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03/19/2012
One-term: Jimmy Carter supports civil marriage for all
Some nice support (and pertinent distinction) from a Southern Baptist:
In all of [Jesus'] teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
I draw the line, maybe arbitrarily, in requiring by law that churches must marry people. I’m a Baptist, and I believe that each congregation is autonomous and can govern its own affairs. So if a local Baptist church wants to accept gay members on an equal basis, which my church does by the way, then that is fine. If a church decides not to, then government laws shouldn’t require them to.
--President Jimmy Carter, speaking to HuffPo (via Towle)
And good for the resistant evangelicals, nobody on the marriage equality side is pushing any sort of church "must." In a perfect world, that would enough for the faith-motivated opposition to back down. But in our world, we still fight '70s wars in 2012.