Nice: yesterday, the United Church of Christ became the largest Christian denomination to endorse gay marriage.

The church passed a resolution calling on its 1.3 million members to consider wedding policies "that do not discriminate against couples based on gender." The resolution also asked its churches to consider supporting legislation giving equal marriage rights to gay/lesbian couples, and to counter laws banning gay marriage.

About 80% of the UCC's representatives voted to pass the resolution -- but the church's individual branches are autonomous, so the General Synod can't dictate policy for its thousands of congregations.

The conservative Rev. Brett Becker, of -- duh -- Texas, said he believed the vote would have "failed overwhelmingly" if it had been left up to the people in the UCC's pews instead of the General Synod.

Rev. Becker also put a divisive, passive-aggressive spin on the landmark decision when he described yesterday as "truly Independence Day for the UCC—we have declared ourselves independent from the teachings of Jesus, and the clear teachings of Scripture."

Um, OK. Way to rally around the cause.