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Whosoever: Being Fundamentalist

Written by ECWR Web
Monday, 24 January 2011 13:26
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Whosoever: Being Fundamentalist.

Being Fundamentalist

by Reverend Michael S. Piazza

Scripture Readings
Mark 2:23-3:6
II Cor. 4:5-12

I was licensed to preach on the first Sunday of June, 1973. I’ve been preaching for twenty-four years,with almost ten of those years in the pulpit of this church. That is fairly unusual in a day where people change jobs nearly as often as people used to change underwear.

Jesus wouldn’t have lasted very long as a pastor these days. He was too prone to confront people’s assumptions. He was fond of challenging people’s beliefs and values. We don’t read books which disagree with us and we don’t listen long to preaching that challenges how we live.

Fundamentalists in Jesus day were no more open minded than they are in our day, and there is a bit of the fundamentalist in us all. Some of us are fundamentalists about worship being a certain way. We are are fundamentalists about language. If someone slips and doesn’t use inclusive language it devalues everything they say. In this church, we have fashion fundamentalists. Last week someone told me that we shouldn’t change the paraments to red because the color clashed with my hair. We can all be Pharisees at times.

There were several points where Jesus rubbed the Pharisees wrong, but probably none more noticable than how Jesus treated the Sabbath laws. As demonstrated in the gospel lesson for today. Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath which infuriated the Pharisees. In fact, today’s lesson ends with the words: “The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians about how to destroy Jesus.”

They didn’t want to punish Jesus. They wanted to destroy him. What is it about this healing that stirred such vehement rage? One thing that was probably true about the Pharisees that day is something that is often true for us – the cause of our immediate anger is often not the real source of our original anger.

The Pharisees weren’t so angry with Jesus that they wanted to destroy him just because he had healed a man with a withered hand. They were really angry because Jesus’ way of living and being in the world shined a light on the ineffectiveness of their own spirituality. Abundance of life flowed from within Jesus into all those he touched. That only pointed out that their faith was not life giving.

They had a system of belief that answered every question. They knew every appropriate behavior for every situation. Their faith system provided great security and safety. It wasn’t ambiguous or risky. That is the also the appeal of modern fundamentalism.

Life is so rapidly changing and so often uncertain that there is a great longing for a faith system that provides quick, easy, clear and unambiguous answers to all of life’s questions.

I had lunch, one day several years ago, with a fellow who left our church and went to another. He criticized us for not telling people what they should believe and how they should live. I knew I was wasting my breath when he said to me, “I may never keep the rules, but at least if I know what they are I can enjoy breaking them.”

Modern fundamentalist Christianity is mostly about controlling people’s beliefs and people’s behavior. It is also about controlling God. We want to be able to explain why things happened and why they didn’t; because, if we cannot explain them we are not in control of them.

Jesus didn’t follow the religious rules and it made the Pharisees very angry. Most of their anger was rooted in fear. They were afraid they might be wrong about who God was and how God behaved.

In the early 80′s I was the Director of Education for the Atlanta Gay Center. In that capacity I taught a class at the Atlanta Police Academy. Each month I tried to teach them ways to be sensitive to the lesbian and gay citizens of Atlanta.

I would begin by asking everyone who was left-handed to hold up their hands. Then I would ask those who had a left-handed child or spouse to hold up their hands. Then would ask people who had left-handed friends to raise their hands. By this time of course everyone in the room had their hands up. Then I would say, “Did you know that the same portion of the population is lesbian or gay as is left-handed?”

You never saw people yank down their hands so fast. Most of my time was spent answering their questions. All would be fine until someone would ask a question about religion or the Bible. Then my life became hell. The more devout the questioner the more hateful they became. Finally an atheist in the room would come to my rescue.

It is somewhat amusing to watch a person who is typically rational and graceful begin to froth at the mouth about this issue. I always wonder what it is that they are so afraid of? They don’t generally become so angry with Jewish people who might not believe Jesus is the Messiah. They usually aren’t so hateful with Hindu’s who don’t believe Yahweh is the One true God. Why does this issue stir fury of the fundamentalist so?

I could speculate about that, but what it obvious is that like Jesus we haven’t done anything that warrants our being spiritually destroyed. Fundamentalism is almost always a fear based faith. That is as true of our fundamentalism as it is of theirs.

Jesus lived free from fear and for that they wanted to destroy him.

It is important to note, however, that the Pharisees were not the only ones in this story who got angry. According to the passage, when Jesus saw how callused their reaction was it says he “looked at them with anger and was grieved at the hardness of their heart.”

