John Eastman, the chairman of the
National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has knocked the National
Catheral's decision to perform gay weddings.
The church
announced last week that it will be among the first Episcopal
congregations to implement a new rite of marriage for LGBT members.
However, the 106-year-old cathedral which has a storied history
steeped in presidential tradition is not expected to hold a same-sex
ceremony any time soon. The District of Columbia-based church only
marries church members and has a lengthy waiting list.
Appearing on Fox News, Eastman
suggested the Episcopal Church was harming itself.
The Episcopal Church “has
increasingly embraced homosexuality, going back 10 years with Eugene
Robinson's elevation to bishop of New Hampshire. And there's been a
huge outcry in the church. So much so that their membership numbers
are down 16 percent over the last decade. A number of local
congregations have broken off and aligned themselves with other more
traditional branches of the international Anglican Communion.”
“The step that the church has taken,
the national church in the United States, is directly in violation of
international Anglican law and the Book of Common Prayer. So, they
can do this if they want but I think redefining marriage to be
something it was never understood to be is going to have dramatic
consequences both in this country and in their church.” (The video
is embedded on this page. Visit
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