“What was the most significant change in Christianity over the past decade?” In response to this question from Christianity Today (December, 2009), John Stackhouse of Regent College answers: “The rapid collapse of Christian consensus against homosexual marriage in North America, including among evangelicals.”
“What is the greatest moral issue in America today?” In October, evangelical leaders responded to this Evangelical Leaders Survey question. According to Leith Anderson, president of the poll’s sponsoring organization, the National Association of Evangelicals: “While there were some responses that specified secularization, homosexuality, pornography and other concerns, they were not at the top of the list. The top three reflected a majority of responses and were themselves a three-way tie.” These three top issues were the mistreatment of others, abortion and moral relativism.
The Evangelical Alliance of Ireland endorses the country’s call for support for gay civil unions. The EA issued this statement: “The government is seeking to legislate for greater justice and fairness for co-habiting couples, both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. As Christians we should support that stance.” The statement goes on: “Co-habiting couples are a reality – this legislation seeks to deal with that reality from a legal perspective. We may disagree on the detail of the legislation but as followers of a just and compassionate God we can recognize the justice and fairness of providing some legal protection for the reality of both same-sex and opposite-sex cohabiting relationships.” Among other issues, the bill attends to hospital visitation rights and matters of tax and inheritance.
“Handel – Another Gay Anglican?” is an essay in Christianity Today’s Books & Culture (November/December 2009). Writing in the 250th year since the death of the man Beethoven called “the greatest composer that ever lived”, music theory professor John Paul Ito concludes that a good argument can be made that Handel “was both Christian and gay” and that this awareness may help Christians “have a more constructive dialogue with the gay community”. He notes that, “the perception and reality of anti-gay bias may, in a variety of ways, be seriously hampering the witness of the church.” He sees that, “Increasingly, believers both gay and straight who with respect to doctrine and forms of piety would be described as evangelical will accept monogamous homosexual relationships. This is particularly visible among young people.”
Ito tells of meeting philosophy professor, gay activist and atheist John Corvino at one of Corvino’s speaking events. Since then, Ito and his wife, Sarah, and John and his partner, Mark, have become good friends. Ito says that at one of their meals together, he and Sarah learned that John’s relationship with Mark’s parents “was to his sadness, virtually nonexistent.” Ito writes: “In saying grace Sarah prayed blessing on John’s relationship with Mark, and especially on his relationship with Mark’s parents.” He remarks that John was “particularly touched by Sarah’s prayers for him and Mark” and wrote of this on his blog. Ito notes that, “this in turn drew a rebuke from Peter LaBarbera” , an antigay blogger.
Ito reports that, “over a few short months a relationship blossomed [between Mark’s parents and John] that had been virtually nonexistent for years.” He doesn’t attribute it all to his wife’s prayers, but he thinks. “it happened because God loves them and wanted to bless them.” He adds: “Our friendship is truly a friendship – it’s not just a pretext for evangelism.”
H. M. S. Richards was a pioneer radio evangelist (“Voice of Prophecy”) and Seventh-day Adventist. His daughter, Virginia Cason, was an SDA conference speaker and author of a book in tribute to her father. A longtime active supporter of Kinship, the fellowship of gay and lesbian SDAs and their families, Cason died in April.
In Kinship’s newsletter, her daughter, attorney Laura Cason, writes a tribute to her mother: “Mom began to talk from the pulpit about having a gay son, my brother Marshall, who died from AIDS, and about her lesbian daughter.” She says her mother “spoke of the need for Christians to show more of God’s unconditional love” and adds, “I imagine no one dared to discourage her because she was the daughter of H. M. S. Richards.” She continues: “After her talks Mom was usually mobbed by audience members she described as ‘really hurting’ because of the ignorance or neglect of fellow church members or pastors. Some had even been shunned by their congregations and discouraged from attending services. Mother was appalled by this and spent countless hours responding to phone calls, letters, and e-mails from Adventist families struggling to learn how to minister to and accept their gay kids. Mom told me innumerable stories about people who had shared their deep pain at being ostracized by their church. She told me of pastors who somehow felt that having a gay child doomed the entire family.”
Virginia Cason and her husband, physician Walt Cason, along with two other couples with gay and lesbian children, tell their stories in Open Heart / Open Hand, a DVD introduced by David Larson of Loma Linda University.
James Dobson, Focus on the Family founder, will stop hosting his Colorado Springs-based radio program in February. He began broadcasting in 1977. Last February, he resigned his FOF chairmanship. He and his son will be doing their own broadcasting.
