Hurricane Katrina proved to be an even bigger “blame game” inkblot for the projections of preachers than for those of politicians. Though he made his fame decades ago with end-of-the-world predictions in his The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey said (on the Trinity Broadcasting Network) that Katrina shows that “the judgment of America has begun.” In debate with Tony Campolo on CNN, a black preacher called Katrina God’s wrath against the lifestyle in the French Quarter, to which Campolo replied: “Our black brothers and sisters” suffered much more than did the French Quarter. He asked if God’s aim wasn’t a bit off. The preacher sidestepped that, replying that this time it was just “a warning.” A young Philadelphia antigay Fundamentalist announced that God sent Katrina against the gay “Southern Decadence” scheduled for New Orleans – to which one wag responded: “Apparently God’s timing was off” since those revels had not yet started. A rabbi told students at a religious school in New Jersey that Katrina was God’s wrath against the U. S. for urging Israel to relinquish Gaza. A Muslim cleric said it was God’s wrath against Western society. But Franklin Graham, interviewed on CNN, said “I would never say that this is God’s judgment on New Orleans or any other place.” He noted Jesus’ comments on the collapse of a tower that killed 18 people: “Do you think they were more guilty than all the others? I tell you they were not!” Said Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf: “I defer to God’s mercy and compassion rather than his wrath, because his mercy overtakes his wrath.”
Fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell now says that a gay person’s rights to housing and employment are basic rights, not special rights. On August 5, in an exchange with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson on MSNBC’s The Situation, Falwell said: “Civil rights for all Americans – black, white, red, yellow, the rich, poor, young, old, gay, straight, etc. – is not a liberal or a conservative value. It’s an American value that I would think that we pretty much all agree on.” When Carlson pressed him about other Fundamentalists’ calling them “special rights,” Falwell replied: “I think the right to live somewhere and to live where you please or to work where you please, as long as you’re not bothering anybody else, is a basic right, not a – not a special right.”
A prominent evangelical leader, opposed to homosexual behavior, nonetheless admits there’s strong evidence for a biological basis for homosexuality. Rob Schenck is co-founder of Faith and Action, a Washington, D.C.-based evangelical ministry “Bringing the Word of God to bear on the hearts and minds of those who make public policy in America.” He says: “Many evangelicals are living in a state of denial” on this issue, and “if it’s inevitable that this scientific evidence is coming, we have to be prepared with a loving response. If we don’t have one, we won’t have any credibility.”
Grammy and Dove Award-winning singer Cynthia Clawson answers the “angry, cruel, hateful emails” she gets for singing the gospel for gay people. Billboard Magazine called her “the most awesome voice in gospel music.” Now, to outcast gay people, her standing with Jesus alongside them is a “most awesome voice.”
Clawson says: “I am amazed that there are those who would not want me to sing for all people, especially homosexual people. I sing for divorced people and we all know what Jesus said about divorce! No one has ever e-mailed me about that! We also know that Jesus never said anything about gay people. Not one word! How important could it have been to Him if He did not mention it?” She says: “a person’s sexual orientation is between God and them. It is none of my business. I am just a gospel singing, homosexual loving, heterosexual wife of one, mother of two who is caught up in all this violence. And, yes, I do think we are treating one another violently! This fight is not homage to our Savior who is the Prince of Peace.”
For the full text of “A Personal Mission Statement from Cynthia Clawson” go to “Musings” at her Web site: cynthiaclawson.com.
Clawson will be performing in concert at both the eastern and western 2006 summer conferences of Evangelicals Concerned.
Notwithstanding John 3:16, Women of Faith, a conservative Christian conference series for women, has dropped Broadway singer/actress Kristin Chenoweth from its upcoming Oklahoma concert because of “her publicized and heartfelt beliefs that God is accepting of all people on earth.” The fact, too, that this outspoken Christian continues to make supportive statements about her gay friends and fans does not help her with Women of Faith.
Justin Lee, founder of www.gaychristian.net was on the Dr. Phil show in early October. He’s a solidly evangelical young man who is facilitating a support network of other gay Christians across the Internet. Lee spoke of his coming to terms with his homosexuality as a teenager and responded to another of Dr. Phil’s guests, a priest who claims to be “ex-gay.” Lee was a keynoter at the western 2005 summer conference of Evangelicals Concerned.
