“Why not just let homosexuals `live and let live’?” This is the headline on a recent fund-raising letter from the recklessly antigay television preacher, D. James Kennedy of Fort Lauderdale. He goes on to warn against the “cultural destruction at work throughout society today” and“the ungodly agenda of the anti-virtue forces in this country,” particularly “the dangerous influence of the pro-homosexual forces,” though incongruously, he claims that the number of male homosexuals may be as low as .6%. Stating what “The Bible tells us,” he quotes 1 Peter 3:15,16 from the New King James Version. But there’s a conveniently placed ellipses right in the middle of the biblical quotation: “Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you … that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” What did Kennedy leave out of his quote from the Bible? The omitted text, in the NKJV: “with meekness and fear; having a good conscience” and in the New International Version: “But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.”
Kathie Lee Gifford, commenting on hate-crimes legislation during her show on October 20: “If you truly love God, you don’t hate homosexuals.”
Among “the top stories of 1999,” according to the mainstream Christian Century: “Division on homosexuality … in a number of denominations.” The editors of the evangelical Christianity Today also drew up a list of top stories of the year, but homosexuality was not one of them.
Two of the Internet’s most-visited Christian sites have merged. Goshen and Crosswalk are pooling their resources to expand their “family-friendly” services. One of these services is the rating of the involvement of mutual funds in companies that are supportive of gay men and lesbians. Says Crosswalk’s chief financial officer, Gary Struzik: “You don’t have to give up return in order to follow your conscience.”
Christian Coalition is urging municipalities in Dade County, Florida to support holding a referendum to repeal civil rights protections for lesbians and gay men adopted by the Miami-Dade Commission. Twenty-five years ago, Dade County was the site of the first major antigay crusade by the Religious Right. Known as “Save Our Children,” it was led by singer and orange juice spokesperson Anita Bryant .
Meanwhile, Christian Coalition has been sued by its direct-mail fundraiser for nonpayment of bills totaling about $400,000. Randy Tate, CC’s chief Washington lobbyist and ex-executive director has resigned. Coalition founder Pat Robertson admitted to the Virginian-Pilot that the organization is in “quite a mess.”
In the face of opposition from some Fundamentalist preachers in Dayton, Ohio, efforts to add gay men and lesbians to the protected categories of the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance have failed. But the City Commission unanimously approved a non-binding resolution denouncing discrimination, harassment and violence. Republican Mayor Mike Turner supported the vote only on the condition that the gay and lesbian civil rights issue not be raised again. Other clergy were among the supporters of the stronger anti-discrimination ordinance, including Rev. Samuel Kader of Dayton’s Community Gospel Church. He said: “I want [gays and lesbians] in my church and I want them safe in my city.” Said Rev. Steve Camp of Faith United Church of Christ: “We missed a great opportunity this time.”
An openly gay priest has been elected dean of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle. It’s a first for Episcopalians. Robert Vincent Taylor is a native of South Africa and moved to the United States in 1980. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said this on Taylor’s election: “Our God is the ever-welcoming one for whom there are no outsiders, all are insiders. … All are invited and held in [Jesus’] embrace.” Taylor has been with his gay partner for 15 years.
Because of the “aggressively anti-homosexual stance” of the Most Rev. Moses Tay, Anglican primate of Southeast Asia, as well as because of his past comments against totem poles, British Columbia Bishop Michael Ingham has refused permission for Tay to speak at the invitation of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church of Abbottsford, BC. “Both our relationships with aboriginals and our discussions around gay and lesbian spirituality would make his presence difficult,” said Ingham. Ingham defended himself against critics who said he was censoring conservatives: “I am open to theological diversity and welcome it,” pointing out that conservative clergyman John R. W. Stott and others have spoken in the diocese. Tay was one of the most outspokenly antigay representatives to last year’s Lambeth Conference in England. He has refused to allow any “polluting [gay-supportive] literature” in the church in Singapore. In September, Tay himself refused to visit Scotland because he claimed that Scottish primate Richard Holloway is a heretic. Holloway is outspoken in his support for gay and lesbian Christians.
