“Dallas has become the new capital of American evangelicalism.” So says the cover of Christianity Today (May 21). Says CT: “Dallas, Texas, has more megachurches, megaseminaries, and mega-Christian activity than any other American city.” According to CT: “In places like Wheaton and Colorado Springs, Christianity is perceived as an influential subculture; here it is the culture.”
Dallas has came out with a new ordinance protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment. The new law was adopted with strong backing from the mayor and major Dallas employers such as Southern Methodist University, Blockbuster, and American Airlines.
“Just Give Me Jesus” is the title of Anne Graham Lotz’ preaching series scheduled for the Charlotte Coliseum in November. Billy Graham’s daughter, in Charlotte to promote the event, called homosexuality a sin for which one must repent. At that, some choir members quietly walked out. They were from Seigle Avenue Presbyterian Church. Later, their pastor expressed support for the walk-out. R. David Kaylor said: “The evangelist represents a segment of society that tends to blame the victims who have little power to change things. … Jesus used a very different standard of judgment. He welcomed all people, but he especially welcomed those who were rejected by others.”
John Calvin’s homosexuality? Oxford historical theologian and principal of the evangelical Wycliffe Hall, Alister McGrath, reviews The Early Reformation on the Continent by Owen Chadwick in the Times Literary Supplement (June 14). Noting that Calvin “attracted eulogy and vilification in equal measure,” McGrath writes: “Jerome Bolsec, with whom Calvin crossed swords in 1551, went on to publish a scurrilous (but highly entertaining) life of Calvin in 1577. His subject, according to Bolsec, was irredeemably tedious and malicious, bloodthirsty and frustrated. He treated his own words as if they were the word of God, and allowed himself to be worshipped by his followers. In addition to frequently engaging in homosexual activity, he had an undiscriminating habit of indulging himself sexually with any female within walking distance. Thus, according to Bolsec, Calvin resigned his benefices at Noyon on account of the public exposure of his homosexuality.” According to McGrath: “Bolsec’s biography makes much more interesting reading than the more deferential biographies of Theodore Beza [Calvin’s cohort who was, himself, accused of homosexuality] and Nicolas Colladon.”
In Leiden historian Alastair Hamilton’s review of Bernard Cottret’s new Calvin biography (in the same issue of the TLS), he grants that “Despite the number of studies and biographies which continue to appear on John Calvin, the man himself remains elusive.” He affirms: “Calvin is all but entirely concealed behind his theological writings.”
Balm in Gilead – a New York-based AIDS awareness group for African American churches – has appointed an openly gay man as director of its faith-based program. Darryl L. Foster, of an Atlanta-based antigay organization, called the appointment “poison for black churches.” Various black church leaders now are distancing themselves from the ministry of Balm in Gilead.
AIDS and HIV rank as the top priority among some 2,645 gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender people of color. In the largest multi-city survey ever mounted in this population, the second and third most significant concerns were hate crime violence and equal rights to marriage. Cathy J. Cohen, who teaches African American Studies at Yale, assembled the report.
At the international AIDS conference in Barcelona in July, it was projected that some 70 million people will die from HIV within two decades – most in the Third World.
The Religious Right is pushing for a Constitutional Amendment that declares that “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups.” Thus, the heterosexually-dominant Right is trying to insure that gay neighbours are prohibited from enjoying intimate family relationships the antigay demand for themselves alone. Some Religious Right organizations oppose the amendment, saying it doesn’t go far enough. Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America argue that the amendment will not prohibit states from recognizing gay “civil unions.”
In a Zogby-GLCensus Partners poll of 1,500 gay men and lesbians, 47 percent of respondents said that equal recognition for same-sex marriage is their main concern and 83 percent said it is one of the three most important concerns they have.
Homosexuality is the fourth most frequent topic searched out on the antigay Focus on the Family web site. According to the “ex-gay” Exodus Update newsletter, questions pertaining to “overcoming” homosexuality are referred to Exodus.