The Exodus “ex-gay” leadership dropped Jay Bakker from a speaker’s slot at its annual conference after he publicly disputed the “ex-gay” promise of change. He had told Qnotes, a gay and lesbian news outlet in the Carolinas, that he did not really think that gay people could change sexual orientation. He added: “I have many gay friends who are like family and I am tired of seeing them hurt by the church.” The son of Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, he has his own ministry to street kids in Atlanta and has preached recently at an evangelical church for gay people in Arkansas.
A woman who sought “healing” for her homosexuality at TrueHope for the Best Alternative “ex-gay” ministry in Brentwood, Tennessee claims her female “ex-gay” counselor seduced her into a sexual affair. She is suing TrueHope. She says that as a Christian, she still believes she could be “cured” of her homosexuality, though she admits that was not what happened at TrueHope.
Nancy Heche, mother of actress Anne Heche, is touring the “ex-gay” circuit, claiming that her prayers cured her daughter of lesbianism. Anne Heche, who married a man after her brief sexual affair with Ellen DeGeneres, tells the New York Daily News: “This nonsense about my mother praying for me is really making me angry. … The ex-gay events right now make me sick.” She explains that her mother’s “hatred for our relationship [hers and Ellen’s] is one of the many things that ultimately led to my breaking off all communication with her [her mother].”
The “Methodist Moms” of Missouri are speaking out for their gay and lesbian children. After Mary Ann Shaw learned of her son’s homosexuality, she felt ashamed of her parenting, thinking that she had failed him. Coming from a Wesleyan Methodist tradition, she also believed that he was living in sin. Through further Bible study and contact with others, she was able to become supportive of her son and now travels to churches and other venues to help others facing the same lack of preparation she had had.
Increasing numbers of Americans support legal marriage for same-sex couples. The Pew Research Center now finds that 35 percent of Americans polled are in favor of legal marriages for same-sex couples. But 53 percent of Americans are opposed, though the percentage of Americans who support some kind of legal arrangement for such couples, such as civil unions, also stands at 53 percent. The poll finds, as well, that there has been a slight increase in religious groups’ support for same-sex marriage rights.
A UCLA survey finds that 57 percent of college freshmen support same-sex marriage.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has allowed 13 foster children to be adopted by same-sex couples in the past 20 years. The Archdiocese’s social services agency president tells The Boston Globe that it has no choice but to do this since to do otherwise would break a law of the Commonwealth. “If we could design the system ourselves, we would not participate in adoptions to gay couples, but we can’t,” he said.
Julian Bond, NAACP chair and veteran civil rights activist has received an award from the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, D.C.-based GLBT organization. Bond said in his speech: “Like race, our sexuality … is immutable … and the Constitution protects us all against … discrimination based on immutable differences.”
Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Millions More March barred all openly gay speakers. Keith Boykin, president of the National Black Justice Coalition had understood he was to address the rally in Washington but when he showed up at the VIP tent he was told by the March’s executive director, D.C. preacher Willie F. Wilson, that no gay speaker would be speaking. Wilson recently preached a sermon in which he warned: “Lesbianism is about to take over our community.” Other black preachers joined the outrage over the March’s possible inclusion of gay speakers, though they apparently had no such problem joining cause with Farrakhan and Black Muslims who deny the deity of Christ. But other black conservatives, including Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, did not share their view. Said Steele: “There are homosexuals in the world, and they should not be excluded based on their sexuality.”
Gay activists Keith Boykin and Jasmyne Cannick of the National Black Justice Coalition are seeking to expose antigay black preachers who are themselves secretly gay. Boykin and Cannick say they are “tired of the hypocrisy and divisive ‘Christian’ rhetoric that too many black pastors are spreading. We’re not afraid to out these ministers.”
Bestselling “self-help” author Joel Osteen presides over the biggest megachurch in America. Having inherited Houston’s Lakewood Church when his dad died in 1999, he has built it from a membership of 6,000 to more than 30,000 – largely on what he says is his “very positive and hopeful” message. He’s called “the smiling preacher” and says that his preaching is in contrast to what people hear where they’re “used to being beaten down, they’re used to [churches] condemning people to make them feel bad so that they’ll repent, so they’ll know that they’re sinners.” He never studied for the ministry, doesn’t get into “explaining deep, theological doctrine and stuff like that,” and wants to keep it positive. But he can veer a bit from this approach when he turns to the topic of gay marriage: “I don’t think gay marriage is best, but,” he quickly adds, “our doors are open to everybody.” He made these remarks in an interview in U. S. News and World Report (October 3).
