In November 2007, MIND organized “Whom Would Jesus Marry? The Biblical Case for Gay Marriage,” a forum with Bishop C. Joseph Sprague, Ann Kansfield and MIND’s own Rev. Dr. Robert Whitfield. We kicked off our campaign to gather signers for an open letter to the UMC on marriage equality at that event. The letter called on all members of the church, from bishops to lay people, to refuse to discriminate against each other.
We presented the letter to our General Conference delegation in March 2008; sent it to the conference newspaper, the Vision, which published the text, the signers and an invitation for others to sign in April; sent it to our bishop and all six district superintendents in May, requesting a meeting with all of them, which was held in June; and displayed the letter in English, Spanish and Korean and all 570 signers during our 2008 annual conference witness.
The full text of the letter, “God honors all covenantal relationships – why not the church?”
PDF version with all 570 signers
Bishop Sprague’s keynote address from the “Whom Would Jesus Marry?” forum