Photo Caption: A groom and bride hold hands on their wedding day. A diverse group of religious leaders have sent a letter to Illinois lawmakers urging them to reject current legislative efforts to redefine marriage.

CHICAGO — Pastoral leaders representing more than 1,700 faith communities in Illinois — including the state’s Catholic bishops — have signed a letter to Illinois lawmakers urging them to safeguard both marriage and religious freedom by rejecting any legislative efforts to redefine marriage.

State Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, and state Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago, are seeking passage of legislation during early January’s lame-duck session that would change the definition of marriage currently set in state law from “between a man and a women” to “between two persons.” The issue was being discussed in a Senate Executive Committee on Thursday afternoon.

In their letter, available in full here, the faith leaders note that traditional marriage “is the natural order embracing the complementary physical, emotional and spiritual design of men and women.”

They also warn that simply not being forced to preside over same-sex marriages does nothing to protect religious freedom as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The proposed legislation falls far short of protecting the rights of churches and individuals to freely exercise their religious beliefs and abide by their consciences, they note.

“If marriage is redefined in civil law, individuals and religious organizations — regardless of deeply held beliefs — will be compelled to treat same-sex unions as the equivalent of marriage in their lives, ministries and operations,” they write.

The signees of the letter represent a diversity of faiths. In addition to the state’s Catholic bishops — including Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, of Peoria — signees include representatives of the Anglican Church in North America, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, as well as individual Baptist and Evangelical churches.

In addition, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago wrote this week to all Catholics of his archdiocese calling the title of the proposed bill, “The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” deceptive and saying it “ignores basic truths.” He ended the letter by saying “Pray for our State.”
(See related story here.)

The full text of the Chicago letter, updates on the effort to redefine marriage, and further resources for Catholics can be found at ilcatholic.org, the website of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

In addition, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of Springfield and Bishop David J. Malloy of Rockford on Thursday both issued letters on the redefinition of marriage to be distributed to parishioners this weekend.

Bishop Paprocki’s letter is found here.

Bishop Malloy’s letter is found here.