Doug Wysockey-Johnson is a columnist for Faith at Work magazine. He is also pastor of Jericho Covenant Church near Burlington, Vermont. In his Winter 1999 column, he notes that “The biggest one-anothering dilemma within American churches today is homosexuality.” He goes on to say: “I’m wondering if a key to hearing the Spirit of Truth on same sex partnerships doesn’t have something to do with the Biblical notion of hospitality.” He cites Peggy and Tony Campolo as “the best example I’ve heard lately” of the Christian hospitality Henri Nouwen used to describe as “the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.” He mentions Peggy Campolo’s involvement in Evangelicals Concerned and quotes Tony Campolo from statements the Eastern College sociologist made in Sojourners (5/99): “Peggy and I choose to publicly express our differences on the issue of homosexuality because we have a message that is more important than anything we say in words: We know it is possible for people who love each other to differ intensely over this crucial issue and not separate.” Wysockey-Johnson concludes by saying: “My personal hope is that we will come to see our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters as full and equal partners in the church. But more than my personal beliefs, I trust that Emmanuel will help us understand the truth in this matter. The sooner and better we offer hospitality to one another, the sooner we will host the Spirit.”
A United Methodist Church jury has unanimously found Jimmy Creech guilty of breaking church law. He has been defrocked from the 9.5-million-member denomination. His offense was his officiating at a gay holy union ceremony. After the November 17 verdict, Creech was quoted as saying: “The church has said it will use its power – legal power, spiritual power and financial power … to enforce bigotry. It is a sad day. It is a scandalous day for the United Methodist Church.”
An investigating committee of United Methodists has sided with a gay couple in a dispute over the refusal of the Historic Methodist Campground in Illinois to rent a cottage to the couple. The committee of the Northern Illinois Conference recommends that the United Methodist name and logo be removed from the campground.
An openly gay Presbyterian ministerial candidate who refuses to promise to be celibate and a Presbyterian church that wants to perform “holy unions” for same-sex couples were both partly supported by decisions released in November by the 12-member Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast. The Commission cautioned, however, that should the 27-year-old Princeton Seminary graduate seek ordination, his avowed intention to be actively homosexual should be taken into consideration.
The Georgia Baptist Convention voted two member congregations out of the state association in November. It was the first time in the 178 years of the state convention that a church has been expelled. One of the two churches is Oakhurst Baptist Church of Decatur. It has a gay assistant pastor. The other is Virginia-Highland Baptist Church of Atlanta. Both Oakhurst and Virginia-Highland have ordained deacons who are gay. Both churches have many gay and lesbian members – 20% – 30% at Oakhurst and 50% at Virginia-Highland. Virginia-Highland once allowed a same-sex union ceremony to take place within its walls, though none of its own clergy was involved in the ceremony. All of this was too much for most Georgia Baptists. But Rev. Ron Grizzle of Columbus’ First Baptist Church agreed with the pastors of the two ousted churches that there is much fear among the majority and he said that he hoped there could be room in the Convention for people who differed on the issue. He counseled: “Don’t give in to popular sentiment just because everybody is picking up rocks.”
Texas and North Carolina state conventions of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention have both expelled churches for being too supportive of gay men and lesbians.
Among Roman Catholics in the New York Archdiocese, 68% say a person “who engages in homosexual relations” could still be a good Catholic. If they remain celibate, gay priests were approved by 48% of the interviewees. These were two of the findings from a New York Times telephone poll in which 1,615 New Yorkers were interviewed between November 29 and December 5. It was found that Hispanics, who account for 36% of New York Catholics, tend to be more conservative than other Catholics. The New York Archdiocese includes three of the New York City’s boroughs (excluding Brooklyn and Queens) and seven counties north of the city.
The New York Archdiocese has asked priests to speak out against the creation of a Human Rights Commission in Westchester County. The reason? The proposed commission would hear complaints of discrimination in housing or hiring based on sexual orientation, among other factors. According to a spokesperson for the Archdiocese’s Family Life and Respect Life Office, “same-sex relationships [would] have the same value as marriage.”
