wfn.org | Assembly favors civil rights

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06-July-1996 
 
GA96111 
 
    Assembly favors civil rights 
 
ALBUQUERQUE - After debate that stretched over two sessions, two attempts 
to forestall the issue and one to take no action on it, the Assembly voted 
late Friday afternoon to authorize the Stated Clerk to explore entering 
friend-of-the-court briefs in favor of civil rights for same-sex couples. 
 
    The vote was 281-244 for the majority report from the committee on 
National and Urban Issues, and the action concluded an item that had 
consumed hours of committee and Assembly time. 
 
    The majority report affirmed the Presbyterian church's historic 
definition of marriage as a civil contract between a man and a woman, yet 
recognized that "committed same-sex partners seek equal civil liberties in 
a contractual relationship with all the civil rights of married couples." 
 
    The action calls for the church to weigh-in, if feasible, on the side 
of a ruling from the Hawaii Supreme Court that it is unconstitutional to 
deny the rights and responsibilities of the civil status of marriage on the 
basis of gender. 
 
    In so doing, the Assembly apparently chose the view that the issue was 
one of civil rights (as proponents of the majority report stated), rather 
than an endorsement of homosexual marriage (the principal argument offered 
by those against the report). 
 
    The Rev. Suzan Hawkinson, commissioner from New Covenant Presbytery, 
said the majority report "strikes a balance" between holiness and 
compassion. 
 
    An attempt to substitute a minority report for the majority was 
defeated, 300-222. A motion to take no action was defeated, 285-246. An 
attempt to arrest the matter until after the dinner break also failed -- 
the body made it clear it wanted to address the issue without further 
delay. 
 
    In response to a question, retiring Stated Clerk Jim Andrews said he 
had not entered any comment on the case previously, despite having been 
asked to do so in 1995, when the issue originated as a commissioners' 
resolution.  Andrews said he declined to do so after hearing that the 
majority of Hawaiian Presbyterian congregations were opposed to such 
action. 
 
    During open hearings on the issue, a pastor of one of the seven 
Presbyterian congregations in Hawaii testified that six of those 
congregations chose to support the traditional view of marriage as a 
relationship between a man and a woman. The Hawaii case, which began in 
1991, is expected to be the first to draw a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on 
civil rights for same-sex couples. It currently is awaiting a re-trial in a 
lower Hawaii court in August. 
 
Other committee items: 
 
    The Assembly reversed a Thursday decision and passed the committee's 
recommendations in regard to women's issues that came from the Advocacy 
Committee for Women's Concerns and included items from the UN Fourth World 
Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, in September 1995. Among those 
16 recommendations was one to "commend for serious study and appropriate 
action" the Beijing declaration and platform for action. 
 
    As of the dinner hour Friday, the following items still awaited 
Assembly action: 
 
    - a proposed study of gambling and gaming; 
    - addition of a Native American female layperson to the General 
Assembly Native American task force; 
    - continued development of a plan to urge the media to adhere to moral 
values; 
    - a resolution condemning the recent burning of African-American 
sanctuaries; 
    - support for government efforts to end childhood hunger; 
    - expression of concern to K-Mart Corporation related to wages and 
workers' rights 
      violations in Greensboro, N.C., and determine if the criteria for a 
boycott have been met or if further action should be taken if the matter is 
not settled by the end of 1996; 
    - a call for denomination and ecumenical entities to intensify efforts 
designed to end child labor abuse in factories producing U.S. goods. 
 
Nancy Borst 

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