The law that will allow same-sex marriage in New Hampshire also gives clergy the option to refuse to perform a ceremony or provide a church. Many clergy members interviewed this week said that they would do just that. The Roman Catholic Diocese of New Hampshire and other churches that believe in traditional marriage publicly opposed the gay-marriage bill and lobbied Gov. John Lynch to veto it. Some local Protestant ministers were just as opposed to the bill.

"I don't want to condemn people, but I do not agree with gay marriage, and I feel that according to my faith, I would choose not to marry a gay couple," said the Rev. Carol Cray, pastor of Franklin United Methodist Church. "This is not because I have animosity or a fear or hatred toward people who are gay."

The Rev. Andy Wilson of Grace Presbyterian Church in Laconia belongs to the largest conservative Presbyterian denomination in the country, the Presbyterian Church in America, which also opposes gay marriage. "Marriage is not only an institution for Christians, but an institution for all human beings," Wilson said, "and because God has revealed, not just in the Bible, but through nature itself, a certain pattern for marriage, we believe that the idea of gay marriage is not only harmful to Christians, but also to all people made in God's image."

Another Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., lets ministers decide. Some conservatives would align with Wilson while others would support gay marriage.

The Episcopal Church, well known in New Hampshire for its openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, is another faith that allows ministers to decide for themselves whether to officiate a gay marriage. The Rev. Jason Wells from Grace Episcopal Church in Concord said that there is nothing official in Episcopalian theology about same-sex marriage because each individual state is making different laws.

"Because of practicality and out of respect for people's conscience, it has been left up to the individual pastor," he said.

Several clergymen said they were glad their legal rights were protected by language that Lynch demanded before he would sign the bill into law.

"I do appreciate the governor for at least protecting those things, because that's one of the things that he held out for, to protect the consciousness of certain ministers to get involved with such ceremonies," said the Rev. Thomas Peetz of Word of Life Christian Fellowship Church in Concord. "Our church bylaws define what a marriage is in our church, and we never would go against this as an institution."

Other clergy members welcomed the change and the opportunity to officiate at a same-sex marriage ceremony. "I look forward to having the chance to celebrate the union of two people who have committed themselves to a covenanted relationship, not only with the blessing of the church, but the blessing of the state," said the Rev. Jared Rardin, pastor of South Congregational Church in Concord. "They already have this with the recognition of civil unions, but the marriage-equality amendment is a way of recognizing that there are not two classes of a committed holy relationship, but indeed that they are one."

The Rev. Olivia Holmes of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord has performed gay marriages in Massachusetts. She called the governor's decision "complete equality under the law for people who love each other with an intensity that makes them want to stay together forever."

Many opponents of gay marriage cited the breakdown of the family as their main concern.

Bishop John McCormack of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester issued a statement saying "the law strikes a blow to the cornerstone on which our entire civilization is built and sustained: the marriage between one man and one woman."

Wilson, of Grace Presbyterian Church, said that he does not want people to view the issue as one of purely religious preference. "Our concern would be not simply that our agenda is being thwarted or anything like that, but our concern is actually for our neighbors. We don't believe that this is a good thing for people, so we are grieved over it," he said.

The Catholic church's stance is that maintaining the traditional definition of marriage is not offensive to the rights of homosexuals because civil unions provided them with the same constitutional rights as married couples. Peetz, who was raised as a Catholic but is now pastor at the nondenominational Word of Life Christian Fellowship Church, echoed those sentiments.

"It has nothing to do with hating anybody. We are just holding to the sacredness of that institution. They call it equal under the law, and I think that's what civil unions were trying to accomplish," he said.

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