At a Seattle synagogue, volunteers are running a phone bank urging voters to uphold Washington’s same-sex marriage law. In Maryland, Catholics are poised to preach from the pulpit opposing a similar initiative.

Voters in those states as well as Maine are less than two weeks from deciding whether to hand ballot-box victory to same- sex marriage proponents for the first time after more than a decade of defeat. Campaigns on both sides are targeting religious communities, where leaders holding on to centuries of opposition to homosexuality are often pitted against their congregants’ evolving attitudes toward gay nuptials.

“There has been some movement in recent years toward greater acceptance of same-sex marriage,” said David Masci, a researcher with the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington. “But the largest religious groups and the biggest churches remain opposed.”

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • State Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Other Faiths

1. Archer_of_the_Forest wrote: I think the GetReligion.org folks are going to have a field day with this one. October 29, 9:17 am | [comment link]

2. Terry Tee wrote: I notice the claims that no one will be coerced etc because a gay marriage law is passed.  But I also noticed this story from a university in Maryland where the Diversity Officer was dismissed from her job, not for opposing gay marriage, but for signing a petition saying that there should be a referendum about it ie the people should be able to express their opinion.  A lesbian professor at the university complained and that was enough for her to lose her job (although after uproar she was more or less reinstated, but may have to undergo reeducation.) http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2012/10/18/enemies_of_the_state.html October 29, 9:30 am | [comment link]

3. Terry Tee wrote: Clarification:  by ‘for her to lose her job’ I was referring to the Diversity Officer, ie she lost her job after the complaint by the lesbian professor.  Apols for any confusion. October 29, 9:31 am | [comment link]

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