Wonder if they will keep these local churches will keep their property. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been very aggressive in trying to take property from local churches who want to leave the denomination even though denomination does nothing to finance these congregations.

Your last sentence makes it sound like the United Church of Christ only recently began ordaining gays and lesbians. The first openly gay man was ordained by the denomination in 1972 and the denomination formalized its openness to ordain active homosexuals in 1980. Obviously this is not the point of your article, but it is important for people to know that our country has at least one Christian denomination that has been supportive of gay people including ordaining them to Christian ministry for 30 years. I pray to see the day when the loudest Christian voice in our country is one of love for all people. That's what Jesus would do.

A church can make itself irrelevant by it's decisions. This new group has made the decision to be relevant. God bless them.

Whether it is women or others unlike yourself, the problem with these efforts is to not live and walk the walk of acceptance and forgiveness by making a big deal of this. The only great thing about all this is the number of unknown gays that brush up against such self-righteous people every day, and they don't know it. If one thinks about it, not accepting people for whom they are is the ultimate slap in the face for the teachings of the New Testament, rather than fulfilling it. I can acknowledge the idea one needs to be strong in their convictions. The problem is that it is an outwardly example of your bigotry when you do. The acceptance of people such as gays or blacks or women in leaderhship positions does not mean you have to become one, it is just growing up and knowing what the real world is like. The scary part is that they are evangelical about spreading the idea bigotry is acceptable when done under the guise of being a church. Sad state of evolving in grace by some members of our society. Nothing in the Ten Commandments about any of this, plenty about loving and respecting and forgiving.

Gotta love the hypocrisy. We are not against them or after them, just do not want them around. Not very Christian attitude.

Leave it to a mega-church to come off elite. Only people exactly like us can attend. If you are different than you are less Christian than me and have less rights. Different from the elite is not accepted.

I hope that Crosby is consistent and refuses to perform marriage ceremonies for men and women who have been divorced. The Bible is very clear on this.

I think some people confuse love and acceptance with leadership requirements and standards. We all know that different levels of leadership require different standards. Someone running for president of the PTA does not go through the same vetting process as someone running for President of the U.S. Why would it be different in the church? Pastors and ministers are required to a higher standard. For those who want to give Jesus as an example of acceptance I give you this example: When the crowd brought the prostitute to Jesus, who was caught in the act, they were not looking to Jesus for guidance. They wanted to justify their own actions and trap Jesus between His preaching grace and their understanding of their law. He said "he who is without sin cast the first stone" bringing their argument to the doorstep of their own personal conscience. And the crowd, knowing full well their own sinful heart, dispersed. However, Jesus DIDN'T stop there. He turned to the woman and said "Go, and sin no more". Even though He did not condemn the woman He also made her responsible for her own life and actions. That is not hypocracy or bigotry. Jesus was not a "prostiphobe". But Jesus was not afraid to call sin sin. And, because we all want to be self-justified to accommmodate our own selfishness, we're uncomfortable with acknowledging our own sinful nature....and our need for repentance.

Tabarnoosh - that has nothing to do with homosexuality. That woman was living outside the confines of dual intimacy. Where, in the Gospels, does Jesus specifically exclude gay people? masqueanadie - Actually, presbyteries and synods often help congregations with loans or guarantees of loans for buildings and land. As a Presbyterian, one who has been active at the local and national levels, this move disturbs me. The ordination standards were not updated so that the church must accept a gay pastor. The ordination was a classic conservative move (albeit done by more liberal members): Allow the individual bodies (presbyteries) to decide upon ordination of GLBT people. Individual churches are allowed to call whomever they want to. So Christ Presbyterian had no fear of those who would not think like them within 'their' church. This goes back to the most un-Christlike saying ever: Love the person, hate the sin. We are not to judge people, we are to accept them for all of their foibles and issues, and allow God to judge. Christ came so we could all love one another.

Oh yes, that's right. God loves all of the children of the world...except, of course, for those that we know that he/she doesn't really accept as his/her children. Nice!