I have attended the annual Church Leadership Institute at the Crystal Cathedral several times. They invite the pastors of some of the largest churches in the world. It was so impressive to hear Paul Yoni Cho speak. He pastors a church in Seoul with over 750,000 members. And I enjoyed Bill Hybels whose Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago has over 17,000 in attendance each week.

Of all the people I have ever heard, the most inspirational was Bill Wilson. He has one of the largest Sunday Schools in America. They use dozens of buses to pick up kids from the poorest neighborhoods of New York. They often feed these kids the only hot meals they get over the weekends when they are not in school. Hundreds of volunteers try to teach these poor and often abused children how deeply they are loved by God.

Bill Wilson tries to provide a taste of love that they might not otherwise find in their families. This is a very important ministry to him. I heard him speak one day about a little seven year old boy. The boy’s mother was seldom home and provided only the barest of nurturing. Then one day she took her son out for a walk. They walked through this drainage ditch and when they came to the culvert she told the boy to sit there and wait while she ran an errand.

The little boy sat there for two days. His mother never returned. A stranger happened along who took him in and fed him and loved him. Bill Wilson became a fundamentalist about love because he was that seven year old abandoned boy whose life was saved by the love of a stranger.

Jesus too was a fundamentalist about love. For him, the law of love took precedent over the Sabbath law, or any other. Love was a law that Jesus believed should never be violated. That doesn’t sound like a radical idea.

Today love has become some ambiguously positive feeling that we are supposed to have for one another. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are supposed to love one another.

But notice what that meant in Jesus’ life. To love the stranger with the withered arm was to risk rejection and condemnation. In fact, for him, to love meant making others so angry they wanted to destroy him.

Notice that Jesus didn’t give the fellow a new hand, but he calls the man to stretch forth the hand that is within him. That is what love is.

Love is not something we have, that they don’t, or a way we give them a little of what we have. True love takes great risks, and at times pays a great price in order to empower others to become all they can be.

Jesus called life and health from within the people to whom he ministered by reaching out to them with compassion, not with religion.

Our goal must never be to make people feel religious, but rather to make them feel loved. We who have been touched by God’s grace must gracefully reach out to include others in the family of God.

Lloyd C. Douglas in one of his novels paints a picture of Jesus’ encounter with the tax collector Zacchaeus. After Zac has said that he is going to return any money he has over-charged, Jesus asks him why he is changing his life. In the novel, Zacchaeus answered, “Because Rabbi, I see mirrored in your eyes the Zacchaeus I was meant to be.”

As the Body of Christ in this place, we are called to look at people with eyes of love. They are our family. Though they may be hurting and broken and misguided, they are our family. We must love them in a way that empowers their potential to become more than they are.

Let me close with an article about Bill Wilson entitled, “Why I Chose to Live in Hell”. This story comes from a Sunday school ministry in the part of New York City that has been rated “the most likely place to get killed.” Bill Wilson has been stabbed twice and shot at. A member of his team was murdered doing his ministry. Yet they have developed the largest bus ministry in America – not in the suburbs but in Hell’s Kitchen.

Bill writes: “One Puerto Rican woman, after being saved, came to me and asked how she might serve God. The problem was she didn’t speak English. She was so passionate about helping though that I had to find a place for her to serve.

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll put you on a bus. Ride a different bus each week and just love the kids.” That is just what she did. She would find the worst looking kid and say to him or her the only English words she knew, “I love you and Jesus loves you.”

After several months, she became attached to a little boy named Ray. They said Ray could not speak. He came to Sunday School each week with his sister and all the way there and back he sat on her lap while she whispered to him, “I love you and Jesus loves you.”

One day, after almost a year, to everyone’s amazement Ray turned, put his arms around her neck, and stammered, “I-I-I l-love you too.” That was 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon. At 6:30pm, Ray was found dead in a garbage bag under the fire escape. His mother had beat him to death and thrown him in the trash. “I love you and Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words that the little guy ever heard. They came from a Puerto Rican woman who could not speak English.

What would you have said to Ray? Next time you are tempted to be a fundamentalist, resolve to be a fundamentalist of love.

 

Gay Parents Find the South More Welcoming

Written by ECWR Web
Wednesday, 19 January 2011 08:51
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Gay Parents Find the South More Welcoming, Census Says – NYTimes.com.

