Newsletter of EVANGELICALS CONCERNED, INC

Summer 2004

Romans 8

A little under half of American evangelical Christians (48%) “say a candidate’s support for gay marriage would disqualify him from getting their votes.”  This finding was reported in the “Go Figure” feature in the June issue of Christianity Today,  It was also reported that only 44% of evangelicals give Jerry Falwell a “favorable” rating while 59% give Pope John Paul II a “favorable” rating.

The Religious Right’s World magazine reports a Barna Research poll finding that a third of Americans have never heard of the (now failed) Federal Marriage Amendment.  This evangelical polling group finds that 44 percent of the 1,618 surveyed adults are against the FMA, 46 percent favor it, and 10 percent are undecided.  According to World’s Lynn Vincent: “Even many self-identified born-again Christians, the report notes, are not convinced that their definition of marriage should be included in the federal Constitution.”
   Leaders of the Religious Right are frustrated over their inability to ignite evangelical Christians to fight against marriage for gay couples.  Chuck Colson describes evangelicals on this issue as “the great sleeping army.

Tony Campolo says the Right, in its obsession over marriage for same-sex couples, is ignoring what’s really putting the American family in jeopardy.  Says the popular Baptist preacher/sociologist: “Don’t get me wrong: I am no advocate of gay marriage.”   But: “The traditional family is in danger, not because so many gays want to get married, but because so many heterosexuals have chosen to get divorced.  In fact, nearly half of new heterosexual marriages now end in divorce.  In addition, more than 30% of today’s young couples choose to live together without bothering to get married.”  Campolo says his fellow evangelicals try to explain their double-standard on gay people and divorced/remarried people by saying, with regard to the latter: “we must communicate grace above all else.”  He says: “To this I can only respond, ‘When will we start communicating the same grace to our gay brothers and sisters?’” 
   Campolo’s remarks were published in ePistle, the biweekly ezine of PRISM magazine and Evangelicals for Social Action, July 14, 2004.

One in five married women have engaged in an extramarital affair.  This is the finding of a study of married women by Tom W. Smith with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.         

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), asked about gay men adopting and raising children, replied: “There are a lot of adopted children who have loving parents, and it comes in different ways with different people in different states.”  The interview, by Deborah Solomon, was in The New York Times Magazine for Fathers Day.    
     Some 24 million American children live in fatherless homes and about 3 million children live with unmarried couples, according to 2002 Census estimates.

The American Medical Association is supporting state legislation to allow adoption by same-sex couples.  The decision was announced on June 15.  Dr. David Fassier of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists said the position “underscores the need for the AMA to take actions based on science ahead of personal beliefs or politics.”  According to Dr. Richard Pan of the American Academy of Pediatrics, “there is no difference between a child raised by gay parents and a child raised by heterosexual parents.” 

Antigay activist Randall Terry’s 24-year-old son has come out as gay.   Jamiel Terry revealed his being gay in a piece he wrote for Out magazine.  Terry, the ostracized antiabortion activist, tells the gay press that he’s been “speaking against the homosexual agenda since the late ‘80s,” and thinks there’s now no reason to curtail his antigay crusade.  He says he’s urging people to “stand against the homosexual marriage movement.”   In a column in The Washington Times, Terry blasted what he called the “exploitation” of his son as a “trophy,” saying that his son’s life is in “shambles” – DWI, bad checks, jobless, deceitful, etc.    
   Terry’s son is only the most recent antigay activist’s son to come out as gay – among them: Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schafly’s son, John, and California legislator Pete Knight’s son, David, who celebrated a union ceremony with his partner just days before his father’s recent death.

“Doin’ Time in the Homo-No-Mo Halfway House” is Peterson Toscano’s one-man/mult-character comedy subtitled, “How I Survived the Ex-Gay Movement.”   Toscano’s presentation is based on his experiences living in an ex-gay half-way house.  While the show is billed as a comedy (at least, his is a happy ending) there are moments of great poignancy and parts that are quite disturbing.  Before his time inside the “ex-gay” ministry, he served as a Christian missionary in Africa.  He attended Nyack College.  For more information go to www.homonomo.com.

