¨Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry
Who is the RCFM?
by Chuck Colbert
December 28, 2006

The God squad of equality

In a year devoted to preserving civil marriage rights for gays, one group in the MassEquality coalition has played a pivotal role on Beacon Hill and in the public's eye. It is the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry (RCFM) recognized as In Newsweekly's 2006 "Organization of the Year."

The work of RCFM, its persistent but gentle lobbying of lawmakers and visible presence inside and outside the State House, has been "invaluable in the fight to preserve equal marriage," said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus. The Caucus is the state's leading gay-rights lobbying organization.

"The RCFM has changed the nature of the [gay-rights, marriage-equality] debate from religion versus gays to religion versus religion," she said. "So we can now forcefully assert that denying us marriage rights is the equivalent of choosing one set of religious views over another. And no legislator ever wants to be caught favoring one religious tradition over another, debating over whose interpretation of God is the right one."

RCFM is a group of more than 700 rabbis, clergy, congregations, and faith communities from 23 different traditions, all advocating full civil marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples and families. At the same time, RCFM also supports the right of clergy and faith communities to follow their own definition of marriage, a fundamental American principle underpinning First Amendment guarantees of religious liberty.

Rabbi Devon Lerner, the coalition's executive director, said RCFM's higher public profile "has shown to the GLBT community that many religious communities support full marriage equality, even within their own denominations, a fact not known to many."

RCFM's public advocacy, she also said, "has shown citizens and legislators alike that more and more people of faith support marriage equality." That fact, too, was not known by many, she explained.

"Legislators told us that they were visited by more clergy and people of faith than ever before," Lerner said. "Collectively, our banding together" across various religious denominations on any one issue, is "unprecedented so far as I am aware," she added.

Indeed, 2006 has been a busy and productive year for an organization that has become the public voice of progressive religious communities in the struggle to protect same-sex marriage here in Massachusetts, the only state where lesbian and gay couples can legally wed.

RCFM's 2006 accomplishments:

• Doubled the number of clergy and congregations actively working to protect marriage equality.

• Delivered more than 1,400 marriage-equality postcards to legislators from people of faith, as well as a 132-page book, a collection of pro-gay personal testimonies, bearing witness to the joy and security of marriage equality.

• Placed hundreds of calls to lawmakers through phone banking.

• Published two quarter-page ads in the Quincy Patriot Ledge and Brockton Enterprise, expressing lay Catholic disagreement with the local church hierarchy's efforts to ban same-sex marriage by amending the state's Constitution.

• Paired a lesbian comedian Kate Clinton with Episcopal Bishop Thomas Shaw for a wildly successful fund-raising event, bringing in $37,000.

• Rallied at the July 12 and Nov. 9 Constitutional Convention, with clergy and people of faith making up a sizable number- about half - of demonstrators outside the State House on Beacon Street.

• Published for distribution to clergy and congregations across the Commonwealth a brochure, "Neither Fair nor Just," explaining why civil rights should not be put up for popular vote.

• Attracted widespread local print and broadcast media attention.

RCFM's effects on the Roman Catholic Church

Sure enough, it was the RCFM's publicly confronting the state's four Roman Catholic bishops that placed them in the spotlight. At a press conference on June 27, clergy board members, along with two lay Catholics, released an open letter addressed to Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley. The letter charged local church leaders of "religious discrimination" by trying to deny legal rights to same-sex couples married by clergy of other denominations.

Religious leaders openly criticizing one another is rare. The move by the RCFM highlighted increased tensions and polarizing trends among conservative and liberal faith-based groups regarding the same-sex marriage divide.

The clergy's letter was particularly hard hitting, saying:

• "You are promoting prejudice through your political campaign, intentionally or not.

• "Thousands of Roman Catholics have signed our statement in support of marriage equality.

• "We urge you to stop trying to make your religious definition of marriage and the family the law in our Commonwealth."

Shortly before the Nov. 9 Constitutional Convention, RCFM ran ads in the Quincy and Brockton papers. That move prompted The Pilot, the Boston Archdiocese's official weekly newspaper, to respond with a front-page story. An editorial said the faithful must "submit" to church teaching on faith and morals.

The religious landscape in Massachusetts is predominated by Roman Catholicism, with nearly half the state's population identifying as Catholic. Two thirds of state lawmakers are Catholic.

Cardinal O'Malley and the state's Catholic bishops, along with the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the church's lobbying arm, were active players in VoteOnMarriage.org's "Let the People Vote" petition campaign. Church leadership encouraged pastors and parishes to assist in collecting signatures to place the gay marriage ban on the ballot in Nov. 2008.

How RCFM works with all faiths

The state has significant numbers of pro-gay religious faith traditions, including the Unitarian Universalists and Congregationalists (now the United Church of Christ), with spiritual roots dating back to the Puritans. The Episcopal Church is also a key player in the RCFM coalition. And all three of these denominations are important to the history of the Commonwealth. Reform Judaism is yet another key coalition partner.

Both fairness and justice propel RCFM's public advocacy, making a key distinction that same-sex marriage is a civil right, not a religious right. No faith community is required to change its theology of religious marriage. In fact, the RCFM states, "Marriage equality preserves everyone's religious freedom."

Altogether, "The RCFM has been guided by a dedicated board of directors who come from Christian, Jewish, and other faith traditions," said the organization's president Rev. Anne C. Fowler, an Episcopal priest. "Gay and straight, ordained and lay, board members have worked consistently to present the faces and voices of justice - seeking people of faith." She added, "Commitment to the cause of marriage equality has inspired board members to cross boundaries of denominational difference and to collaborate with exceptional effectiveness. Our grounding in theology and faith has equipped us to frame the struggle for LGBT human rights in a vision of God's passion for justice and equality."

