Looks like the Episcopal Church isn’t the only one with a little internal strife. It seems that Baptist Bishop Reno Smith of the Bahamas may sue another clergyman. Why? The other clergyman alleges Reno performed a same-sex marriage. Scandalous, indeed.
In his response, Reno said:
If I performed a ceremony not knowing if they were the same sex, that’s no fault of my own; that becomes an issue with the registrar general’s office.
Um…what? Okay, we understand that sometimes it can be a bit hard to tell someone’s gender, but this sounds sort of like bullshit. It’s like Foley saying, “If he was a 16-year old congressional page, I didn’t know. I was drunk. And molested. So, yeah, totally not my fault.”
Nick
Though I don’t know any deets, it could very well be a case of a straight couple in which one of them is transgender. If that person’s gender didn’t match up to the birth certificate or other identification, it would be considered a same-sex marriage by many countries’ laws as well as, presumably, by the Episcopal church.
Or, perhaps the clergyman is just a dumbass. I’m suspicious, though, that it’s not as simply as it sounds.