The pope, the president and the Presbyterian Church aren't going to change Van Ackerman's mind on the issue of same-sex marriage.

"I think our culture is moving forward on this issue faster than our churches. Hopefully, the church will be as accepting one day as the rest of us," said Ackerman, a member of Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, where the Presbytery recently ousted the pastor for marrying homosexuals.

"We will always stand for the inclusivity of gays and lesbians. Our goal is to remain in the church and work within the system so that one day gays and lesbians will have the same rights as other people," he said.

It's that kind of recent support for gay marriage that led the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to release a 12-page document this week against granting legal marital rights to gays.

The Rev. Michael Seger, associate professor of moral theology at the Athenaeum of Ohio-Mount St. Mary's Seminary, said it's the congregation's duty to protect fundamental truths.

Marriage is "a revealed truth by God," he said. "There's an integrity to the concept of marriage - that can't be changed willy-nilly. It's the duty of the church to speak these truths in love."

Seger said the social impact of marriage is the reason this document includes a call to action.

But Adam Sestito of Cincinnati sees the call to action as one of the things wrong with the Vatican's statement.

"Let what (Pope John Paul II) says affect how gay Catholics live their lives, but I think it's appalling to tell a nation of people, many not Catholic, how and why it should do something," said Sestito, who was raised Catholic but now considers himself agnostic.

"If there is a God, he's the one who should be judging us, not each other," he said.

Right now, the Episcopal Church USA is holding its national convention in Minneapolis, with the confirmation of the first openly gay bishop up for discussion today.

Also on the agenda are the rites of blessings for couples in committed relationships outside marriage, including same sex. The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio has eight delegates to the 850-member voting body.

A question about the convention prompted President George Bush to declare his stand against same-sex unions.

But a few religious traditions leave the decision to perform these unions to congregations and clergy, such as the Reform Movement of Judaism and the United Church of Christ.

Rabbi Sandford Kopnick of Valley Temple said he hasn't been asked to perform a same-sex ceremony, but he would.

"It can't be concluded that homosexuality is just a choice," Kopnick said.

"They are created by God. And as a modern, Jewish person whose movement has been embracing modernity, it would be irresponsible to ignore what we know from science."

The Rev. Keith Haithcock of St. John United Church of Christ in Bellevue has performed a handful of same-sex covenants, but he hasn't been asked since becoming the pastor four years ago. He believes it should be up to congregations and religions to decide what they believe.

But for Haithcock, there are greater threats to the institution of marriage than same-sex unions.

"In this nation, (sanctity) doesn't seem to be intact," Haithcock said. "... Those are the things I think the church should be worried about."