In spite of his having been caught socializing in a dingy gay bar in Washington, DC, “ex-gay” leader John Paulk still heads the Focus department on Homosexuality and Gender. Paulk conducts one-day Focus seminars promoting the “ex-gay” promise. He says these each of these conferences attracts between 750-1000 attendees.
Paulk was the keynote speaker at this year’s Exodus Europe conference, attended by people from over 21 countries. It was held during Paulk’s Focus-sponsored speaking tour to promote the French and German translations of the book in which he claims to have overcome homosexuality.
“Yes, God CAN change the core of who we are; that is the truth of the gospel!” This is the cover testimony in the July issue of the Exodus Update. But Nate Oyloe goes on to say: “My recovery began almost six years ago. It has been the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I have not arrived,” he rationalizes, “but I know that I never will here on earth.” He is currently working at the “ex-gay” ministry called Outpost.
Jeff Ford, former director of Outpost and now an ex-“ex-gay” counselor, was a keynoter for the EC eastern connECtion2001.
“Ex-gays’” continuing struggle with homosexuality was evident in the workshops at the 2002 Exodus “ex-gay” conference. Among the workshops offered: “How to Survive Being Married to an Ex-Gay Man,” “Married Men Struggling with Homosexuality – Will I Survive?,” “Being Married/Staying Married: Surviving Homosexuality in Marriage,” “The Opposite of Homosexuality is Not Heterosexuality – It’s Holiness,” and “She’s Not Your Mama! Becoming Healthy Husbands.” A General Session wrestled with the topic: “Why Do I Do What I Do Not Want to Do?”
“I long for the day that I will be able to look back at my life and tell the testimony of my healing.” That’s the way “name withheld” signs off in a letter to the editor of Charisma magazine, in response to the Charismatic periodical’s pushing of “ex-gay” claims. The letter writer says: “I am still young, but I have struggled with homosexuality for a while now. Sometimes I feel so dejected. … It is an encouragement to know that people have passed through this same experience and have come out victorious.”
“We’re not really all that different, you and I. Male or female, straight or gay.” This is what Scott Davis says in the featured testimony of a recent Exodus “ex-gay” newsletter. He goes on: “I found that I could relate as equals with those who struggle with same-sex attractions, though my struggles are different.” His “struggles are different” because Davis is, and always has been, a heterosexual. Pictured cheek-to-cheek with his wife, this heterosexual minister and advocate of “ex-gay” celibacy and/or heterosexual marriage for homosexuals is hardly “relat[ing] as equals with those who struggle with same-sex attractions.”
Doug Pinnick came out as gay in a 1998 interview in Contemporary Christian Music. As the rock band King’s X, he and two other evangelical Christians had recorded and toured throughout the `90s. In a recent profile in the gay/lesbian magazine, The Advocate, Pinnick says that what followed his publicly coming out “was a big mess. Our records got banned from the Christian bookstores; I got hate mail.” His two band-mates were targeted as well. They’ve been supportive of him. But his experience at the hands of non-comprehending antigay Christians has turned him away from the church. He says: “I just decided that I wanted nothing to do with it anymore.”
In an earlier interview in the evangelical Regenerator, music editor Mark Joseph noted Pinnick’s “biblically informed lyrics and his commitment to his faith,” and yet suggested that he should “sacrifice – in the area of sexual orientation and desires” in order to be a good Christian. But Pinnick says that it is too much “to have to walk through your life knowing that you’ll never ever experience the love of someone else. And that’s what I want. Everyone wants that companionship.” He says: “I didn’t want to be this way. I fasted and prayed, begged God to change me, did everything I could. I even became celibate and was miserable and lonely and desperate for love.” Since “God says it’s an abomination,” he says he’s stuck. So, he says, “Every now and then I just look up at the sky and say `God, that’s why I have trouble believing in you. Please help me.’ And that’s where I leave it.”
The Mychal Judge Act was signed by President George W. Bush in June. Co-sponsored by Congressmen Donald Manzullo (R-IL) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the Act allows for federal death benefits to be paid to the same-sex partners of police officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty. Mychal Judge, a gay man, was the NYFD chaplain killed in the attack on the World Trade Center.
