First Baptist Church is first in state to join national association

An Iowa City Baptist church has become the first in the state to join a national association that advocates for the inclusion of LGBT people, and the church likely is the first of its kind in Iowa to allow same-sex couples to marry.

The Assumption Church, a Catholic congregation in Barnesville, Minnesota, does not mess around when it comes to fighting followers who support marriage equality.

The Vatican has long maintained a hardline stance against gay marriage, but over the last few days, the Holy See has intensified its anti-gay agitprop, vowing to fight LGBT marriage equality around the world.

According to Reuters, the governing body of the Catholic Church launched an anti-gay media campaign over the weekend, pledging to never stop fighting attempts to "erase the privileged role of heterosexual marriage" -- a union it called "an achievement of civilization."

An Iowa pastor whose church offered pamphlets decrying a pro-gay judge said he wanted to slap a churchgoer because she objected to the pamphlets.

Truth Wins Out condemned Twin Cities Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt today for a letter in which he told a mother with a gay son that her “eternal salvation” may depend on whether or not she embraces the anti-gay teachings of the Catholic Church.

Jennifer Knapp and Marsha Stevens, both top-billed Christian singers at one point, went public about being lesbian decades apart. But Knapp's recent rejection has been just as harsh as it was for Stevens in 1980.

"The fact is, I'm gay, always have been, always will be."

As expected, the Episcopal Church's General Convention's central prayer committee today approved of a resolution that would construct a liturgy to bless same-sex marriages, though there are still provisions for individual priests who object to marriage equality.

Earlier this week, new HRC president Chad Griffin met with a group of religious leaders in Omaha. These leaders make up the group Heartland Proclamation, which is a growing network of clergy who are changing the conversation about LGBT equality in the heartland of America.

DES MOINES — A prominent leader in the Iowa/Nebraska branch of the NAACP — the country’s oldest civil rights group — announced today that he is resigning as branch president and a national board member in the wake of the national organization’s decision to endorse marriage between people of the same gender.

The Southeast Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is taking a public stance against an upcoming constitutional amendment Minnesotians will vote on this November.

The group passed a resolution not to support an upcoming state amendment that would define marriage as between one man and one woman. Some members say this topic is causing division within their church.