or goods for a purpose related to or arising from the solemnization or celebration of a same-sex marriage, or the promotion of same-sex marriage, that is in violation of the religious society’s beliefs.” This won’t do. If Catholic Charities wants to exclude gay and lesbian couples from its adoption services, then it should do so without receiving taxpayer money.

But it is on the issue of spousal benefits that Catholic Charities’s intransigence is mystifying. The fight going on in the District today took place 13 years ago in San Francisco.

Read more in the Washington Post.

As the country focuses on the debate of marriage equality in the states and in Congress, it is important to recognize the impact equal rights have to individual gay and lesbian families. Chuck Vazquez, a City Councilman from Cathedral City, California speaks about what marriage means to him:

Right now while everyone is getting ready for the Holidays, and all the celebrations and special times they bring, next years political pot is getting ready to boil over with issues. Among those issues will once again be Marriage. People loudly and profoundly will lend their voices to what “they” believe the definition of marriage should be and who should have the right to marry. Millions of dollars will pour into the campaigns, people will get angry, rude, offended, insulted and hurt on both sides of the issue. What so many seem to forget is that these are ALL real people, whether they are for or against, that are embroiled in this battle, they are part of our communities, they are neighbors, friends, co-workers and even sometimes family. I am not here to change anyone’s mind, it’s not for me to tell some else how they should view or think about an issue, however I would like to ask EVERYONE involved to open their minds to the other side.

Read more at Liberty Education Forum.

The Boston Globe reports that a decision by Bishop M. Thomas Shaw III has opened the door for Episcopal priests in Massachusetts to perform marriages for gay and lesbian couples:

“The time has come,’’ Shaw said in a telephone interview. “It’s time for us to offer to gay and lesbian people the same sacrament of fidelity that we offer to the heterosexual world.’’

Shaw, a longtime supporter of gay rights and same-sex marriage, had previously cited the Episcopal Church’s canons and prayer book in barring local priests from officiating at same-sex marriages, even after such unions became legal in Massachusetts in 2004.

But this month, clergy and laypeople at a diocesan convention endorsed a resolution expressing hope that Shaw would allow clergy to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples. They cited legislation approved at the Episcopal Church’s general convention last summer declaring that “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same- gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church.’’

Shaw said his diocese includes “a significant number of gay and lesbian clergy who are in partnerships,’’ and that “many of our parishes have significant numbers of gay and lesbian people.’’

Massachusetts becomes the third state where Episcopal priests are allowed to perform marriages, following the diocese of Iowa and Vermont, which also perform same-sex weddings.