RCFM 'worth its weight in gold'

For Isaacson and the lobbying team, RCFM's work is "worth its weight in gold," she said. "They've produced critically important support to legislators struggling with theological and cultural questions about marriage," Isaacson explained, "by providing two things for lawmakers - a comfort zone based in traditional theology and a political cultural framework to consider the issue that never existed before." That effort alone, she said, represents a "sea change." •

National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries statement on "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination."

Hundreds Rally Against Family Research Council in Boston

Boston Globe

Boston Herald

Old North Church Responds

NECN

365Gay.com

O'Malley Mass Thanks Anti-Gay Activists

In Newsweekly

RCFM and MassEquality Fundraiser

Innewsweekly

Bay Windows

Catholics Push for Vote on Marriage Ban

Boston Globe (features RCFM response)

Globe Letter to the Editor by the Rev'd Cameron Partridge

Innewsweekly

New Guidlines on Pastoral Care for Gay Catholics

Innewsweekly

Baywindows Column by Catholic Signer Marrianne Duddy-Burke

Presbyterian Minister Faces Trial for Gay Marriage

365Gay.com

Episcopal Talks on Inclusiveness End without Resolution

365Gay.com

US Conference of Catholic Bishops New Guidelines for Seminarians Exclude Gays

New York Times

Conservative Movement May Shift Policy on Gay Rabbis

Jewish Daily Forward

Archbishop of Canterbury Says Gays, Not Church, Must Change

Washington Times

Ex-gay Ministry Approves of Bishop's Statement

The Christian Post

Human Rights Campaign Launches "Out in Scripture"

Planet Out

Out in Scripture

Note to Press: Being Christian is Not Anti-Gay

Innewsweekly Editorial

Church Scrambling to Catch Up With God

Emotional Debate over Episcopal Clergy 

Bishop Gene Robinson Urges Assembly to Reject Discrimination

RCFM Signer Rev. Irene Monroe Keynotes Bayard Rustin Breakfast

Bay Windows Profile on Old Cambridge Baptist Church and RCFM Board Member Rev. Irv Cummings

Gay Methodist Clergy Petition Denominational Leadership

Presbyterians Debate Gay Clergy

Fr. Walter Cuenin Honored at Interfaith Pride Service

UU Ministers Speak out Against Federal Marriage Amendment

USA Today Profiles Gay Catholic

HRC Poll Shows Catholics Opposed to Federal Marriage Amendment

Methodist Court Upholds Decision

Ministers may deny membership to GLBT individuals.

Congress Amends Higher Education Act to Allow Schools to Discriminate

State Agencies Allow Catholic Charities to Refuse Gay Adoptions

UCC "Still Speaking" Ad Rejected by Networks

Logo Explains Rejection of UCC Ad

Quincy UU Gets Permission to Hang Banner

Bay Windows

Previous Coverage:

Quincy Church Wants to Unfurl Huge Banner (Patriot Ledger)

Banner Permit Denied

(Patriot Ledger)

Church Forbidden to Hang Gay Marriage Banner (365gay.com)

Bay Windows (scroll to 2nd part of column)

Channel 5

Channel 6

This story has also been covered by the Boston Metro and the Quincy Sun.

Anniversary Celebration

InNewsweekly: Web-only story by Chuck Colbert with photos.

In Bay Windows

On NECN (Headline: "Many Praised for Efforts to Protect Gay Marriage")

 

Catholic Charities Board Members Resign

Romney Shifts on Adoption by Gays

Opinion on Catholic Charities from Chuck Colbert

Innewsweekly Editorial on Catholic Charities

Letter to the Black Community on Marriage Equality

RCFM Signer Rev. Irene Monroe

Human Rights Campaign Announces Religion Council

Includes 10 national spokespeople on faith and GLBT rights.

North Carolina Minister Pledges not to Sign Licenses

Until Gays can Marry

365gay.com

Church Groups Organize for Marriage Equality in More States

UUWorld.org

New study connects the dots between churches, antigay groups

Advocate.com

African-American Clergy Discuss Homophobia at Atlanta Conference.

New York Times.

Fr. Walter Cuenin to be honored by Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Justice

Bay Windows.

Few Springfield Priests Sign Marriage Ban

Bill Zajac, Springfield Republican.

Letter to the Black Community on Marriage Equality

RCFM Signer Rev. Irene Monroe

Human Rights Campaign Announces Religion Council

Includes 10 national spokespeople on faith and GLBT rights.

Boston's Old South Church Works to be Trans-Inclusive

Bay Windows.

Anglicans Challenge Anti-Gay Establishment in NIgeria

New York Times.

Why This Gay Roman Catholic Stays in the Church

Opinion from Charles Martel, Project Coordinator of Roman Catholics for the Freedom to Marry.

Coverage of Mayor Menino's Speech at Catholic Charities Dinner

Boston Globe.

Voice of the Faithful Rallies in Support of Gay Priests.

Boston Globe.

Zealots Mask Real Struggles: Opinion on Catholic Charities and Menino

Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie Addresses Same-Sex Marriage at Union for Reform Judaism 68th General Assembly

Pro-Gay Nun Receives International Award

Innewsweekly.

First Civil Unions in UK

365Gay.com

South Africa Legalizes Gay Marriage

365Gay.com

Vatican Releases Long Awaited Document on Gay Priests

National GLBT Creating Change Conference focuses on reclaiming moral values

San Francisco Chronicle.