The University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association has honored Fr. Mychal Judge with its Thomas A. Dooley Award. In accepting the award on behalf of the late Mychal Judge, his close friend, Brendan Fay, said: “Being gay and being Catholic were at the core of Mychal’s being.”
Notre Dame grad Tom Dooley was a Catholic physician who, in the 1950s, set up charitable hospitals in Southeast Asia. Though he was ousted from the U.S. Navy for being gay, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had called him “the most respected man in the United States.” He died of cancer at age 34 in 1961. Dooley is remembered on the Notre Dame campus in a tribute room in the student center and in a statue at the school’s famous grotto.
The schools’ gay and lesbian alumni number over 850.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has invoked the 1994 Hate Crime Sentencing Enhancement Act to increase punishment for the murderer of two lesbians in the Shenandoah National Park six years ago. Said Ashcroft: “Hatred is the enemy of justice. We will not rest until justice is done for Julianne Marie Williams and for Lollie Winans.”
Rosie O’Donnell says: “I have had a blind allegiance to Democrats in the past.” She says the leadership of President Bush and Rudy Giuliani played a part in her becoming more broad-minded. An editorial in the conservative Washington Times, headlined “Rosie O’Donnell is Making Sense,” concluded that her “passion is refreshing. `I know that if you’re a Democrat,’ she continued, `you’re not supposed to say bad things about Democrats – like in the Catholic Church? Well, telling the truth is better.’ She’s right.”
Gay Village Voice gossip columnist, Michael Musto, writes: “Rosie said that when her son Parker was asked by friends why he has two mommies, he unflinchingly replied, `Gay – ever heard of it?’”
“Rosie O’Donnell will eventually win her fight to have the State of Florida legalize adoption by responsible homosexuals. Logic is on her side, as is human kindness.” That’s the opinion of conservative Fox News talk-show host and columnist Bill O’Reilly. He says “it is just a matter of time before the legislature in the Sunshine State puts the welfare of hard-to-adopt kids ahead of gay fear. Most clear-thinking Americans realize it is better for a child to live in a nurturing home run by gays than to be on the merry-go-round of foster care.”
Among the groups supporting parenting by gay men and lesbians are the Child Welfare League, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association. An ABCNEWS.com survey finds that 47 percent of Americans say gays should be permitted to adopt, while 42 percent are opposed. But Focus on the Family argues that same-sex couples cannot provide what sex-discordant couples can: “Fathers encourage children to take chances [while] Mothers protect and are more cautious. These parenting styles help children remain safe while expanding their experiences and confidence.” The antigay Family Research Council complains of the “dangers” of gay or lesbian couples rearing children: they cannot “model [what] children need to see in the home: husband and wife, mother and father, and male and female.” Concerned Women of America president Sandy Rios warns that “homosexual adoption will only place more innocent children at risk.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that there is a shortage of families willing to give foster care. There are some 588,000 children in foster care. Foster parents are adopting only 64 percent of the children the foster care system placed for adoption.
In an interview in the gay/lesbian Advocate, Bill O’Reilly says: “There are millions of Americans who are never going to accept you, primarily on religious grounds. There are millions of Americans who fear you, primarily on psychological grounds – their neurosis. … You’re not going to convince the Holy Rollers that you’re not an abomination. … 90% of Americans don’t care what you do; 10% are fanatics. They think you’re going to hell, and they want you to go to hell. All right? Ignore them.”
Blinded By The Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative is David Brock’s attack on his former cohorts in the Religious Right. Now openly gay, this self-confessed “Right-Wing Hit Man,” adversary of Anita Hill and Hillary Clinton, spent his years in the conservative movement “in the closet, alienated from myself.” He critiques the hypocrisy of conservatives who push “family values” in spite of their own extramarital affairs, homosexual behavior, and abortions.