Parenting by Gays More Common in the South, Census Shows

Sarah Beth Glicksteen for The New York Tim

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Being gay in this Southern city was once a lonely existence. Most people kept their sexuality to themselves, and they were reminded of the dangers of being openly gay when a gay church was bombed in the 1980s. These days, there are eight churches that openly welcome gay worshipers. One even caters to couples with children

Reginald Maffett, 14, at services at St. Luke’s Community Church, which he attends with his mother and her partner.

The changes may seem surprising for a city where churches that have long condemned homosexuality remain a powerful force. But as demographers sift through recent data releases from the Census Bureau, they have found that Jacksonville is home to one of the biggest populations of gay parents in the country.

In addition, the data show, child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles. Gay couples in Southern states like Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas are more likely to be raising children than their counterparts on the West Coast, in New York and in New England.

The pattern, identified by Mr. Gates, is also notable because the families in this region defy the stereotype of a mainstream gay America that is white, affluent, urban and living in the Northeast or on the West Coast.

“We’re starting to see that the gay community is very diverse,” said Bob Witeck, chief executive of Witeck-Combs Communications, which helped market the census to gay people. “We’re not all rich white guys.”

Black or Latino gay couples are twice as likely as whites to be raising children, according to Mr. Gates, who used data from a Census Bureau sampling known as the American Community Survey. They are also more likely than their white counterparts to be struggling economically.

Experts offer theories for the pattern. A large number of gay couples, possibly a majority, entered into their current relationship after first having children with partners in heterosexual relationships, Mr. Gates said. That seemed to be the case for many blacks and Latinos in Jacksonville, for whom church disapproval weighed heavily.

“People grew up in church, so a lot of us lived in shame,” said Darlene Maffett, 43, a Jacksonville resident, who had two children in eight years of marriage before coming out in 2002. “What did we do? We wandered around lost. We married men, and then couldn’t understand why every night we had a headache.”

Moreover, gay men who have children do so an average of three years earlier than heterosexual men, census data shows, Mr. Gates said. At the same time, there are fewer white women of childbearing age nationally, according to demographers, while the number of minority women of childbearing age is expanding.

Jacksonville was a magnet for Ms. Maffett even before she moved here. While its gay residents remained largely hidden, it had a gay-friendly church. In 2003, she spent her Sundays driving 90 minutes each way to attend from the town where she worked as a school bus driver.

Ms. Maffett appreciated the safety of the church in Jacksonville. Her father was a Baptist preacher, and her former husband was a member of the Church of Christ, so she knew how unwelcoming some churches could be for gays. Even so, she felt little connection to the gay congregation in Jacksonville — mostly white, male and childless.

“The pastors were all white guys,” said Ms. Maffett, who is black. “They were nice to us, but we weren’t really feeling that they knew how to cater to kids.”

Then she met Valerie Williams, a customer service worker with a sunny personality and a booming voice. Ms. Williams, 33, had been part of the city’s gay community for years, and when the first African-American, gay-friendly church opened in 2007, she thought it needed to go one step further.

“People were looking to do stuff with their kids, and they had no place to go,” she said.

So last summer, Ms. Williams became pastor of St. Luke’s Community Church, one of the oldest gay-friendly churches in the city, and immediately set up a youth program. Attendance by the mixed-race congregation swelled to more than 90 from 25 in just a few months.

“All of a sudden you started seeing all of these women coming out,” Ms. Maffett said. “All of them had children.”

In 2009, the Census Bureau estimated that there were 581,000 same-sex couples in the United States, Mr. Gates said; the bureau does not count gay singles.

About a third of lesbians are parents, and a fifth of gay men are. Advocacy groups argue that their children are some of society’s most vulnerable, with fewer legal protections and less health insurance than children of heterosexual parents.

Even so, their ranks have been mostly left out of national policy debates, because the Census Bureau did not conduct its first preliminary count of same-sex couples until 1990. This year, the bureau will count married same-sex partners for the first time.

“We don’t know a lot about this group,” Mr. Gates said. “Their story has not been told.”

About 32 percent of gay couples in Jacksonville are raising children, Mr. Gates said, citing the 2009 Census data, second only to San Antonio, where the rate is about 34 percent.

Some gay parents here say that family life can be complicated. Cynthia, the mother of a talkative 9-year-old, can be herself at her daughter’s cheerleading practice, because it is far from their home. But at her daughter’s school, she tells no one that she is gay, because her partner, Monique, teaches there.

Their daughter, they said, ends up with a mixed message at school.

