The congregation of the Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina have voted in favour of the move on Sunday to stop holding marriages until same-sex marriage is legalised.
The church released a statement saying: “As people of faith, affirming the Christian teaching that before God all people are equal, we will no longer participate in this discrimination.”
They have agreed that blessings for relationships will still take place but there will be no official weddings.
Congregants said the state is discriminating against same-sex couples “by denying them the rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.”
The church is well known for taking action against social injustices since the 1950s, including opposing racial segregation, criticising the nuclear arms race, and it also spoke out against the Vietnam War.
In September the state of North Carolina approved a referendum on gay marriage ban. Earlier this month a Democrat in the state’s House of Representatives defended her statement that there was a ‘place in hell’ for republicans who approved the referendum.
The church fully endorsed full involvement of its gay followers in 1992.