Germany’s high court has upheld a law allowing gay couples to have something close to marriage. By a vote of 5-3, the law was upheld against a challenge from Bavaria and two eastern states. The law withholds some tax privileges enjoyed by heterosexual couples but gives rights in areas such as health insurance and inheritance. The law requires a court decision for divorce. Germany thus joins Denmark, France and Sweden in granting rights to gay couples. The Netherlands is the only country where gay couples and straight couples enjoy equal marriage benefits.
Ontario’s premier says the government will not appeal an Ontario Superior Court ruling that the denial of marriage rights to gay couples “created second-class citizens.” Premier Ernie Eves said: “If two people decide that they want to be in a union, why would I interfere with that?” He criticized the Alberta government for threatening to impede the rights of gay couples.
Ceremonies for same-sex couples is now permitted in the United Church of Canada. The denomination’s Montreal presbytery, with over 15,000 members, is leading the way. Says a spokesperson: “We’re the first major denomination that’s saying yes to the government” support for such relationships.
A rector of an Anglican Church of Canada congregation has announced that he will propose the approval of blessings for gay couples. Canon Garth Bulmer said that his downtown Ottawa parish is developing a counseling service for gay couples similar to that for heterosexual couples.
The New Westminster diocese (British Columbia) of the 760-000-member Anglican Church of Canada has voted to sanction same-sex unions. In June, representatives from 80 parishes voted 215-129 to create a blessing ritual for such unions.
The antigay Anglican Essentials group protested in a letter signed by the Archbishops of Kenya, Central Africa, South East Asia, and the West Indies as well as by the Primate of South India.
Episcopal Bishop William Smalley of Kansas has told priests that they may give “limited” blessings to same-sex couples. He also sanctioned such blessings for male/female couples “for whom marriage would create a financial hardship,” e.g. disabled older people who would be cut off from benefits were they to marry.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will now accept chaplains from the Metropolitan Community Church, the predominantly gay/lesbian denomination. The MCC joins about 225 religious groups registered with the V.A.
The United Methodist minister who was allowed to return to his pulpit as a transsexual has now quit. Rebecca Ann Steen – formerly Richard Zomastny – left the denomination at the end of June. She gave no indication of further plans.
What college is “most accepting” of gay students? The 2003 edition of The Princeton Review says it’s Methodist-founded Drew University of Madison, New Jersey.
At the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, president James Merritt declared: “We love homosexuals. God loves homosexuals. But he loves them too much to leave them homosexuals.” He was responding to the latest disruption of the church’s meetings by the lesbigayt-activists of Mel White’s Soulforce. Soulforce chairman Jimmy Creech complains that Merritt has not been constructively responsive to years of “infiltration” by Soulforce. But Creech says that won’t stop continuing disruptions by Soulforce. Says Merritt: “We are not going away either.”
A conservative, middle-aged Southern Baptist dad is teamed with his gay son in the third season of the CBS reality game show, The Amazing Race. The father-son team will be competing against other gay-inclusive duos (brothers and friends) for a $1 million prize.
The Church of the Brethren has voted to affirm again its 1983 statement prohibiting actively homosexual clergy. At its annual conference this summer, the denomination repeated that it is “inappropriate to license or ordain to the Christian ministry any persons who are known to be engaging in homosexual practice.”
Gay-supportive and orthodox Welsh theologian Rowan Williams has been named Archbishop of Canterbury. Antigay Anglicans are protesting the appointment.
Tammy Fay Baker (Mesner) is writing a “dear Tammy” column for XY, a magazine for gay teenage boys. She has also joined Mark Taggart of the Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth to kick off a college fair for gay/lesbian students in the Boston area.
AND FINALLY:
Politically-correct lesbigayts’ favorite stand-up comic/guru Margaret Cho gives advice to a fan who says he usually stays at home during Gay Pride festivities: “As long as you are doing something for YOURSELF, you are observing what I believe is a very important holiday. … So go out this year. Put on some sunblock, stuff some condoms in your pocket and have a good time. For yourself, and for all of us.”