Coverage in the Colorado Springs Gazette quoted Gary Bauer of American Values as crediting Dobson for having “helped raise several generations of American children”. The Gazette quoted EC founder Ralph Blair as saying that Dobson’s legacy will be tarnished by his antigay activism: “Eventually he will fade because his ideas are so far off the mark.”
“If you had told me 10 years ago I would be … speaking out in favor of gay marriage and ordination, I would have told you you were crazy.” That’s what theologian Mark Achtemeier of the University of Dubuque said at a Denver conference on “The Evangelical Church and Homosexuality”. At the city’s Highlands Church, Achtemeier explained that he changed his mind after witnessing the real lives of gay Christians. Gay Christian Network founder Justin Lee also keynoted the conference. Lee said that though he’d once agreed with a Focus on the Family approach to homosexuality, he later came to deeper understanding from Scripture. He added: “We need to be respectful and loving of those who disagree with us.”
“I know in my sanctified soul that he did not take a bullet for same-sex marriage.” Though she was only 5 years old when he was assassinated, this is what Bernice King, newly elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, says about her father, Martin Luther King, Jr., founder of the SCLC in 1957.
King is a fiery motivational speaker and minister of New Birth Missionary Church in Lithonia, Georgia. She earned both her divinity and law degrees from Emory University.
Her older sister and her mother, now both deceased, were outspoken advocates for same-sex marriage.
Ted Olson, best known for arguing for George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore at the U.S. Supreme Court, argues the case for same-sex marriage.
Writing in Newsweek (January 18), Olson notes: “Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. … The fact that individuals who happen to be gay want to share in this vital social institution is evidence that conservative ideals enjoy widespread acceptance. Conservatives should celebrate this, rather than lament it.” Olson concludes that, “there is no good reason why we should deny marriage to same-sex partners [and] there are many reasons why we should formally recognize these relationships and embrace the right of gays and lesbians to marry and become full and equal members of our society.”
Justin Lee, Gay Christian Network founder, wrote a Guest Commentary for Box Turtle Bulletin right after the Maine vote against same-sex marriage. Addressing what many supporters of same-sex marriage were asking, “What went wrong?”, Lee wrote: “There’s no single answer, but the simplest one can be summed up in one word: religion.” He cautioned that, “even if you have no faith of your own, if you think you’re going to take on American organized religion and win, you’re dead wrong.” Citing Stephen Covey’s advice, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”, and speaking as an evangelical Christian, Lee pointed out: “There are many good, intelligent people in even the most conservative faith groups, and interacting with LGBT people is the only way they’ll grow to understand us.” He urged rights groups to “think beyond politics”, to “listen to faith leaders [but] tailor the message [and learn to] understand them and speak their language.” Lee observed: “A common mistake many LGBT groups make is to simply put together an interfaith ‘panel’ of leaders to represent many different faith traditions, then have them give a joint statement of some sort and think they’ve reached the faith community.” He noted that “a devout Mormon needs to hear from other devout Mormons [and] not all rabbis are equally influential with all Jews, for instance.”
As if to illustrate Lee’s point, The Washington Post quotes a Unitarian minister who, along with other theologically liberal religious leaders in DC, rallied in support of gay rights. The Unitarian minister said they’d come together to refute “this myth that you can’t be pro-God and pro-gay.” Meanwhile, the religious leaders who oppose LGBT rights have one more reason to do so. And nobody’s mind was changed.
365gay.com columnist James Withers laments that, “we all go ga-ga when someone on the fame machine comes out.” In his perceptive critique of yet another example of the phenomenon, he cites Out magazine’s list of its 100 “most outstanding and inspiring men and women of the year”. Aside from a couple of elected officials, most of the others on the list are, in Withers’ term, “more sizzle than substance”. He blasts the fact that, when a celebrity comes out, he or she “gets courage awards, gala dinners, magazine covers, requests to expound on the political struggle [and] is asked to be a spokesperson for a diverse tribe” though the person’s only claim is homosexuality and fame.
