Headlines, Human Rights, North America

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY: Good News for Gays in U.S. Churches

Katherine Stapp

NEW YORK, Dec 9 2004 (IPS) - For supporters of gay and lesbian civil rights, the news in recent weeks has not been encouraging.

Evangelical Christians skilfully used referendums banning gay marriage in November’s presidential election to galvanise millions of conservative voters, who approved the measures in all 11 states where they appeared on the ballot.

Declaring themselves instrumental in the victory of George W Bush, these groups seem confident their loyalty will now be repaid with aggressive action on pet issues like abortion and gay rights.

“There is no doubt about the fact the American people care about traditional marriage between one man and one woman, and I don’t care how much the media tries to spin that with statistics and all kinds of crazy ideas – that’s where we are as a country,” James Dobson, founder of the ultra-conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, declared on Fox News two weeks after the election.

But hovering just below the national radar are a growing number of churches that welcome members of all sexual orientations and gender identities, indicating there is more solidarity with the gay rights movement in religious circles than meets the eye.

The churches are Mormon, Baptist, Lutheran, Quaker, Presbyterian and Catholic. Some even have openly gay and lesbian pastors.

“Maybe we’ve all had a wake-up call and realised we need to be more vocal and proactive,” said Susie Smith, pastor of the United Christian Church in Pennsylvania State, one of hundreds of “open and affirming” congregations around the country.

“There is a great deal of intolerance out there among various denominations,” conceded Smith, who just spent two days at the trial of Beth Stroud, a United Methodist minister whose credentials were revoked Monday because she is a lesbian in a committed relationship.

“But evangelism doesn’t have to be a dirty word. I believe that progressive voices of love and acceptance will reach out and offer an alternative – and be more direct in doing that.”

The United Church of Christ, which has 1.3 million members and 500 registered open and affirming churches, is taking the lead in preaching a message of unity, sponsoring a 30-second national advertising campaign with the tag line: “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.”

While two major networks refused to air the ad, writing in a letter that the spot was too controversial because it “touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups,” many other prominent cable channels started running it on Dec. 1.

United Church of Christ officials hope the message will resonate with the millions of people in the United States who believe in God but feel alienated by organised religion.

“Many times, the church is its own worst enemy,” said Lee Ann Griffin, minister of Saint Andrew Christian Church in the state of Texas – where a high school student was recently disciplined for wearing a gay pride T-shirt. “We behave toward one another in such a way that it is understandable why people stay away in droves.”

“What I believe is that most faithful Americans don’t know how to express their ambivalence about spiritual or sexual issues,” Griffin said.

“The voices that get the most press are those which are most decisive (and say), ‘It’s a sin’ or ‘No, it’s not.’ Most folks fall somewhere along the continuum between the two, and so they remain, intentionally or not, ignorant, ambivalent and silent,” she added.

Many progressive religious leaders emphasised that while the voices of acceptance are often softer than those of bigotry, this should not be interpreted as agreement.

“We are reluctant to claim our own walk in Christ as being the only way to be a Christian,” said Rev Michal Anne Pepper of University Christian Church in California, an open congregation. “That is why you do not hear moderate voices condemning the extreme views being voiced by our more conservative sisters and brothers.”

“I believe our mandate as Christians is to risk our own well-being, privilege and status by aligning ourselves with those oppressed, attacked and neglected in our culture,” she added. “Obviously, the simplistic sound bite, ‘Christian equals exclusive and intolerant’ does not reflect our very complicated situation.”

Nor does it reflect developments across the country. For instance, the U.S. Episcopal Church recently ordained an openly gay man, V Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire, while the Wisconsin Council of Churches is considering taking a position against proposed anti-gay resolutions in that state.

Lisa Haley, a member of an open and affirming congregation of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ denomination in California, said she too is fed up with the stereotype that all Christians are anti-gay.

“What bothered me most during the pre-election period was seeing ‘religious people’ used by the media to describe the most conservative of religious groups,” she said. “None of the rest of us was represented as having a religious voice. There are many of us working to bring the light of inclusion and acceptance of all people that we feel is the heart of the Gospel message.”

And perhaps this acceptance should extend even to those perceived as enemies, Griffin suggested, instead of expecting people who have been taught all their lives that homosexuality is a sin to automatically “do the right thing”.

“I don’t think that we have done enough to help those folks who sincerely wrestle with scripture to make their decisions,” she said. “Primarily, we must be able to find God’s will for our lives and respond faithfully to our sisters and brothers – so the lion and the lamb and the fundamentalist and the drag queen can eat together fearlessly.”