“We tell her, ‘Be honest, don’t lie, but keep this in the closet,’ ” said Monique, who asked that the couple’s last names not be used to protect her privacy at work, “It gets confusing for her.”

Ms. Williams confronts those troubles directly with a program called Youth Power Hour, a kind of group counseling session for children of gay parents. This month, the group of about 20 young people discussed their problems after a free spaghetti dinner cooked by one of the adult moderators.

“This girl at school is always bullying me,” said a 9-year-old named Diantra.

Ms. Williams responded, her voice filling the room: “Remember what we said? Tell an adult.”

Cynthia’s daughter, also part of the group, said the sense of community it provided helped her.

“It feels good to be around people who don’t just have moms and dads,” she said, pulling her braids nervously. “I like it because I’m not alone anymore.”

Married same-sex parents face legal hurdles. Florida does not recognize same-sex marriage, and its domestic partnership recognition, while growing, is an uneven patchwork, and still leaves many spouses uninsured.

Even when employers agree to cover domestic partners, those couples pay higher taxes, because without federal recognition of their status, health coverage is considered income and is taxable. Until recently, Florida was one of a handful of states that expressly prohibited adoption by gay couples.

But money is often a more immediate problem.

Ty Francis, a bank customer-service worker here with a sharp sense of humor, supports six children together with her partner, Rosalyn Cooley, a health care worker.

“I’m one check away from being on welfare,” Ms. Francis said.

But that kind of financial difficulty does not dampen enthusiasm for coaxing along acceptance in this conservative city of more than 800,000 people. A recent billboard supporting gay and lesbian youth drew no public scorn or boycotts, and gay pride parades have been held for several years.

Ms. Williams compares the community’s efforts to the struggles of the civil rights movement.

“Slowly but surely, all this will pass,” she said. “I truly believe that.”

 

Cathleen Falsani: Is Evangelical Christianity Having a Great Gay Awakening?

Written by ECWR Web
Thursday, 13 January 2011 17:02
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Cathleen FalsaniReligion Columnist aka “God Girl”
Posted: January 13, 2011 06:10 PM

Is Evangelical Christianity Having a Great Gay Awakening?

Some of my dearest friends are gay.

Most of my dearest friends are Christians.

And more than a few of my dearest friends are gay Christians.

As an evangelical, that last part is not something that, traditionally and culturally, I’m supposed to say out loud. For most of my life, I’ve been taught that it’s impossible to be both openly gay and authentically Christian.

When a number of my friends “came out” shortly after our graduation from Wheaton College in the early ’90s, first I panicked and then I prayed.

What would Jesus do? I asked myself (and God).

According to biblical accounts, Jesus said very little, if anything, about homosexuality. But he spent loads of time talking, preaching, teaching and issuing commandments about love.

That was my answer: Love them. Unconditionally, without caveats or exceptions.

I wasn’t sure whether homosexuality actually was a sin. But I was certain I was commanded to love.

For 20 years, that answer was workable, if incomplete. Lately, though, it’s been nagging at me. Some of my gay friends are married, have children and have been with their partners and spouses as long as I’ve been with my husband.

Loving them is easy. Finding clear theological answers to questions about homosexuality has been decidedly not so.

That’s why I’m grateful for a growing number of evangelical leaders who are bravely offering a different answer.

In his new book Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self and Society, Jay Bakker, the son of Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Messner, gives clear and compelling answers to my nagging questions.

Simply put, homosexuality is not a sin, says Bakker, 35, pastor of Revolution NYC, a Brooklyn evangelical congregation that meets in a bar.

Bakker, who is straight and divorced, crafts his argument using the same “clobber scriptures” (as he calls them) that are so often wielded to condemn homosexuals.

“The simple fact is that Old Testament references in Leviticus do treat homosexuality as a sin … a capital offense even,” Bakker writes. “But before you say, ‘I told you so,’ consider this: Eating shellfish, cutting your sideburns and getting tattoos were equally prohibited by ancient religious law.

“The truth is that the Bible endorses all sorts of attitudes and behaviors that we find unacceptable (and illegal) today and decries others that we recognize as no big deal.”

Leviticus prohibits interracial marriage, endorses slavery and forbids women to wear trousers. Deuteronomy calls for brides who are found not to be virgins to be stoned to death, and for adulterers to be summarily executed.

“The church has always been late,” Bakker told me in an interview this week. “We were late on slavery. We were late on civil rights. And now we’re late on this.”

