Which Pastors Would Perform Same-Sex ‘Weddings’ If They Could?

The legalization of same-sex “marriage” was never about “marriage equality.” It was always about redefining marriage and the family to be something other than the natural union of the two parts of humanity: male and female.

Ryan Burge, a statistician and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, recently posted some surprising data from the National Survey of Religious Leaders conducted by Duke University’s sociology department. It documents some extremely concerning numbers on whether pastors from various streams of Christianity would be willing to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies.

The survey question asked, “Would you perform the wedding of a same-sex couple if your religious group allowed it?”

He presents the findings here:

It was striking enough that 80% of evangelical pastors said, “definitely not.” Evangelicals had the highest number of clergy refusing to perform something that clearly defies God and nature’s design for marriage. Another 9% of evangelical pastors were a tad less sure, answering “probably not.” It is indeed good that this refusal was not lower for evangelicals. But who exactly are these 11% of evangelical pastors who do not have a clear understanding of what a marriage is … and is not? One can hope their church helps them find another line of work … and a Bible.

The category of “Black Protestant” pastors was the next highest, with 70% saying “definitely not” while 14% said “probably not.” Twelve percent of this group said they were “not sure.” It is interesting to consider how many of these are essentially bible-teaching evangelical churches with majority black congregants, or more liberally mainline in their tradition. This high number refusing to do such weddings likely points to the former. 

A whopping 63% of mainline Protestant pastors said, “definitely yes” (49%) or “probably yes” (14%). It is indeed a sad commentary for mainline denominations that it seems like good news that at least 23% said “definitely not” while another 7% said “probably not.” At least there seem to be some pastors in the mainline denominations who know marriage is between a husband and wife.

It was concerning as well that only 46% of Catholic priests said they would “definitely not” perform such a wedding, while 10% said “probably not.” A full 33% of Catholic priests would “definitely” (17%) or “probably” (16%) wed a same-sex couple. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is crystal clear on this subject, as is scripture. God’s creation truth can never change.

Jesus was extremely clear on the matter, in Mark 10:6-9 and Matthew 19:4-6. He tells the Pharisees to remember what Genesis says about God’s design for marriage.

God created humanity in his Trinitarian image, and He created them male and female. The first thing God does with the first humans is perform their wedding. He bids them to start a family and engage the world and rule over it. Marriage is thus the foundational institution in God’s created order and it exists between the two complementary humans — male and female — which is the only human relationship that can be life-giving in God’s image and likeness. No one has the right to redefine this, but this is precisely what same-sex “marriage” does. It says that one of the unique God-imagers — male or female — are simply optional for the family. This is a lie.

No pastor should struggle with this truth, regardless of how his own church authority might endeavor to redefine Scripture and rewrite the rule of nature.

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