The winning image of the National Catholic Reporter’s worldwide art competition, Jesus 2000, was modeled on an African-American woman. This final selection was made by Sr. Wendy Beckett, the British nun who is famous for her art appreciation programs on television. There were 1,678 entries submitted by 1,004 artists from 19 countries. A panel of three art experts selected 10 finalists and Beckett picked the winner. She said that the top three were all first-place winners at various points in her process of choosing. Beckett says that “each of these works truly speaks of Jesus to our age.” The winning painting is called “Jesus of the People.” It is the work of Janet McKenzie of Island Pond, VT. She said she grew up as an Episcopalian but does not have “a connection to one institution” at this point. McKenzie’s inclusion of a yin/yang symbol and a feather, homage to Native Americans, were interpreted by Beckett as a Eucharistic host and a sheaf of wheat. McKenzie said she was delighted that Beckett “had the openness to see it her own way. It’s not important that it stays how I designed it if the art is doing its job.” The image of “Jesus of the People” can be seen at http://www.natcath.com/public/Jesusat2000. The three runners-up are also shown on the Web site.
Pax Christi USA asked the American Catholic bishops to appeal the Vatican’s ban on the ministry to gays and lesbians by Fr. Robert Nugent and Sister Jeannine Gramick. Nugent is a Salvatorian priest and Gramick is a School Sister of Notre Dame. According to the board of Pax Christi, a national peace movement among Roman Catholics, the ban on their 29-year-old ministry works against the call of the Bishops’ pastoral letter, “Always Our Children,” geared to parents of gay sons and lesbian daughters. A six-page petition ran as an ad in the November 19 edition of the National Catholic Reporter, asking the bishops “to appeal to the Vatican to reinstate the two ministers.” The petition pointed out that homosexuals had been “alienated from Church structures because of the Church action.”
The president of the U. S. Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, has issued a four-page rebuttal, “reaffirm[ing] support for the decision of the Holy See” to bar the two from their ministry to homosexuals. According to Fiorenza, “outreach and ministry [to homosexuals] must be in conformity with the authentic teaching of the Church.” He cited their references to dissenting opinions and stated: “Private dissent does not remain purely private when one is involved in ministering to a group of people who either struggle with, or even reject, precisely that element of Church teaching [that holds] the homosexual inclination [to be] `intrinsically disordered.’” He stressed that that does not mean that homosexuals are, themselves, intrinsically disordered. It is, he said, “not to pass judgment on any individual’s mental or moral state.” Fiorenza concluded: “The exclusion of Sister Gramick and Father Nugent from office in their religious communities is a reasonable one.”
Pope John Paul II has called same-sex marriage “a deplorable distortion.” Addressing the Pontifical Council for the Family, the pope said that “marriage” between two people of the same gender is “a deplorable distortion of that which should be the communion of love and of life between a woman and a man, in a reciprocal exchange which is open to life.”
Hawaii’s top court has dismissed the 9-year-long lawsuit for gay/lesbian marriage because of the 1998 amendment to the state’s Constitution, restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples. The amendment was ratified by voters 2 to 1. The Hawaii case triggered a backlash that prompted Congress and some 30 states to pass measures against marriage for same-sex couples. The dismissal was hailed by Robert Knight of the Religious Right’s Family Research Council: “Contrary to pro-homosexuality activists’ rhetoric, marriage is not a construct of man that can be retooled and manipulated, but an institution established by God and protected through 6,000 years of human history.”
The Vermont Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that the state must guarantee the same protections and benefits to same-sex couples as to heterosexual couples. The Court said that there is “a class of people whose civil rights are being trampled upon” and that this must be remedied. The Court ruled that gay and lesbian couples “seek nothing more nor less, than legal protection and security for their avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting relationship [which] is simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity.” The Court leaves it up to the Vermont legislature to decide whether the best route to this equality is by way of legalized gay and lesbian marriage or by way of legalized domestic partnership. One member of one of the three couples who had challenged Vermont for the right to same-sex marriage is Holly Puterbaugh. After the ruling, she said: “We celebrated our 27th anniversary together in October. We look forward to the time when we can finally make it official.”
Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, Pat Robertson’s answer to the ACLU, issued a statement saying that “while this legal decision is designed to elevate the status of same-sex couples, it really represents a slap in the face for marriage between a man and a woman.”
California’s latest Field Poll found that 51% of respondents would vote for the “Limit on Marriage” initiative on the March 7, 2000 ballot, aimed at prohibiting legal recognition of same-gender marriages another state may someday legalize. State Senator Pete Knight (R-Palmdale) has been pushing for his antigay Knight Initiative for several years. His gay son is in a committed relationship with another man and is urging defeat of his father’s Initiative.
Coloradans for Traditional Marriage will try to collect almost 64,000 signatures to qualify a proposed ballot initiative to prohibit legal recognition of same-gender marriages another state may someday legalize. The Colorado state legislature rejected a similar proposal last year.
The Denver City Council has voted unanimously to create a registry for unmarried couples, including same-sex couples. Predictably, the city’s Fundamentalist preachers are voicing anger over the registry, saying that heterosexual couples should get married and that there should not be any homosexual couples.
A new law in France permits both heterosexual and same-sex couples to register their relationships with the government if they’ve been together for at least three years. The new law allows the filing of joint tax returns, makes it easier for registered partners of French citizens to immigrate to France, requires employers to make allowances for partners’ vacation plans, and makes partners responsible for each others’ debts.
The November-December issue of Gay Parent carries three display ads from mainline religious institutions. One ad is for Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania (“Won’t you consider sharing your home with a child? Come and join our team of foster parents.”). Another ad is for the Greene Street Friends School of Philadelphia (“Quaker values promote respect for the individual and responsibility for others.”). The third ad is for St. Luke’s School in New York City, a co-educational Episcopal Day School offering junior kindergarten through 8th grade.
The head of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Richard Holloway, is supporting the government’s announced plan to lift the ban on “promotion of homosexuality” in schools. But many other clergy are dead set against it. They’ve signed a petition, “express[ing] our deep concerns over the declafred intgention of the Scottish Executive. … What protection remains in law for children and for their parents’ rights?” Signatories included Rev. Andrew Fraser of the Free Church of Scotland, who said that “homosexuality is wrong” and repeal would lead to “further moral decline.” Other signatories included Catholic Bishop Mario Conti of Aberdeen, Canon Michael Parker of the Scottish Episcopal Church, and members of the Baptist Union, the Salvation Army, and the Evangelical Alliance.
Ann Hill, head of the Scottish School Boards Association, also registered opposition to repeal, citing the Avon Health Authority’s new curriculum’s mention of “a black lesbian gay [sic] in a wheelchair, a bisexual granny, a man who had been done [arrested] for cottaging [restroom sex], and a married man who had been in court for molesting two underage children.”
The Scottish Trade Unions Council is supporting the repeal. Its general secretary, Bill Speirs, called the current law homophobic and said that “tackling bullying and harassment of youngsters because of their sexual orientation has been made more difficult because of” the law. The general secretary of the largest teachers union in Scotland called for repeal, stating that the matter “would be far better regulated through the exercise of professional judgment than by a piece of legislation.”
The Church of England’s 118-year-old Children’s Society – in compliance with new British legal standards – will allow gay and lesbian couples to adopt children. This is not going over well with conservative Anglicans and evangelical churches. The Daily Telegraph in London reports that the Children’s Society has lost more than 1,000 of its 300,000 supporters since announcing its new non-discrimination policy. According to a letter sent out by the Society , there are far more children needing placement than there are “traditional” families seeking to care for them. “We should not exclude consideration of anyone who has the special abilities or experience to provide the right home and care for them.”
