Newsletter of EVANGELICALS CONCERNED, INC

Spring 2009

Romans 8

Evangelical leaders are partnering with progressive think tank Third Way to find common ground in “culture war” issues such as gay rights, abortion and immigration reform.  Mercer University ethicist David Gushee says that, at the core of the coalition’s Come Let Us Reason Together agenda is a “concern for human dignity”.  He grants that some of his fellow Southern Baptists recoil at gay rights, but “denying someone a job in a secular workplace due to their sexual orientation violates human dignity and serves no public purpose.”  Among other evangelicals involved in this common cause are Florida megachurch pastor Joel C. Hunter, Sam Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Robert P. Jones of Faith in Public Life and Jonathan Merritt of the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative.

Josh Spavin, 25, is Campus Crusade intern at the University of Central Florida and is seeking to implement the ministry’s “Good News, Good Deeds” initiative by inviting the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Student Union to work with Crusade in HIV/AIDS outreach.  InterstateQ.com journalist Matt Comer, 22, comments: “Spavin will be walking a thin line – one that separates Christian charity and anti-gay proselytizing. … It’d be an awful sight to see the Crusaders take this opportunity to show gay and lesbian people ‘the evil of their ways’.”  He adds: “Despite my skepticism, I wish Spavin the best of luck.  Maybe he will change something.  Maybe he’ll learn real life lessons he’s never had the chance to know before.”   

Miguel A. De La Torre includes a chapter on homosexuality in his book, A Lily Among the Thorns: Imagining a New Christian Sexuality.   Years ago, this Southern Baptist minister, who currently teaches social ethics at Iliff School of Theology, was a supporter of Anita Bryant’s antigay crusade in Miami. But in 2007, here’s what he concludes in his chapter on same-sex relationships.  He asks: “How then can homosexuals freely develop the familial relationships that lead to great sex?  What are the sexual moral responsibilities of gays and lesbians?  What must homosexuals do to live in accordance with biblical principles?”  He states: “There is one answer to all three questions: exactly what is expected of heterosexuals.  You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  What is expected from homosexuals in their relationship to God and to their fellow humans is no different from what is expected from heterosexuals.  No more and no less.  Having multiple sex partners violates orthoeros among homosexuals as well as heterosexuals – not because sex is wrong, or evil, but because having multiple partners prevents the possibility of having great sex within a familial model.  Just like heterosexuals seeking familial sexual relationships, homosexuals are also called to become vulnerable and to enter into a mutually giving relationship with their beloved.” 
   De La Torre will be a keynoter at EC’s eastern summer connECtion, May 29-31, 2009.

Evangelicals for Social Action’s Ron Sider has long said that “homosexual practice is contrary to God’s will”  “But,” he says on ESA’s website, “evangelicals have made huge mistakes with regard to gay and lesbian Americans.  We should have led the way opposing gay-bashing.  We should have taught Christian parents to love gay sons and lesbian daughters (even as they disagreed with gay sexual practice) rather than disowning them.  We should have said all along that the primary reason for the collapse of wholesome family life is not because a tiny minority (3-5%) of the population promote gay sex but rather because the majority of the 95% of Americans who are heterosexual (many of whom claim to be Christina) do not keep their marriage vows.  To suggest, as too much Religious Right propaganda has, that the gay community is the major cause of the collapse of the family when we do not deal with the much greater problem that evangelicals get divorced at the same rate as everyone else is dishonest and hypocritical”.

Wayne State University philosopher John Corvino, who is gay, and Focus on the Family’s Glenn Stanton, who is not, debate each other on homosexuality at campuses around the country.   Stanton is a Christian and Corvino is not.  But both have written of their mutual respect and friendship – Stanton in Christianity Today and Corvino in his weekly column at 365gay.com. 
   Recently, they were to debate at Saginaw Valley State University.  Stanton would be flying into Detroit, where Corvino lives.  So he invited Stanton to be his and his partner’s houseguest and Stanton accepted immediately.  But the day of Stanton’s planned arrival, he phoned to say that he’d booked a hotel instead.  He said that, on the advice of Focus colleagues, it wouldn’t be “prudent” to stay in a gay couple’s home.  Corvino told him that was nonsense – he’d already shared a meal in what he called “their beautiful home” in his CT article.  And as an Italian-American, reared to value the extending of hospitality, Corvino was hurt and angered: “It’s partly because I’ve defended both Glenn and Focus against charges of hypocrisy and have taken a lot of flak in the process.  … And it’s partly because it underscores the ugly myths that I fight against every day, even in my debates with Glenn”.      