Examining the original Greek words translated as “homosexual” and “homosexuality” in three New Testament passages, Bakker (and others) conclude that the original words have been translated inaccurately in modern English.

What we read as “homosexuals” and “homosexuality” actually refers to male prostitutes and the men who hire them. The passages address prostitution — sex as a commodity — and not same-sex, consensual relationships, he says.

(The word “homosexual” first appeared in an English-language Bible in 1958. Bakker is part of a group petitioning Bible publishers to remove the words “homosexual” and “homosexuality” from new translations and replace it with terms that more precisely reflect the original Greek.)

“We must weigh all the evidence,” Bakker writes. “The clobber scriptures don’t hold a candle to the raging inferno of grace and love that burns through Paul’s writing and Christ’s teaching. And it’s a love that should be our guiding light.”

Bakker’s clear voice on homosexuality is not alone in the evangelical community.

Tony Jones, a “theologian-in-residence” at Minnesota’s Solomon’s Porch, one of the pre-eminent “Emergent” churches in the nation, echoes many of Bakker’s arguments. Peggy Campolo, wife of evangelist Tony Campolo, has been saying this kind of thing for years, despite her husband’s disagreement.

And while he stops short of explicitly saying “it’s not a sin” in his 2010 book, A New Kind of Christianity, Brian McLaren, godfather of the Emergent church movement, condemns a Christian preoccupation with homosexual issues as “fundasexuality.”

“We could really use someone like Rob Bell to step forward and say this, too,” Bakker said in the interview, referring to the 40-year-old pastor of the Michigan megachurch Mars Hill and author of bestselling books such as Velvet Elvis and Sex God.

Bell, a classmate of mine at Wheaton, is a rock star in emerging Christian circles, despite eschewing the “Emergent” label or any other apart from “Christ follower.”

Only time will tell whether more evangelical leaders — Emergent, emerging or otherwise — will add their voices to the chorus calling for full and unapologetic inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the church.

But I’m sensing a change in the wind (and the Spirit.)

Might the evangelical church be on the verge of a Gay Awakening?

I prayerfully hope so.

 

Narrative of Tom OToole, Jr. – Beyond Ex-Gay

Written by ECWR Web
Sunday, 14 November 2010 03:27
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Narrative of Tom OToole, Jr. – Beyond Ex-Gay.

I came to Christ at the age of 14 after attending a Christian boy’s camp in Maine. Within a year of accepting Christ, I was affirmed by people in my Conservative Baptist church as a “natural leader” with potential to do great things. At the age of 15 I began serving each summer as a camp counselor at various Christian camps in New England. I was also very active in my church’s youth group and began expressing my love for music by playing guitar and singing in church. I attended Bible college in New Jersey and a Christian liberal arts college in New York.

Tom in 1978

At the age of 23 I began working at a Christian school in Massachusetts, and I served as principal of that school for 7.5 years. My spiritual and intellectual gifts were always noticed by others and I never had trouble finding opportunities to serve God in fun and challenging ministry roles. But I had a secret…While my life as a natural-born Christian leader was moving full-steam ahead, my identity as a gay man was also moving forward, keeping pace with my outer successes in ministry.

Same-sex attraction has always been a part of my life, as far back as I can remember. I began acting on those attractions by “experimenting” with childhood friends as a young teen. It wasn’t until I was about 15 years old (the same time that I began growing in my faith) that I realized I might be gay. When I was 16 my mother became suspicious, confronted me and asked me if I was gay. I broke down crying and confirmed her suspicions. My parents took me to see a local pastor to see if he could help me. The pastor showed compassion but recommended that I see a Christian therapist.

I can still remember sitting in the office of that therapist. He was behind his big desk, and although I sat just a few feet in front of him, I felt like I was hundreds of miles away. It was my first encounter with feeling shame in the presence of a faith-based caregiver. After telling him my story, and sitting there in awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity, he said, “Do you want to change?” In the moments before answering his question, I remember thinking, “Change? Change what? I’m not sure I really understand what this is, let alone whether or not I want to change…” I told him that I did want to change, but I never met with him again. I proceeded to convince my parents that my “gayness” was just a phase. “I can change this with God’s help!”, I told them. And thus began a 24 year journey of repression, costly pursuits of healing and repeated disappointment. I never changed.