Fellowship 2000 is an African-American consortium of gay-affirming clergy and churches.  At a 5-day conference in Atlanta in June, co-sponsored by Tabernacle Baptist Church and Victory United Church of Christ, speakers included Bishop Carlton Pearson of Tulsa’s Higher Dimensions Family Church.  Pearson used to be on the board at Oral Roberts University but was removed because of his “universalism.”  The Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops Conference declared him a heretic.  He called his critics “a vicious, mean, ignorant group of so-called followers of Christ” and said he was “sort of glad to be distancing myself from that element.” 
   Noting that “homosexuals in the church is nothing new,” Pearson said: “We need to have dialogue about how we’re going to accept and accommodate this growing segment of our church.”

Queen Elizabeth II has awared the honor of the MBE (Member of the British Empire) to the coordinator of a helpline for parents of gay and lesbian children.  Anne Patrizio said she was thankful that the needs of these families was being recognized so publicly.  She has been doing this work in Scotland for the past 15 years.

Accepting Evangelicals is a new “network of Evangelical Christians who believe the time has come for the acceptance of faithful, loving same-sex partnerships at every level of church life, and the development of a positive Christian ethic for gay and lesbian people.” 
   Based in the UK, AE welcomes supporters from countries around the world.  Most AE members are heterosexual, as is AE founder Benny Hazlehurst, an Anglican priest who serves a London parish.  
   The AE held a meeting at The Church of England General Synod’s session in York in July and attendance was at capacity.   AE’s Web site is www.acceptingevangelicals.org.

The Archbishop of Canterbury addresses the antigay crusade within the Church of England.  In Stephen Bates’ new book, The Church at War: Anglicans and homosexuality (I. B. Tauris), Rowan Williams is quoted as saying: Homosexuality is “not something that affects many people, unlike divorce.  It’s a good rallying point at a time of cultural flux.  If you are a Catholic, there are other issues you can find as a marker – divorce, contraception – but Anglicanism does not have these.”  Lamenting the difficulty of having a civil discussion when everyone is so polarized, Williams says: “I think we need rather more attention to what really are Church-dividing issues.  Many of us thought we knew what those were – things like the divinity of Christ – not splinters of interpretation.  It seems curious to me that at a time when we need quite a lot of attention and understanding to be given to the big central shape of the story, border skirmishing like this is taking up so much of our energy.”

New Zealand’s newly appointed Anglican Bishop, Whakahuihui Vercoe, says he has a vision of a homosexual-free world.  He predicts that society will someday completely reject homosexuality.  Noting that he’s “not quoting Scripture,” he said: “I’m just basing it on my human – I suppose I should be basing it on Scripture also, but I’m basing it on human accepted norms.”

Canadian Anglicans have affirmed the “integrity and sanctity” of same-sex couples.  At the triennial meeting in June, after postponing discussion of same-sex blessings, the Anglicans passed the “integrity and sanctity” measure by a show of hands.

Vermont’s Episcopal Diocese is the country’s first Episcopal diocese to develop a liturgy for same-sex unions.  Bishop Thomas Ely called the liturgy “appropriate and timely.”  In 2000, Vermont became the first state to offer civil union recognition to same-sex couples.    

Episcopal Bishop Otis Charles was united with his longtime male partner Filipe Sanchez Paris on Charles’ 78^th birthday.   The ceremony was at St. Gregory’s of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco.  Around 200 friends and family members attended.
 

San Francisco Episcopal Bishop William Swing is punishing Bishop Otis Charles for the union ceremony Charles and his male partner celebrated.  Although Swing is a liberal, he issued this statement: “No longer is [Charles] an assistant bishop and no longer is he licensed to celebrate the sacraments here” in the San Francisco jurisdiction.

The Human Rights Campaign endorses Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for President.  According to the head of this pro-gay lobby, Kerry has a “stellar record” on gay issues.  But, at DontAmend.com, the HRC endorsement is said to be “outrageous” because Kerry supports a Massachusetts constitutional amendment to prohibit marriage for gay couples.  Says DontAmend’s Andy Thayer:  Massachusetts “is the one state where we have won this and Kerry wants to repeal that legal equality.”

An evangelical Christian college alumna was among the seven same-sex couples that sued for the right to marry in Massachusetts.  Gloria Bailey, of Barrington College’s class of 1961, has been with her same-sex partner for 31 years.  They were married on May 17, the first day same-sex couples were allowed to marry by law in the Bay State.  

