The Roman Catholic church and it's pope, protestant fundamentalists, and the Eastern Orthodox church all decry the idea of same sex unions. Liberal denominations such as the United Methodists are not liberal enough to bless same sex unions officially. These people including Pat Robertson don't know their history. It is a historical fact that the early Christians blessed same sex marriages and performed the sacrament of marriage for such unions. They were considered equal in standing in the eyes of God and the church to heterosexual unions. Both Eastern and western rite churches had special liturgies for such ceremonies. The non patriarchal cathars who were considered heretics by the Roman Catholics and were wiped out in Spain and France blessed male/male and female/female unions. The cathars allowed women equal access in becoming priests as well and were ethical vegetarians for animal rights reasons. The book SAME SEX WEDDINGS IN MEDEVIAL EUROPE is an excellent book on the history of same sex unions. So the churches of today who are so homophobic are not going by ancient church teachings at all.

John Boswell, the late Yale historian, garnered considerable acclaim when he issued his study on this very topic ten years ago.

Same-Sex Marriages in Premodern Europe

Most anti-gay marriage fanatics, however, couldn't be bothered to take this real history into account; they would much rather misstate the historical record and blare on about the threat to straight marriage, when it's blatantly obvious that heterosexuals are the greatest threat to heterosexual marriage.