Image of boy with head in handsUnable to sustain the conflict raging within me, I left my ministry as a Christian school principal after 7.5 years. On one hand I was a successful, respected, young leader in the Christian community. On the other hand I was a closeted gay man, pursuing anonymous sexual encounters and experiencing secret affairs with men. I began doing research to see if I could find a “cure” from homosexuality. I was making phone calls all over the country. I attended week-long conferences focused on healing of sexual and relational brokenness. I spent thousands of dollars to attend these conferences.

After leaving my ministry at the Christian school I began attending a small church in Boston where I decided to be completely honest about my sexuality. I began meeting with the pastor weekly and also received weekly counseling from a Christian therapist who specialized in treating homosexuals. I spent over $3,000 on this therapy over the course of 2 years. At the age of 30 I attended my first Exodus affiliate ex-gay ministry program in Boston. I worked through the 40-week program 3 times, the 3rd time as a leader. I led worship for the program and attended 2 Exodus conferences. I had some of the biggest names in ex-gay ministry pray over me and even prophesy about my healing.

But my same-sex attraction never diminished. I never changed.

I began serving as a worship leader at my church. God began using me to lead His people in greater understanding, experience and expression of worship as a lifestyle. Before long I was leading worship at city-wide gatherings and concerts of prayer. I was invited to teach about and lead worship at other churches, Christian retreats and coffee houses. I began another wave of participating in ex-gay ministry and attended a 40-week Living Waters Program twice, the 2nd time as an assistant leader. Again, I was succeeding in ministry, but my same-sex attraction was very much alive and well. I guess I really believed that if I stuck with it, cooperated with caregivers and with God, I would eventually be free from homosexuality or free to live a celibate lifestyle. I was wrong.

At the age of 34 I joined Youth With A Mission (YWAM), graduated from YWAM’s Discipleship Training School and School of Worship in Hawaii and began traveling to many nations as a missionary worship leader. Although I did experience some wonderful adventures with God during those years, the conflict within me mounted. In 2000, at the age of 40 after spending about $25,000 for therapy, conferences and programs, and after 24 years of fighting, I became very depressed. I gave up ministry and trying to change my sexual orientation. I left my church and isolated myself from the Body of Christ for 6 years.Picture of Tom O'Toole Jr.

In March of 2005 I fell down stairs at my home while doing laundry. I fractured my ankle severely and needed 9 surgeries. I contracted osteomyelitis (infection in the bone) and almost lost my foot. I just started walking without crutches in January of 2007. Although the past 2 years have been the most lonely and challenging years of my life, somehow God used this time to draw me back into relationship with Him – but this time as a Christian gay man. I re-established relationships with dear friends at my church. Although they do not support my decision to live a gay lifestyle, we are able to share common ground based on our faith.

Recently some Christian friends approached me. They are a young heterosexual couple who happen to have several gay friends. They are not convinced that loving, committed, monogamous relationships between people of the same sex are forbidden by God. They invited me to join them in starting a small group that reaches out to people who feel completely alienated and estranged from God and His people, offering them hope and a path to intimacy with God, regardless of their sexual orientation.

So here I am again, exploring ministry opportunities after a long and lonely “desert” season. Now I’m moving forward as an openly gay Christian man. I’m dating guys again, and for the first time in my life I feel a deep sense of freedom to be the man God created me to be!

 

Denver Evangelical Church Welcomes Gays

Written by ECWR Web
Monday, 08 November 2010 18:17
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As more states consider whether or not to legalize gay marriage, church leaders have been forced to examine their theological position on homosexuality. They find themselves asking the question about gays and lesbians: What would Jesus do?

And they are coming to very different conclusions.

Some churches have decided to take the “hate the sin, love the sinner” approach by actively lobbying against gay marriage. Catholic leaders in Minnesota have turned to mass mailings as part of a media blitz to try to keep marriage between a man and a woman.

In Denver, an evangelical Christian pastor has split with his former church and started his own evangelical church that fully welcomes gays as worshipers and leaders.

The Rev. Mark Tidd says he does not see a discrepancy between the Bible and accepting members of the homosexual community.

“There’s times when we change how we approach scripture because we observe how God is making God’s self known in creation,” he said. “We don’t consider it a sin to be gay and we don’t consider it a sin if you are gay and seek a relationship which is the only natural one you can have which would be someone of the same gender.”

Video: Colorado candidates debate same-sex marriage issue

Lisa Crane and her husband Ryan left their more traditional evangelical church for Tidd’s church, and have no plans to go back.

“Do we ever worry like, ‘Oh God am I wrong about this?’ and ‘Am I going to get to heaven and God is going to be like – No, you weren’t supposed to let the gays serve communion!’” Lisa said.