“Despite the publisher’s intent, spending time with The Green Bible makes me more aware than ever of the gulf separating ancient Israel from the Sierra Club, and warier of forcing environmentalism, anti-environmentalism, or any other contemporary agenda into passages of Scripture”.  So says Westmont College theologian, Telford Work, in his lively and informative appraisal of Harper One’s new environmentally friendly edition of the Bible.  Verses judged to be germane to contemporary “creation care” issues are printed in green, soy-based ink on recycled paper.  (Christianity Today’s website, February 19, 2009)
   Ralph Blair says Work’s well-stated critique of eisegetical and anachronistic readings of the Bible applies, as well, to issues of homosexuality today – whether it’s pro-gay activists’ reading gayness back into the friendships of David and Jonathan or Ruth and Naomi or antigay activists’ reading gayness back into Sodom or what Paul had in mind in illustrating his argument against lawsuits between Christians. 

Nobel Laureate Francis Collins, who led the National Genome Project, responds to “ex-gay” advocates’ “juxtapos[ing my words] in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion than I intended”.   Collins, author of The Language of God, says: “It troubles me greatly to learn that anything I have written [with reference to homosexuality] would cause anguish.”  He states: “The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality – the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion”.  But, Collins explains, “other factors besides DNA must be involved”.  He notes: “that certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.”  Granting that, “no one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component”, Collins predicts: “it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.” 

“I’ve known a lot of former homosexuals but I’ve never met a former African American.”   Texas megachurch preacher Ed Young used this throwaway line while instructing his congregates to prepare for the November election. He contended that “the homosexual agenda” is not comparable to the black civil rights movement.  Afterward, he urged his congregation to engage in “Seven Days of Sex”.  His “sexperiment”, as he called it, was for heterosexually married couples only.

“To equate [Barack Obama’s] position with support of homosexuality is being careless with the truth.”   Obama supporter Kirbyjon Caldwell, pastor of Houston’s 14,000-member Windsor Village United Methodist Church, made this statement to readers of the antigay Pentecostal magazine, Charisma (“My Turn”, October). 
   Controversy swirled around the fact that the “ex-gay” agency, Metanoia Ministry, was featured on the website of Caldwell’s church.  After gay Obama supporters confronted Caldwell about this fact, Metanoia Ministry disappeared from the church’s website.  He said he’d not known it was there.  Asked if he opposed the Metanoia Ministry, he replied: “It’s not a ministry of the church. It’s not supported by the church.  It is not located at the church.  That is pretty much where I am with it.”
   But, then, “ex-gay” advocates attacked Caldwell for deleting Metanoia. In his Charisma statement, Caldwell said that, contrary to what these attackers were saying: “I knew about the Metanoia Ministry and support it 100 percent.”
   Caldwell gave the benedictions at both inaugurations of George W. Bush.
   Charisma founder Stephen Strang wrote in his column that the magazine could not endorse Obama because of “his sympathy toward those who are attempting to legitimize homosexuality.”   

After yet “more sad details” of Ted Haggard’s “tortured” life, Andrew Sullivan observes: “At some point, surely evangelical Christians will have to ask themselves are we going to continue to demonize homosexuality to such an extent that even our ablest preachers and leaders are led into destructive, secret and often abusive relationships because we cannot allow them to pursue open and honest and loving ones?”  He writes: “The countless gay men who are currently running many of the world’s leading Christian denominations are threats to themselves, to other gay men, to their wives and their churches because ancient doctrine forces them into twisted shells of human beings.”  Referencing the Roman Catholic sex scandals, Sullivan notes that about all the hierarchy does is “to ratchet up the psychological pressure even further on the men whose psyches and souls they have already permanently warped”.   

In February, 2,000 Hawaiians from churches, temples, synagogues and mosques protested proposed legislation (House Bill 444) that would establish civil unions for same-sex couples.  Some protesters carried signs that read: “Destroy the Core of 444” and “Turn to Jesus or Burn in Hell”.  Said the Hawaii Family Forum leader: “I just think it’s going to open up a Pandora’s box of legal suits.  … We can accept the lifestyle, but we don’t want to institutionalize it.”  

George F. Will critiques California attorney general Jerry Brown’s “audacious argument” for voiding all the votes in support of Proposition 8.  Will calls for both patience and caution: “Just eight years ago, Proposition 22 was passed 61.4 to 38.6.  The much narrower victory of Proposition 8 [52.3 to 47.7] suggests that minds are moving toward toleration of same-sex marriage. If advocates of that have the patience required by democratic persuasion, California’s ongoing conversation may end as they hope.  But if the conversation is truncated, as Brown urges, by judicial fiat, the argument will become as embittered as the argument over abortion has been by judicial highhandedness.”    

Flannery O’Connor was only 39 when she died in 1964.  She was a serious Christian and both her grotesque wit and profound insight into human character attest to her reputation as 20^th-century America’s greatest short story writer.  Emory University has now released several years’ worth of her correspondence with her longtime friend, Betty Hester.  In an interview in Humanities, Brad Gooch, author of the new biography, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor (Little, Brown), notes: “At a crucial moment in their friendship, Hester confided to O’Connor that she had been dishonorably discharged from the military, most likely for lesbian activity.  The depth of O’Connor’s unconditional love, support and candor was surprising.” (November/December, 2008)              

Utah’s Republican Governor John Huntsman, Jr. supports civil unions for same-sex couples.  So an antigay campaign, launched by a group called America Forever, has run full-page ads in The Salt Lake City Tribune and The Deseret News, attacking the governor’s position and opposing legislation that would offer inheritance and medical-decision-making rights to same-sex couples.  The ad links homosexuals to “druggies and hookers” and labels homosexuality “anti-species behavior”.  Republican Representative Carl Wimmer opposes gay rights, but when it comes to America Forever, he says: “Everything they’re doing crosses the line.”  He says: “There’s no need to have hateful discourse”.   