The Calvin College Faculty Senate, by a vote of 36-4, objects to an antigay memo from the board of trustees. What’s known around campus as simply, “The Memo”, was made public in August. It states that, “advocacy by faculty and staff, both in and outside of the classroom, for homosexual practice and same-sex marriage is unacceptable.” History professor Karin Maag says the faculty views this directive as “flying in the face of academic freedom” and thus, released its objection at the end of September. The board responded immediately, defending its memo and stating that Calvin College must uphold the college denomination’s position that “homosexuality is not a sin but homosexual practice is.” The board concluded its response by stating: “If there were ever to be a change in the college’s position on the issue, it would have to come from [the CRC denomination].”
At the end of October, the board decided to keep the controversial directive in place while the board and faculty hold further discussions.
Christianity Today quotes Wheaton College provost Stanton Jones on the dispute at Calvin: “I think it’s a symptom of the growing lack of consensus about this issue. There are some people for whom this has become the litmus test for whether you are properly compassionate and have a proper commitment to social justice. Others say this is a key litmus test for whether you’re properly biblical.” Ralph Blair adds: “Haven’t we been here before – in the days of slavery and segregation in the American South?”
Hope College administrators blocked a campus roundtable’s invitation to pro-gay Oscar-winning screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black. The administration’s objection was to his gay advocacy. It ruled that the theater department could have him speak about his screenwriting without discussing homosexuality. Students on both sides of the issues of homosexuality said they were offended that the administration implied that they were not mature enough to hear Black speak on homosexuality. Hope College is affiliated with the Reformed Church in America and considered “the 4th oldest evangelical college” in the country.
In striking contrast to this recent situation, on January 28, 1983, EC founder Ralph Blair gave an address to the Hope College community at the invitation of the college. His pro-gay speech was entitled: “Hope’s Gays and Gays’ Hopes”.
Social psychologist David G. Myers convened the assembly and the respondents were Hope College faculty members, Allen Verhey and Lars Granberg, and Elton M. Eenigenburg of the adjacent Western Theological Seminary. Eenigenburg agreed with Blair while Verhey and Granberg did not much disagree.
Throughout his weekend on campus, Blair lectured in classes of the college and seminary, spoke at student and faculty luncheons, and led discussions at Hope Church. He also counseled several students. Other supportive faculty members included Hope College chaplain Gerard Van Heest, religion professors Wayne Boulton and Elton Bruins psychology professors Jane R. Dickie and Bob Brown, and seminary professor Stan Rock. Especially encouraging was the warm support of Lester Kuyper, emeritus professor of Old Testament and formerly the president of Western Seminary and New Brunswick Seminary, the theological schools of the Reformed Church in America.
Norman J. Kansfield, removed from the presidency of New Brunswick Seminary in 2005 for officiating at his daughter’s same-sex wedding, spoke at the first national conference of the Reformed Church in America’s GLBT-affirming group, Room For All. Other speakers were social psychologist David G. Myers, theologian Miguel De La Torre and Peggy Campolo – all of whom have keynoted conferences of Evangelicals Concerned. RFA’s event was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan on the weekend of the Dustin Lance Black controversy over at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.
Philip Yancey, in what he states is “my final column for Christianity Today – for a while, at least,” writes: “It saddens me to hear the media’s caricature of evangelicals as right-wing zealots. The word means ‘good news,’ and I have seen that message broadcast in creative, practical ways in over 50 countries. But I can see where the media get their stereotypes.” Yancey, who has written his CT column since 1983 and is a CT Editor at Large, explains: “I have a folder of scorching e-mails circulated by evangelicals during the 2008 presidential election, and a more recent collection fanning fears over proposals for health-care reform. These supplement a larger folder on gay issues.” After noting evidence of evangelical organizations that “the way in such efforts as relief and development, microcredit, HIV/AIDS ministries, and outreach to sex workers [as well as] ministries among the garbage dump communities”, he observes: Evangelicals have taken seriously Jesus’ call to care for ‘the least of these.’” Yancey ends his essay by saying: “Some of my friends believe we should abandon the word evangelical. I do not. I simply yearn for us to live up to the meaning of our name.”
A priest’s homosexual identity does not increase the likelihood of sexual abuse. This is the preliminary conclusion of an ongoing study by researchers at The City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The $2 million study, commissioned by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, is to be completed by the end of 2010. Researchers have found that the abuse rate peaked in the 1960s and 1970s, an emergent era of sexual boundary crossing throughout society.
