The United Methodist Church (UMC), with 8.25 million members, is the second largest Protestant denomination in the country. For 30 years the UMC has been a battleground for homosexual activists, who have gained major concessions in church life.

Still, the UMC Book of Discipline, Social Principles section, says: "We affirm the sanctity of the marriage covenant that is expressed in love, mutual support, personal commitment, and shared fidelity between a man and a woman."

Ironically, Rev. Karen Dammann, the lesbian UMC pastor in Washington recently found not guilty of trespassing church law, was recently "married" to her homosexual partner.

The Church of the Nazarene, a smaller and theologically more conservative denomination from the Wesleyan tradition, is unequivocal in their support for traditional marriage. Their 2001-2005 Manual states the denomination's official position: "The institution of marriage was ordained by God in the time of man's innocence, and is, according to apostolic authority, ‘honourable in all'; it is the mutual union of one man and one woman for fellowship, helpfulness, and the propagation of the race."

Pentecostal Tradition

The Church of God in Christ (COGIC) is the nation's third largest Protestant church (5.49 million members) and largest African-American denomination. In a statement addressing same-sex marriage, issued on March 30 from their international headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, Presiding Bishop G. E. Patterson said COGIC "stands firmly against same-sex marriages because we believe it to be contrary to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures."

The statement from COGIC also took issue with those who argue that same-sex marriage is a civil right: "Homosexuality is a lifestyle; it is not to be compared with a minority ethnic group such as Blacks or Jews. It is a lifestyle that has destroyed every civilization of the past that embraced it."

Assemblies of God (AOG) is the eighth largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with 2.68 million members. Their Position Paper on Homosexuality includes this belief statement: "The biblical order for human sexual expression is that of an intimate physical relationship to be shared exclusively within a lifelong marriage covenant -- a heterosexual and monogamous relationship." Position Papers are official documents of the AOG and have been approved by its highest legislative bodies.

A smaller denomination in the Pentecostal tradition, The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), instructs their membership that: "Marriage is ordained of God and is a spiritual union in which a man and a woman are joined by God to live together as one" (Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:7).

Anglican Tradition

Those working for society's full acceptance of homosexuality have made no greater institutional inroads than in the liberal Episcopal Church USA. Case in point, the denomination consecrated a practicing homosexual man as bishop during its annual convention last August.

Despite the Episcopal Church's leading role in promoting same-sex marriage, the official standard of the church, the Book of Common Prayer, in several passages refers solely to "woman and man" as those to be married. From the section titled The Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage: "Dearly beloved: We have come together in the presence of God to witness and bless the joining together of this man and this woman in Holy Matrimony .... The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord."

In the Episcopal Church, the Book of Common Prayer is the definitive descriptive expression of Episcopal beliefs.

Reformed/Presbyterian Tradition