Indiana’s Senate Republican Caucus has rejected a resolution that would have proposed amending the state’s constitution so as to define marriage as limited to a male/female couple.  The issue is not likely to be raised again.  

An antigay website has shifted from deriding a so-called “gay agenda” to deriding a so-called  “homosexualist [sic] agenda”.   LifeSiteNews uses this meaner-spirited substitute in alerting its constituency to President Obama’s support for civil rights for gay men and lesbians.  LSN is alarming its readers with warnings of his “plans to implement the most radical homosexualist [sic] policy agenda in the nation’s history”.  

The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws.  The reason?  Too many of the new laws passed by the Italian Parliament conflict with Roman Catholic teaching, including teaching on homosexuality.

It’s marketed as “the only study Bible to seek insights from ALL the people.”  It’s the New Revised Standard Version called The Peoples’ Bible.  The study note on Romans 1:24-27: “Heterosexual men should not exchange their nature for homosexual practices. … On the same principle, we might infer that homosexuals should not exchange their nature, or orientation, for heterosexual practices.”

The Evangelical Lutheran Church will be considering a recommendation that individual congregations have the option of employing gay pastors in same-sex relationships.  According to one Lutheran minister: “At this point, there is no consensus in the church.  The question ends up being, ‘How are we going to live together in that absence of consensus?’”  For the time being, gay Lutheran pastors may serve if they remain celibate, though some congregations have hired pastors in gay relationships.

“Faith’s straight line defies the secular grid that so many politicians and journalists try to impose upon religious communities: that they be unswervingly Democratic or Republican, liberal or conservative, left or right.”  Samuel G. Freedman of The New York Times, here seeks to explain how African Americans overwhelming voted for Barack Obama and for California’s Prop 8 ban against same-sex marriage.  “The only surprise, in truth, is that anybody should be surprised”.  Freedman notes a sermon by Charles Blake, bishop of the Church of God in Christ, a black Pentecostal denomination, delivered at the Democratic Convention.  The bishop denounced the Democrats for supporting abortion and Republicans for being “silent if not indifferent” to social injustice.  Says Freedman: “The range of positions may be most apparent these days within evangelical circles”. 

Since the arrest of T. D. Jakes’ son for allegedly soliciting gay sex from an undercover vice officer in a Dallas park near The Potter’s House in January, Harvard Divinity School Ford Fellow Irene Monroe says Jakes’ “rantings against homosexuality have come back to bite him”.  She reports: “Many African American brothers [think the son] is intentionally flamboyant and sexually reckless to publicly deride and embarrass his homophobic dad.”  Monroe discusses “down low” and the 2005 “Outing Black Pastors” series from gay black activists Jasmyne Cannick and Keith Boykin. Her opinion piece is in Boston’s Bay Windows, February 25.   

Gay men and lesbians are an important resource for children awaiting adoption according to a nonpartisan adoption group, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute. There is virtually “universal professional consensus” that people who offer to adopt children should be assessed on qualifications other than sexual orientation.  The Vatican, in 2003, judged adoption by gay men and lesbians to be “gravely immoral”, but a spokesperson for Lutheran Social Services says: “When you look at the individual family and see a child who is really doing well [in a home headed by a gay or lesbian adoptive parent] it’s hard to argue” against it. 
   Currently, some 129,000 children in the U.S. are in foster care and many of them – children with special needs, minority children, older children – face little prospect of finding a loving, permanent home.   

When a Los Angeles City College student, in a speech class, raised some objections to gay marriage, his teacher called him a “fascist bastard” and told him to stop speaking.  Later, when the student, Jonathan Lopez, tried to ask about his grade, the teacher sneered: “Ask God what your grade is”.  Gay activists say they were “outraged” and “offended” and that Lopez should “pay the price” for offending them.
   It’s all now at the center of a lawsuit in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles.     

Scranton’s Roman Catholic bishop has voiced “absolute disapproval” of a gay rights activist’s speaking at Misericordia University.  Bishop Joseph Martino says the school should shut down its diversity program after hosting Keith Boykin “under the guise of diversity”.  Students reacted with shock and anger at the bishop’s hostility. 

More Roman Catholic institutions of higher education have chartered GLBT student groups than ever before.  Included among these are organizations at Boston College, Canisius, Fairfield, Fordham, Georgetown, Gonzaga, Holy Cross, John Carroll, Loyola, Marquette, Rockhurst, Saint Louis, Spring Hill and Xavier. 

AND FINALLY:

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