Pastor: No Weddings Until Gay Marriage Ban Lifted
The Rev. Art Cribbs, pastor of a church in San Marino, Calif., said with Proposition 8 "a boundary has been crossed" between religion and civil law. The state, he said, "failed to protect a vulnerable minority from the tyranny of a majority."
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JACKI LYDEN, host:
Another note now from the intersection of religion and politics.
This week in California, the Reverend Art Cribbs announced what he calls a personal and painful decision.
Reverend ART CRIBBS (Pastor, San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ): Never to perform a wedding or marriage ceremony in the state of California as long as there is discrimination against same-sex couples.
LYDEN: Reverend Cribbs is the pastor of the San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ outside Los Angeles. He said he prayed over the California Supreme Court's decision to uphold Proposition 8, which ended gay marriage.
Rev. CRIBBS: One of the things that we say when we conduct a marriage ceremony is that a person will love the other in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, for as long as they both shall live. We go on to say that those whom God has brought together let no one separate.
I believe it is within my jurisdiction as a pastor to say no to marriage if it means one group of people have the privilege of marrying and another group has had their rights taken away.
LYDEN: Reverend Cribbs says he has performed more than 100 marriages in the 20 years since his ordination. He now joins a handful of California church officials that say their marrying days are done until there's marriage for all. He spoke to us from a protest in Fresno.
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