A newly formed group of African-American ministers is opposing marriage rights for gay couples.  The group, Not on My Watch Coalition, is based in Texas and rejects comparisons of the gay rights and black civil rights movements.

The Presbyterian Church USA has elected a pro-gay moderator.  At its 216^th General Assembly, an elder, Rick Ufford-Chase, was chosen to lead the 2.4 million-member denomination for the next two years.  Ufford-Chase works with the Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies in Guatemala.
   By a vote of 259-255, delegates turned down a denominational panel’s proposal to ease restrictions for ordaining gay people to ministry.    

The Board of Trustees of Berry College, a small Presbyterian-affiliated college in rural Georgia, has rejected a student group founded by heterosexual students concerned for the welfare of their gay classmates.  The campus is divided over the decision on this discussion group called Listen.  The editor of the student newspaper supports the Board.  Religion professor Harvey Hill says he’s been trying to get his students to “stop being so closed-minded and stupid” when it comes to homosexuality.  Says openly gay student Jeff Gibb: “They say I’ve chosen this lifestyle but who would choose to be the most hated, socially rejected person on campus?”

Alumni of 32 Roman Catholic colleges have established the National Association of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning Association of Catholic Colleges, Universities, Seminaries and Schools of Religion.  The mission of GLACCU is “to create an educated voice in the public domain to encourage discussion and undertake justice-focused public policy regarding homosexuality, spirituality and civil rights.”   

Baylor University allowed a gay student to graduate after he signed a statement admitting his violation of the school’s conduct code for having organized an off-campus gay rights rally in March.  Darrin Adams says: “Going in, I knew what was at stake.  I just wanted to graduate.  But the rally was off campus and nonviolent and I feel like I had the right to demonstrate.”     

The Southern Baptist Convention voted in June to sever its 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance because the BWA includes some congregations that affirm openly gay Christians.  The vote was taken after debate was cut off following an appeal to reconsider voiced by a minister from First Baptist of Dallas.

A bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is urging calm on issues of homosexuality.  Bisho Peter Rogness of St. Paul (MN).  “Can we agree that living with these different perspectives for a time might be less harmful for the church than a divisive vote that does nothing to bring us together?” he asks.  In 2005, the denomination is scheduled to vote on a proposal to ordain sexually-active gay people.   

Hollywood Lutheran Church has installed a pastor who has been in a committed same-sex relationship for some 28 years.  This congregation’s move was in defiance of the denomination’s policy that approves of the ordination of homosexual ministers only if they are celibate.  

A United Methodist bishop has assigned an lesbian to pastor a Seattle congregation.  Bishop Elias Galvan has appointed Rev. Katie Ladd to the Woodland Park United Methodist Church, succeeding two other openly gay pastors.

The Pilgrim Press, publishing house of the liberal United Church of Christ, placed a full-page, full-color ad for six of its pro-GLBT books in the June issue of The Advocate, a national GLBT paper.  The books are: Same-Sex Marriage? by Marvin M. Ellison, Courage to Love edited by Geoffrey Duncan, Queering Christ by Robert E. Goss, The Man Jesus Loved by Theodore W. Jennings, Jr., Transgender Journeys by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Vanessa Sheridan, Trans-Gendered by Justin Tanis, and Reconciling Journey by Michal Anne Pepper.

The Society for Humanistic Judaism and the Association of Humanistic Rabbis have announced support for equal legal marital rights for same-sex couples.  Rabbi Peter Schweitzer says: “We should assist those who are in a committed relationship who want to codify their love and strengthen their bonds by entering into marriage.”   

A growing acceptance of gay people may be contributing to the decline in teenage suicides – once quite high among gay youth.  Says Dr. Charles Wibbelsman, chief of the Teenage Clinic of Kaiser Permanente and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on adolescents: “We’ve saved al lot more people’s lives [since homosexuality’s been] much more out.”
   However, a study from the University of California (San Francisco) indicates that young men under 21 experience the highest levels of antigay violence and harassment.  The study was based on reports from 1,248 gay men in Phoenix, Austin and Albuquerque and was published in The American Journal of Public Health in July.         

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