Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201260035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
GAY UNION BLESSED IN CHURCH
For eight years they lived together without benefit of marriage. Even after they spoke their vows in a church ceremony witnessed by 500 guests, plenty of people remain convinced that this couple is living in sin.But when Mark Benson, a 47-year-old physician's assistant, and Philip Straw, a 45-year-old postal worker, promised to love, comfort and honor each other in a ritual last Saturday at All Saints Church, it marked a spiritual evolution. By blessing the Benson-Straw union, All Saints - the largest Episcopal church west of the Mississippi - assumed a bold stance in the crusade to liberalize traditional Christian views concerning homosexuality.
"Homosexuality is such a divisive issue, I'm sure there is a great deal of distress" about the ceremony, said the Rev. George Regas, All Saints' activist rector.
"But the people who were there, who know these men, knew this was appropriate and good. . . . It had such a sense of rightness about it," said Regas, who proposed that All Saints confer blessings on gay unions in a November 1990 sermon titled "God, Sex and Justice."
Such "weddings" or other ceremonies blessing gay unions, while not recognized by the family laws of any state, have been performed for years in the United Church of Christ, the gay-oriented Metropolitan Community Church and some other liberal churches and synagogues. Gay activists and clergy alike consider the All Saints effort significant because of the prominence of the church, which has a membership of about 3,000. According to a church survey, about 8 percent of the congregation is gay.
Benson and Straw say they reconciled the conflicts of homosexuality and Christianity long ago. Straw, who attended a Baptist seminary, studied Greek to better understand the nuances of biblical interpretations. "I came to a point where I believed God loved me whether or not I was gay, and that God's plan for me was no different from anyone else," he said.