The words about “abomination” in Leviticus 18:22 are tattooed on the shoulder of a friend of men under arrest for brutally beating a gay man in New York City. Brent Childers, an evangelical Christian who used to support Jesse Helms and thought that homosexuals were bound for hell, now writes: “It shouldn’t take an assailant’s friend having a biblical verse tattooed on his shoulder to realize that religion is relevant to any discussion about the violence toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans. Too many of our friends, parents, co-workers, elected officials and church members have it tattooed on their minds and hearts.” Childers heads Faith in America, educating the public about the harm done by religion-based bigotry.
“We are the unacknowledged victims of the victims of homophobia”, says Amity Pierce Buxton, founder of the Straight Spouse Network, with 52 chapters across the country. Wah Cheong, a lifelong Republican, heterosexual and supporter of same-sex marriage, has told the Associated Press: “If gays and lesbians were more accepted, I wouldn’t have married a closeted lesbian”. Yet against accumulating evidence that people don’t change sexual orientations, evangelical churches, the establishment evangelical press, and even a dwindling number of evangelical counselors continue to push the notion that homosexuals can and should “change” and that a heterosexual marriage is possible for them.
With the full backing of the Mormon Church, the Salt Lake City government passed a gay rights law against discrimination in employment and housing. It will now be illegal to fire or evict persons because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Brandie Balken, director of the gay rights advocacy group, Equality Utah, said that the passage of this legislation shows that “we can stand together on common ground and that we don’t have to agree on everything”. Said Andrew Sullivan, at The Atlantic: “Someone has decided to offer an open hand. A civil rights movement should never spurn such a good faith effort.”
Texas Republican U.S. Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison advanced openly gay Robert Pitman for U.S. attorney in San Antonio. Right-wing Republicans are furious. A Cornyn spokesman says: “A person’s sexuality has no bearing on his qualifications for a job.” Lawyers have named Pitman the most competent judge in Travis County. As an undergrad, Pitman was the student body president at Abilene Christian University. He studied law at the University of Texas.
The 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth and the 400th anniversary of the Homegoing of Jakob Arminius were remembered together at EC’s 2009 fall preaching festival in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Thought there were many Calvin 500 and at least two Arminius 400 commemorations during the year, EC’s event was, evidently, the only event that honored them both together. EC founder Ralph Blair gave an introductory lecture on these two theologians and preached three sermons on Micah 6:8. Earlier in the year, EC published a Calvin/Arminius commemorative bookmark.
As all EC worship service offerings are sent to non-gay ministries, the weekend’s offering was sent to Voice of the Martyrs in honor of VOM founder Richard Wurmbrand in the year of his 100th birthday.
EC also held another of its occasional teas. This one celebrated Will L. Thompson, writer of the words and music to “Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling”, “Jesus is All the World to Me”, and “Lead Me Gently Home, Father”. Thompson died in New York City on September 20, 1909 and the EC tea was held exactly 100 years later. As usual at EC teas, autographed documents and other memorabilia of the honoree were on display.
Evangelist Roberts Liardon is now principal of the International Bible Institute of London, the training ministry of Colin Dye’s charismatic Kensington Temple. Eight years ago, Liardon acknowledged a same-sex relationship with a fellow pastor in his California-based Embassy Christian Center. According to Dye, Liardon is fully restored to ministry: “We know Roberts will be a blessing to us, and we hope to be a blessing to him.” Liardon, author and DVD host of God’s Generals, a classic history of Pentecostal pioneers, has also written books on other leaders, including Luther, Wesley and Moody.
Kirk Talley won the Christian Music Hall of Fame’s Southern Gospel Male Vocalist of the Year Award for 2009. Other winners were The Talley Trio, Carrie Underwood, Cece Winans, David Phelps and the Gaither Vocal Band.
AND FINALLY:
Carrie Prejean lost the Miss USA contest after her reply to a question on gay marriage: “I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there” (including her sister who supports gay marriage). Prejean has been vilified in the media ever since. Now, for the fourth time, the Recording Academy has nominated antigay reggae icon Buju Banton for a Grammy. He’s in a Tampa jail on charges of trafficking in cocaine. He’s been vented hatred for gay people since his 1988 “Boom Bye Bye” lyrics pushed the notion that “faggots have to die” and called for “shoot[ing] them in the head” and “burn[ing] them”. Recently, he bragged: “There is no end to the war between me and faggot and it’s clear”. Against the objections to his nomination, the Academy responds that, it “acknowledges that there are very strong and diverse opinions on many issues. [But] the GRAMMY Awards is a celebration and recognition of outstanding musical achievement by music makers, regardless of politics, and that will continue to be our mission.”