“Again they’re using our babies!” That’s what Right-wing radio personality Janet Parshall said about a new educators’ booklet on sexual orientation and youth published by a coalition comprising the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the National Education Association, and the American Association of School Administrators. Parshall, who is spokesperson for the Religious Right’s Family Research Council, made this remark on ABC’s “Nightline” on November 23 and continued to attack the booklet on her own show. She said she would keep on doing that “in a loving way.” Says the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s Kevin Jennings: “Our nation’s educators have been struggling for too long with too little information about sexual orientation development and youth – and this has taken a heavy toll on the health and well-being” of gay and lesbian students and their families. Joseph Nicolosi, advocate of the “ex-gay” movement, agrees that gay and lesbian students deal with grief and scorn from their peers, but he insists that the booklet’s accepting approach is not the way to go.
A study published in the May issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine finds that gay and lesbian teens were more than three times more likely to attempt suicide than were heterosexual teens. The research is based on information gathered from 4,167 Massachusetts high school students in 1995.
The Religious Right is rallying around an Arkansas murder committed by two homosexuals. Antigay groups say that the national media that gave so much attention to Matthew Shepard have paid almost no attention to Jesse Dirkhising, a 13-year-old boy, murdered by two homosexuals for whom he worked and with whom he stayed on weekends. According to Peter LaBarbera, head of a group called Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and a writer for the Family Research Council: “When a homosexual is a victim, they’ve made that a major crime that everybody has to be educated on. What about when homosexuals are perpetrators? Either it’s because there are a lot of gay reporters or they are sympathetic to gay causes.” Right-wing Louisiana politician David Duke joined in the attack on the media. Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the Virginia-based Media Research Center said: “If this were an openly gay boy assaulted to death by two heterosexual men, I don’t think there would be any doubt this would be a national news story.” However, Arkansas media have drawn a distinction between what the executive editor of the region’s largest daily, The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas, says was “a hate crime” (the Shepherd case) and “a sex crime” (the Dirkhising case).
Joseph Nicolosi’s “ex-gay” counseling is now being applied to 3-year-old boys. Claiming that “homosexuality is a preventable disease,” the “reparative therapy” guru of the Catholic Right says these “pre-homosexual” boys must be directed away from “feminine activities” and stop “denying their masculinity.” He takes older boys’ claims of homosexuality to be disobedience to parents: “What greater way to rebel against your parents’ values than to say you are gay.” But according to Ken Zucker, head of Toronto’s Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic, Nicolosi is “going beyond any data to say that he was going to prevent the kid from growing up to be gay. I would be concerned if he was giving parents false hopes that aren’t backed by any data.” Zucker himself treats children’s unhappiness around gender issues but does not claim to be preventing homosexuality. Both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association reject “reparative therapy” for homosexuality. Says psychiatrist Jerrold S. Polansky: “I think it is dangerous to try and coerce a child towards any particular sexuality and it is an intrusion.” However, if worried parents believe Nicolosi’s claims and push their children into his program, the children have no choice but to be in the program.
An “ex-gay” leader writes: “My outrage at the continued oppression and abuse of gay and perceived gay youth has not ablated, rather it has been quickened.” These are the words of Tom Cole of an “ex-gay” ministry in Detroit. Writing as “a self-identified former homosexual” now married to “a former lesbian,” Coles recalls that “as far back as I can remember I was called a fag, a queer or a sissy. … I was chased from school and beat up nearly every day of my elementary school life. I wouldn’t fight back, but bitterness became my friend. … As a child and young man, I was subject to ridicule, harassment and violence on a continual basis. Each day was filled with dread and anticipation of harsh words and violent actions because of my perceived sexuality. Twenty years ago I found a safe haven within the gay community in the Detroit area. For the first time in my life, I felt accepted and loved for who I was.” Coles concludes his essay, published in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (December 6, 1999) with these words: “The conservative Christian Church, which is strident in its condemnation of homosexual behavior, seems to be in denial about targeted attacks on gay and lesbian youth … We must be clear that the lives of gay people are worthy of respect, dignity and honor as those created in the very image of God.”
AND FINALLY:
A senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, notes that “Men do not go to church. They regard involvement in religion as unmasculine, and almost more than anything else in the world they want to be masculine.” Leon J. Podles made this observation in his book, The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity. The book laments “the decidedly feminine cast of modern Christian rhetoric.”