Representatives of area Churches of Christ say they are notunited with a United Church of Christ resolution supportingsame-sex marriages and are, in fact, separate from the liberalnorthern religious group.

Six Lincoln County Church of Christ congregations last weekpublished an advertisement to say they are not associated with, norendorse the United Church of Christ.

“We wanted to get something out there to let folks know we’renot affiliated with that particular group,” said Alex Corban, anelder at Brookway Church of Christ.

The local church action follows citizens’ comments in the wakeof the United Church of Christ’s July 4 passage of a resolutionendorsing same-sex marriage. Corban said some media coverage of theaction failed to differentiate between the church groups, and localleaders wanted to offer a clarification.

“That’s really what prompted it here,” said Corban, adding hehad heard from about six people who thought the local church bodieshad sanctioned the action.

Corban and Wendell Davis, an elder at Mount Olive Church ofChrist, said that was not the case. Corban said the local churcheswere considering other publicity to tell more about theircongregations.

“It’s a great difference,” Corban said, citing the United Churchof Christ’s liberal stance on a variety of issues. “If they’reendorsing same-sex marriages, that tells you they’re more liberalthan a lot of religions.”

Davis agreed.

“They are totally different from the Church of Christ,” hesaid.

The United Church of Christ was founded in 1957 and has around1.3 million members. Its base has traditionally been in New Englandand has a history of support of gay and lesbian issues.

The most recent action calls on its congregations to considerwedding policies that are not based on gender and to support equalrights legislation for gay and lesbian couples. The vote by theGeneral Synod, UCC’s rule-making body, is not binding on its over5,700 congregations.

In contrast to United Church of Christ, Corban said the Churchof Christ is one of the more conservative denominations. Membershipin the conservative Churches of Christ numbers around twomillion.

Davis said Churches of Christ have no organization aboveindividual congregations.

“Each Church of Christ is independent of all the othersregarding the decisions they make,” Davis said.

Davis said congregations may support the same projectsfinancially, such as missions or children’s homes. However,decisions regarding support are left up to individualcongregations.

Regarding the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage,Corban said Church of Christ members believe it is contrary toscripture.

“You can’t have same-sex marriage without being homosexual,”Corban said. “The Bible is pretty clear what is says abouthomosexuality.”

Davis said Church of Christ members take the Bible in itstotality. They do not accept some parts and reject others.

“We believe the Bible is the direction we should follow,” Davissaid. “And it says homosexuality is an abomination before God.”

Davis stressed that don’t hate homosexuals. However, churchmembers do hate the sin of homosexuality, as well as any othersthat are contrary to scripture.

“We love them, but we’re not their judge,” Davis said.

In addition to the Brookway and Mount Olive Churches of Christ,others that sponsored the advertisement and offered to provideinformation about the issue included Center Street, Central,Johnson Grove and Mount Zion Churches of Christ.