Minnesota Lutherans oppose anti-gay constitutional amendment

Minneapolis-area Lutherans have voted to oppose amending the Minnesota Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

The vote, taken on Feb. 17, made the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America one of the largest faith groups yet to reject the amendment, which goes before voters Nov. 6, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

About 700 Lutherans, representing congregations in the ECLA’s Minneapolis Area Synod voted overwhelmingly for a resolution opposing the anti-gay amendment by raising green cards that said “yes.”

“What we’ve heard today is the Lutheran Church is about welcome, and we proved that with the statement we made,” said Lauren Morse-Wendt, a mission developer with Edina Community Lutheran Church and one of the resolution’s authors. “I believe the people of Minnesota need to know that people of faith stand up for all families. This marriage amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman is a discriminatory amendment which would deliberately deny justice to a portion of the population of Minnesota.”

The synod does not plan to give money to help defeat the amendment, but hopes congregations will study the resolution and “consider how they will respond,” synod spokeswoman Sara Masters told the Star Tribune.

With nearly 800,000 members, the ECLA is Minnesota’s second-largest religious denomination. Roman Catholicism is the state’s largest, with close to 1.1 million members.

Catholic bishops have come out in favor of the anti-gay amendment, raising objections from lay Catholics.