Unsurprisingly, religious leaders who have staked their careers on hatred and derision of LGBT families have filed legal briefs in the upcoming Supreme Court case
Obergefell v. Hodges that argue against the right of same-sex couples to marry.
You can say 'em with me: the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Haters gonna hate.
But this year, the number of faith leaders who joined a friend of the court brief written by the President of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church in support of marriage equality has grown significantly from 2013, the first time same-sex marriage cases were argued at the Supreme Court. The list of signatories in the 2013 brief ran only six pages long, but the list of supporters joining the 2015 brief has stretched to 117 pages representing more than 1,900 faith leaders, according to Jack Jenkins.
Originally organized through the work of several Episcopal bishops, it was co-signed by a long list of groups from across the “Judeo-Christian” religious spectrum, such as the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Muslims for Progressive Values, as well as pro-LGBT groups operating within Quakerism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, and Lutheranism. Like many left-leaning progressives, the brief argues the Court is primarily tasked with discerning the civil — not religious — definition of marriage, but highlighted the swelling number of Americans whose faith calls them to embrace LGBT rights.
“Whether it be the ordination of lesbian and gay clergy, the express welcome to lesbian and gay congregants and their families, or the affirmation that lesbian and gay individuals possess the same inherent dignity as any other person, the American religious landscape includes same-sex couples and their families and affirms their role in both faith communities and civil society at large,” the brief read. “No one view speaks for ‘religion’—even if, contrary to the Establishment Clause, it were appropriate to give weight to religious views in the application of the Constitution’s secular promise of equal protection.”
No one view speaks for "religion." Amen.