John Roberts, the new Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, is the first Chief Justice in history about whom it could be said that he played an “absolutely crucial” role in convincing the Court to rule for “equal protections” for gay people.
According to Jean Dubofsky, the lead attorney for the gay rights side in the crucial 1966 Romer v. Evans case, Roberts “was just terrifically helpful … very fair-minded and very astute.” She says he played an “absolutely crucial” role in preparing her for arguing the pro-gay case before the Justices.
As a result of these disclosures of his help to the gay rights lawyers, a Right-wing group called Public Advocate of the United States withdrew its support of Roberts before he was confirmed. Last year, the group’s leader attacked Vice President Dick Cheney for his support of the “perversion” of marriage for same-sex couples. Most major GLBT lobbies also voiced opposition to Roberts – consistent with their anti-Bush Administration posturing. Nonetheless, according to Art Leonard, New York Law School professor and editor of Lesbian/Gay Law Notes, Roberts is part of the libertarian culture that is comfortable with gay people.
The Right-wing’s Family Research Council attacked the Bush Administration’s Interior Department for its collaboration with the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and sent out an “URGENT” appeal to stop Congressional hate-crimes legislation. FRC’s Tony Perkins claims there’s no evidence that gay-owned businesses are “actually disadvantaged” or that homosexuals deserve to be protected from hate-inspired violence. Is FRC’s hostility to the government’s working relationship with a group of gay men and lesbians and it’s hostility over the fact that 223 members of the House of Representatives voted to pass a hate crimes bill protecting homosexual citizens from hate-inspired violence evidence of some of the disadvantages and hatred encountered by homosexuals?
“The main goal of the homosexual agenda is the criminalization of Christianity.” That’s the accusation of Janet Folger, author of The Criminalization of Christianity. Folger once ran a Florida-based national antigay ad campaign called “Truth in Love.” In her new book she warns: “The biggest threat to our religious freedoms today, bar none, is the homosexual agenda!”
In 2001, two teenage boys engaged in oral sex at a Kansas school for mentally disabled boys. One was 18; the other was nearly 15. The 18-year-old was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison. Had the oral sex been an opposite-sex encounter he would have been sentenced to 15 months. When the case was appealed to the Kansas Court of Appeals, justices used antigay rhetoric in upholding the long sentence. Now, the Kansas Supreme Court has reversed the lower court’s decision for antigay animus. The older young man has now been in prison for almost 5 years.
Counseling Today, the newspaper of the American Counseling Association, asks: “Should the field of counseling support same-sex marriage?” Opposing views are published from counselor education students and faculty at Mississippi State University at Meridian. One answers: “Yes. We must advocate for all marginalized groups in society. … As counselor educators, we are to emphasize the ‘culturally different’ model over the ‘cultural deficit’ model. … At the core of the culturally different model is the belief that another cultural group (i.e., same-sex couples) is neither superior nor inferior to an opposing cultural group (i.e., heterosexual couples), but simply different and just as viable as our own group.” Another answers: “No. If we do, we risk alienating a majority of the people we serve. … Do we tell people that marriage is better than being alone the rest of their lives? Is cohabitation better than marriage? Do we say that marriage is better than divorce? No, we want to support people and their right to make their own decisions about their own lives.”
A Fundamentalist high school counselor in British Columbia was expelled for statements he made in antigay tirades in the press. The Supreme Court in the province has ruled that his antigay rhetoric could jeopardize his ability to do his work fairly. He is planning to appeal.
Accusations of a Fundamentalist high school counselor’s betrayal of a student’s confiding his homosexuality wound up in the Florida 4th District Court of Appeals. That court is now calling on the Florida Supreme Court to rule in the matter. The case stems from Jupiter Christian School’s using a counselor to discover whether a student was gay. The student says his counselor assured him of confidentiality, obtained his confession, told him homosexuality is sin and reported him to school administrators who publicly expelled him.
Gay alumni of Bob Jones University meet at bjugayandfriendly@yahoogroups.com to exchange, as a press release says: “tasteful and honest thoughts, memories, anecdotes and other communications they wish to share with like-minded members.” Non-gay alumni who are supportive have also joined the group.
