Episcopalians Vote For Gay Marriage but Why Did They Kicked out Bill First?

                                                                          

 This is me [Adam] with Mariah on the right next to me as always, Bear center by the Privacy fence. Bill and I
 Constructed it dividing his Grand ma and our house. The fence was built as a compromise for not moving out. It took Bill and I a week or so. Me with my bad back and Bill with his problems. Getting sick in silent after the fence I realized that if I were to get sick, there would not even be a home to come back to. I was half right when Bill with his fam. eventually got an order of Protection. When I went to pick my things out for good, Bill cried not to leave him with his religious grandmother looking on like a gestapo guard, examining I only took my stuff or that we did not made up or go too chummy.  As a matter of fact I left all the big items, they would not fit in the truck. I told Bill not to contact me but only to save him grief from his fam. We kissed in front of grandma in the mouth for a while. Bill was openly crying had lost weight looked bad. My heart was in pieces but I had to get to NYC my mom had a stroke, my only confessor, defender and love of my life was dying and Im on i95 rushing to NYC. I lost my house, thousands of dollars and even my dog. But most of all 9  months latter I lost my mom. I died that same day.

                                                                           

  

The telephone rang and Bill picked up. Bill was my partner of two years. Ten years younger than I but had the courage to come out and stand up to his homophobic family. Im sure that had he never met me he would have stayed openly in the closet; Which means he was doing everything a gay men does but it was excused as something else.  

 The family having their heads in the sand felt very comfortable there. Bill coming out had to do with me and his coming out would mean that our relationship would end. He came out partly because of me. Having being ‘out’ most of my adult time up to that time, I was too concentrated in NOT having people sending me back. I felt I was surrounded by the bandits and had good reason to believe it, so I hunkered in. Having Been told that I made Bill gay to, “I was dirty” because gay and black people are dirty just like black don’t even perspire.” yeah that is a red neck southerner speaking. Good people in other ways but with a phobia about people different from them, they are heartless. Their minds shut off.

Bill would have been different from his family even if he wasn’t gay. Good hearted but he could not go against his family every single day and that is how it was. He had promised me we would moved away but I don’t think he meant and it was the lie that I would hold him to and it meant our relationship would end.  

 

On that day the person on the other side of the phone was his Pastor of his Episcopalian congregation. The Pastor wanted to know if it was true what he heard. Was he gay? On Bill positive answer he told him right over the phone to consider himself no longer a member of his church. The Pastor and I had a Biblical confrontation latter on after I called him a coward and that Bill was entitled to a trial. Even having lost and having admitted that we had many things right in interpreting the bible and “homosexuals” still the church did not have to have a member they did not want and he was merely a messenger of the wishes of the church. I had never heard a pastor put it that way but the meaning was clear: Bill was not wanted anymore if he was gay.

Bill and I don’t  keep in touch mainly to do with Bill’s first, because of my wishes but then because we can not reconcile that Bill would not move and I could not live with him there. We loved each other very much and we both ahead so many tears but those were the realities. 

Today after all these years the Episcopalian church changes. It doesn’t mean that a Church in Mid Florida its change, I hope so but at the same time they could be as homophobic as ever. I hope not. I hope that Bill and I behind him broked the homophobic chains subjugating human being to hate because of what people are as people.
  

Adam Gonzalez [ Blog Publisher and Protestant Independent Seminary student , 3 yr. Graduate, Thinker when my mind functions and anti all religions but open to people to have what ever faith as long was it does not discriminate based on what people are as people]

  News on Episcopalians today. A Vote for gay Marriage!                                                       

Episcopalians overwhelmingly voted Wednesday to allow religious weddings for same-sex couples, solidifying the church's embrace of gay rights that began more than a decade ago with the pioneering election of the first openly gay bishop.

The vote came in Salt Lake City at the Episcopal General Convention, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide. It passed in the House of Deputies, the voting body of clergy and lay participants at the meeting. The House of Bishops had approved the resolution Tuesday by 129-26 with five abstaining.

The Very Rev. Brian Baker of Sacramento said the church rule change was the result of a nearly four-decade long conversation that has been difficult and painful for many. Baker, chair of the committee that crafted the changes, said church members have not always been kind to one another but that the dynamic has changed in recent decades.

"We have learned to not only care for, but care about one other," Baker said. "That mutual care was present in the conversations we had. Some people disagreed, some people disagreed deeply, but we prayed and we listened and we came up with compromises that we believe make room and leave no one behind."

Baker said the denomination's House of Bishops prayed and debated the issue for five hours earlier this week before passing it on to the House of Deputies.

During debate on Wednesday, several deputies spoke in support of the move, with some saying it was long overdue. Opponents spoke too, including Jose Luis Mendoza-Barahona of Honduras, who gave an impassioned speech in Spanish against the change, saying it goes against the biblical basis of the church and would create a chasm in the church.

The vote eliminates gender-specific language from church laws on marriage so that same-sex couples could have religious weddings. Instead of "husband" and "wife," for example, the new church law will refer to "the couple." Under the new rules, clergy can decline to perform the ceremonies. The changes were approved 173-27. The convention also approved a gender-neutral prayer service for marriage on a 184-23 vote.

The measures take effect the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29.

Many dioceses in the New York-based church of nearly 1.9 million members have allowed their priests to perform civil same-sex weddings, using a trial prayer service to bless the couple. Still, the church hadn't changed its own laws on marriage until Wednesday.

The Episcopal Church joins two other mainline Protestant groups that allow gay marriage in all their congregations: the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The 3.8-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lets its congregations decide for themselves, and many of them host gay weddings.

The United Methodist Church, by far the largest mainline Protestant church with 12.8 million members, bars gay marriage, although many of its clergy have been officiating at same-sex weddings recently in protest.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion, an 80 million-member global fellowship of churches. Ties among Anglicans have been strained since Episcopalians in 2003 elected Bishop Gene Robinson, who lived openly with his male partner, to lead the Diocese of New Hampshire.

On the eve of the U.S. vote, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, issued a statement expressing deep concern about the move to change the definition of marriage.

Faith groups across the spectrum of belief, from the Episcopal Church to the Southern Baptists, have been losing members as more Americans say they identify with no particular religion. The Episcopal Church has shrunk 18 percent over the last decade, after more than a generation of steady decline.

After the Supreme Court ruling last week, many conservative churches, including the Southern Baptists and the Mormons, renewed their opposition to gay marriage.

The gay marriage decision is the second major news to come from the convention, the top policymaking body of the church. The church elected its first black presiding bishop last weekend, with Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina winning in a landslide.

Curry has allowed same-sex church weddings in North Carolina, and he said the Supreme Court "affirmed the authenticity of love" by legalizing gay marriage.

 AP

McCombs reported from Salt Lake City. AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll reported from New York for Associated Press