“You know, I don’t think so. That doesn’t jibe with the Jesus that we learned about from the Bible”

About 1,000 miles away, Gretchen Thibault hears a much different answer.

“What would Jesus do?” she wondered. “Jesus loves us, but the activity would not be appropriate. Jesus loves the sinner not the sin.”

Thibault is a Roman Catholic living in Minneapolis, where the archdiocese has distributed 400,000 DVDs encouraging its members to support the idea that individuals and not judges should vote on an amendment that would define marriage between a man and woman.

 

Phoenix-area United Methodist Bishop Calls Church Exclusion of LGBT People “Wrong” and a “Sin”

Written by ECWR Web
Monday, 08 November 2010 16:54
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by Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño, Resident Bishop of the Phoenix area of the United Methodist Church

A couple of weeks ago I received an early morning email of concern from an ecumenical leader. He directed me to a YouTube site in which three of our United Methodist clergy persons were making statements against the local diocese of the Roman Catholic Church. They were part of a group that was taking on the Catholics for having made a public declaration against women in ministry and persons of a homosexual orientation. While I wish they had consulted me before doing this, I understood their concerns. Our churches, Catholic and Methodist, all too often come down on the side of condemnation and rejection of others rather than on the side of grace and Christian love.

Then I was privileged to go to a United Methodist church to help celebrate its one hundredth anniversary. It was a church I had served as pastor many years ago. I rejoiced in the vitality of their ministry. It was wonderful to reconnect with persons I loved but had not seen in many years. In the middle of reminiscing with them someone sadly said to me, “We lost Bobby.” I did not know what she meant. Had he died? No he had not died, but the previous year he had quit coming to church. “What happened?” I asked. They looked at each other and finally said, “On the last Sunday he was here our pastor preached a condemning sermon against homosexuals. It was a harsh sermon. We haven’t seen Bobby since then.” Bobby had been a faithful member of that church for almost 60 years.

More recently I was at a church meeting. The agenda was one that demonstrated the full commitment of those around the table to be loving and compassionate towards those who are most vulnerable among us — those in prison, women and children living in poverty, and those affected by violence. It was one of those meetings that makes all the hard work of ministry worthwhile. But then it all came tumbling down. During a meal break one of the persons at the meeting began to describe the experience of receiving hospitality on a trip he had taken and made reference to being the recipient of hospitality from a beautiful young woman. The group began to good naturedly rib him about his experience with the young woman, to which he responded, “Well, I certainly didn’t want it to be some Homo!”

I have been giving much thought to these occurrences remembering many others like them. The lens through which I see them today is, however, much more critical. The lens is that of the teen suicides of a number of young persons who suffered harassment, bullying, and a gross invasion of privacy because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. It is clear that the bullying and harassment led them to their deaths. Five of these teen suicides have received much national publicity, but studies that our very own denomination has reported on show that teen suicides in this country are up, and that this is especially true for gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers.

As the mother of a teenager, but also as one who knows that God calls us to care for all children, I am deeply concerned. As a bishop of the church I am forced to again look at the statements of the church and consider whether what we say has contributed to this deadly situation. What must our young people hear when we say that homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching (2008 Book of Discipline of The UMC, Paragraph 161H)”? Does this contribute to some of our young people treating their homosexual peers as less than themselves? Do these young people believe they have permission even from the church to mistreat those who are of a different sexual orientation? What violence do we promote in our churches and in society when we devalue our homosexual brothers and sisters?

I pray that we will all consider this situation and seek every way to rectify any wrong that we may be contributing to. Love and compassion in the spirit of Jesus who excluded no one from the circle of God’s grace must be how we live as persons of Christian faith. I pray that one day our exclusion of persons of homosexual orientation will end in The United Methodist Church. I earnestly hope that our exclusion of our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender brothers and sisters will one day be seen as the wrong that it is. While we work and wait for that day, let us not sin against those whom God loves.

-Peace, Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño

 

James Swilley Announces He is Gay

Written by ECWR Web
Wednesday, 03 November 2010 01:39
1 Comment

A Georgia megachurch pastor has come out of the closet, announcing that he is gay–and that he’s know he was gay since childhood.

“I know a lot of straight people think that [sexual] orientation is a choice,” James Swilley, a twice-married father of four, told the media. “I want to tell you it is not.”

Swilley said that he had been up-front from the start with his wife of 21 years, Debye. After the two divorced, Debye encouraged Swilley to tell the truth, the pastor said.