Austin’s St. Andrew’s Episcopal School has let go a pledge of $3 million dollars from a donor who told the school to drop a 12th grade optional reading assignment, Brokeback Mountain, a gay-themed cowboy tale by Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Proulx. The Texas school’s police is to reject all “conditional” gifts. The short story has been assigned for the past 5 years.
The Point Foundation provides full financial scholarships to bright college students whose families refuse to help them unless they renounce their homosexuality. It was started by Bruce Lindstrom, one of the founders of Price Club. Lindstrom grew up in a home of evangelical Christians who stopped talking to him when he came out as gay.
“ The church in all its certainty keeps on doing injustice because of our common lack of humility.” That’s an observation of United Methodist pastor, C. David Buchanan. “Having a gay son, whom I love greatly, I determined to do something to address the fact that people are being hurt, beat up.” So Buchanan has taken a tithe of his inheritance to found The Buchanan Group, an ecumenical group of pastors and scholars in association with New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey. In October, it sponsored “A Conference on Theology and Sexuality” called “Holy Relationships.” He believes the church “can and will get beyond its homophobia and beyond ‘tolerating’ homosexuality because transformation and living by grace rather than law are the bedrock stuff of which the gospel is made. As a parent I had to learn to let go of what I thought, of what I was envisioning. Only then was I free to hear and understand my son.
In the most massive denominational defection over homosexual issues in American history, several hundred Baptist churches are leaving the 1.5 million-member American Baptist Churches USA. American Baptist minister Tony Campolo says the withdrawal is “totally unnecessary.” The popular evangelical and sociologist says that homosexuality “shouldn’t be a defining issue.”
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has rejected a proposal to allow gay men and lesbians in committed same-sex relationships to be ordained as clergy. The vote of delegates at the ELCA national convention was 49 percent in favor and 51 percent opposed. The delegates also voted against giving clergy explicit permission to bless same-sex unions.
One minister told the assembly of two gay friends who, hurt and bitter, left the church before they died. He said: “I never want to be there again when a friend says to me, ‘To hell with this church and to hell with you for staying in it.’ Maybe one day I can say to Joe, This is why I stayed.”
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada has rejected a proposal to allow a “local option” on the conducting of “blessing” services for same-sex couples. The proposal failed to receive a needed two-thirds majority vote at the denomination’s summer convention in Winnipeg. Canada, along with the Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain, legally allows marriage for same-sex couples.
Gay clergy in the Church of England defy rulings on their same-sex partnerships. London’s Daily Telegraph reports that gay Anglican priests in same-sex relationships have announced that they do not intend to abide by the church hierarchy’s permitting them to enter legal-sanctioned same-sex unions provided they are celibate.
Meanwhile, two antigay groups within the Church of England – Anglican Mainstream and The Evangelical Council – are demanding that the hierarchy withdraw its support for the government’s new civil partnership law that benefits same-sex couples.
“Can activism by gay-friendly straight clergy neutralize the impact of antigay religious leaders?” The Advocate, an LGBT magazine, posed this question to readers in September. Fifty-six percent replied “yes” and 39 percent replied “no.” Five percent registered “unsure.”
Keshet-Rabbis, “a collective voice of gay-friendly Conservative rabbis,” has been founded at www.keshetrabbis.org to offer “a point of contact for Conservative/Masorti Jews who are themselves gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals. Says Rabbi Dana Bogatz of Congregation Sinai in West Haven, Connecticut: “Gay Jews need to be sure that they have a place in the Conservative movement and that they have the same rights accorded to other members.”
An Orthodox rabbi has acknowledged his homosexuality and resigned as principal of the prestigious Orthodox Yeshiva in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Rabbi Alan Stadtmauer says “I still believe in the Value and Truth of Torah, even if I don’t feel bound by Halacha,” the rabbinic laws. But, he added: “Given how alone I have been all my life, I just couldn’t see fighting an uphill battle just to remain lonely in the Orthodox community.” Reaction in the community has been harsh. One Flatbush alum blogged: “I knew since day one he was a faggot. He deserves the punishment of the worst tortures possible.”
AND FINALLY:
Is a sign outside Tampa’s New Life Pentecostal Church of God a nod to “inclusivity?” It announces: “Liars, Hypocrites, Gays, Murderers, Alcoholics, Drug Dealers Welcome.”