Debye stood with Swilley not only as his wife, but also as the associate pastor of Church in the Now, which Swilley established a quarter-century ago, The Advocate reported on Oct. 29.

The recent rash of suicides by gay youths who were tormented at school for their sexuality provided the impetus for Swilley’s public disclosure, the pastor told Atlanta news station WSB-TV. As a father…” Swilley began, sounding choked up, before starting again. “Think about your 16, 17-year-old killing themselves. I thought somebody needed to say something.”

WSB-TV noted that anti-gay Christian websites had begun attacking Swilley, with one site calling him “unclean” and “an instrument of the Devil.” Swilley acknowledged that if there is a major loss of attendees to his church, he will have to start over again–but he said that it was worth the risk. “I know all the hateful stuff that’s being written about me online, whatever,” Swilley told WSB-TV. “To think about saving a teenager, yeah, I’ll risk my reputation for that.” Swilley also told the media that his congregation has been largely supportive of his coming out.

The revelation comes less than two months after allegations against Atlanta-based megachurch pastorEddie Long made headlines. Four young men filed suit against Long alleging that the pastor had used his position of spiritual authority, along with passages from Scripture, to coerce them into sexual encounters. The men were all of the age of consent at the time of the alleged encounters, and no criminal charges were filed.

Long has spoken out against GLBT equality and family parity, even leading a march through Atlanta to the grave of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 2004, in support of an anti-gay amendment to the Georgia Constitution. Long has denied the allegations, comparing himself to David facing down Goliath.

 

Christian couple create gay outreach group

Written by ECWR Web
Saturday, 16 October 2010 23:55
1 Comment

Kaitlin Gillespie
THE DAILY EVERGREEN
Published: 10/14/2010

“It’s hard to be gay and a Christian,” Erica Norris said. “You just don’t mix those two things. It’s like oil and water.” Norris, a junior communication and psychology major, and her girlfriend, Krystal Moore, a junior human development major, are working to break this stereotype.

After church members at Real Life Ministries in Moscow, Idaho, told them they could not hold positions of leadership in a youth group, the couple decided to create an RSO called God Loves Gays (GLG), a group they say will create a forum for open discussion about being gay and Christian.

Norris and Moore had hoped to act as student leaders in the Young Life youth group, an organization that travels to local high schools and talks about church events.

“We went to the first day of training and (the leader) ended up finding out that we were together and I instantly knew it was going to be a problem from the way his body language changed,” Norris said.

Norris and Moore continued to try to participate. They met with the adult leaders to discuss the issue. They said in spite of their willingness to communicate, they were still faced with opposition.

“We realized where they were coming from,” Norris said. “It’s all based on opinion and how you interpret the Bible. In our opinion, we’re not doing anything wrong or if we are, then God loves us anyway. Everybody sins every day. Long story short, they didn’t agree with us.” Moore said this was the first time since coming out that she truly felt different. She said being taken out of a leadership position because of her sexuality made her doubt her leadership skills, though she has plenty of leadership experience.

“Dating Erica does not change the fact that I’m a leader and always will be,” she said.

After the encounter, Norris decided to find a way to bridge the gap between the gay and Christian communities and came up with the idea for the God Loves Gays RSO.

Norris said the group will work to teach people on campus that being gay or supporting the gay community while being Christian is possible. She said their gay friends felt discouraged about following the Christian faith after they heard the couple’s story.

“It’s hard to believe in it when people tell you you’re going to Hell,” she said.

Moore and Norris also said the new RSO will work to teach members about the Bible.

Moore said there are many interpretations of the Bible, and it does not necessarily have to condemn homosexuality. She said she has started to read the Bible more frequently and has struggled to find the passages that conflict with her sexuality.

“I’ve never read it where I feel like it was saying I was a bad person,” she said.

Norris and Moore both come from Christian families, and both said coming out was a difficult process.

Norris said she came out to her dad when he asked her who she was texting so often.

“Me and my dad didn’t talk for like a month,” she said. “But then after that he realized that I was still his kid. Now we’re best friends.” Moore, who is still in the process of coming out to her friends and family, said she believes GLG will help individuals facing similar struggles.

“There is no doubt it will still be hard, but in GLG, we want to have a safe place to learn more about being gay and what that means to a Christian like myself,” she said.

The group is still in the process of registering, but has a tentative meeting scheduled Oct. 18 at 8:30 p.m. The meeting place is to be announced.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/story/32722