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The Newsletter of the Interfaith Working Group
February 1999
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United Methodist Service in California
A service blessing the holy union of Ellie Charlton and
Jeanne Barnett was performed Saturday, January 16,
1999, by the Rev. Donald Fado, pastor of
St. Mark's
United Methodist Church of Sacramento.
The ceremony for the lesbian couple was conducted at the
Sacramento Community Theater. Officiation at such
rites is prohibited for United Methodist clergy.
Particularly remarkable was the Rev. Fado was
joined by seventy-one other active clergy from the
UMC California-Nevada Conference,
six UMC clergy from other annual conferences, seven
Disciples of Christ pastors,
a minister and a Bishop Emeritus of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
an American Catholic
priest, a
United Church of Christ
pastor,
a Presbyterian
minister, a minister from
Religious Science International,
and four former clergy who left the ministry because of their sexual
orientation.
In addition, twenty UMC clergy from the
California-Nevada Conference and fifty-two UMC clergy
from other annual conferences were listed as
co-officiants in absentia. Over a thousand
attended the service, and outside another
five-hundred people held hands and formed a
"circle of love" around the building.
The Revs. Art Brandenburg and Ted Loder, both
IWG supporters,
were among the in absentia officiants.
Rev Brandenburg said "I think this may be the most
significant event for the United Methodist Church
since the founding of the
Reconciling Congregations Program."
For an official statement on the
ceremony, go to
http://www.umaffirm.org/cornews/calstate.html.
Supporting events included a prayer vigil the night
before in Minneapolis and services of solidarity
in Salem, OR; Hollywood, CA; Mt. Pleasant, MI; and
both Binghamton and Brooklyn in New York. The
Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches asked
all congregants to pray or ring church bells to
coincide with the service.
Media coverage was extensive, especially in California
papers and the Washington Post. It was on
CNN Headline News; there was a five minute segment
on the ABC Sunday Morning News, including
an interview with Rev. Greg Dell [see Dec. '98]; and
Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters, the
Associated Press, and Reuters all explicitly connected
the service and the California ballot initiative
in 2000 to prevent recognition of civil same-gender
marriages.
It's too early to determine the consequences of the
service. According to the San Francisco
Chronicle, the Sutter County District Attorney
(a member of
First United Methodist Church
of Yuba City)
will be filing charges against the UMC
officiants "in the court of the United Methodist
Church." The Reuters story included report of
"a petition... circulating nationally within the
United Methodist Church to force openly gay
congregants out of the faith." A pre-event
World Magazine article was headlined
"Gay jihad in California. After a tense armistice
over homosexual 'marriage,' UMC will again be pushed
to the brink of a crackup."
In his post-event article in the Los Angeles
Times, religion writer Larry B. Stammer wrote
"The scene of ninety-five ministers presiding over
a same-sex blessing as twelve-hundred witnesses
looked on is probably unrivaled in the church's
long history of grappling with issues of sexuality."
Catholic Ad Campaign
A full-page ad sponsored by
Pax Christi USA and
New Ways Ministry
ran in the New York Times on
December 30, 1998, listing "nearly 2000 individuals
including nine bishops and more than 150 Catholic
organizations or groups," according to the New
Ways Ministry web page. The ad begins:
"The murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard in Wyoming,
apparently motivated by anti-gay bias, has pierced
the hearts of our nation and opened the eyes of many
to the prejudice, discrimination, harassment, and violence
that gay and lesbian people experience. We cannot
be silent in the face of such action. Our Catholic
faith in the nonviolent gospel of Jesus Christ moves
us to speak."
The ad cites statistics of violence and harassment
from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs,
quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church that
gay and lesbian people "must be accepted with respect,
compassion, and sensitivity," a 1986 Vatican
statement against anti-gay speech and action, and
the
U.S. Bishops'
1994 pastoral letter, "Confronting the Culture of Violence."
The ad concludes: "We pledge to find new ways to bring
the peace of Christ to the situation of violence against
gay and lesbian people. We call on all Catholics and
people of goodwill to look into their hearts and
weed out violent perceptions and behaviors. We
ask our bishops and Church leaders to speak boldly
when the rights of gay and lesbian people are
destroyed and when they are maligned by politicians
and other religious leaders. We pray for both the
victims and the perpetrators of violence. The
choice to prevent another incident such
as the murder of Matthew Shepard is ours. In this
season of peace we pledge to heed the U.S. Bishops'
advice from their 1994 pastoral: 'Violence is overcome
day by day, choice by choice, person by person. All
of us must make a contribution.
A story that ran in Catholic World News said that
New Ways Ministry is "controversial because of its
promotion of the acceptance of homosexuality in
contradiction to Catholic Church teaching." They
did not quote any of the text from the
New York Times ad, but they did quote Francis
DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry:
"If Catholics and all people of faith commit
their hearts to acceptance and inclusion of gay and
lesbian people, the escalation of violence can be
overcome. Misguided religious thought has fueled
the homophobia that causes violence. True Christian
charity can correct it."
MAD Magazine
As part of their "20 Dumbest Things of the Year," MAD Magazine
published what was, for them, an unusually serious response to
the anti-gay ad campaign. Under the heading, "A Newspaper Ad We'd
Like to See," was a page laid out exactly like the ad that featured
Ann Paulk, including the section headings, the pictures, and
the sponsoring organizations at the end. However, instead of a picture
of Ann Paulk there is a picture of a young man with the caption,
"I'm living proof that untruths can win you votes." The text purports
to tell the story of how, with God's help, and the assistance of
a former homophobe, the young man turned away from his hatred of gays
and lesbians. Like the original, the parody has a picture of a
group of smiling people, but the caption reads,
"Thousands of people like these paid models have been repulsed by
extremist ads which bash gays and attempt to impose 'morality' on
others. Throughout the U.S., many people are working to combat this
intolerance. Most, however are typical Americans and don't give
a damn one way or the other."
The tag line for the ad says "If you really love your fellow man, it
doesn't matter if he's gay. And that's the truth." The list of
fictional organizations at the end includes "The Council of Americans
Who Have Actually Read the Constitution" and "Federation of Clergymen
Against Using God's Name to Further a Political Agenda." We sent
the editors a thank-you letter.
Presbyterian Church (USA) Ordination Debate
In June of 1997, the session of
Christ Church of Burlington, VT passed a Resolution of Dissent in
response to the
Presbytery of Northern New England
ordering them to comply with G-6.0106b (which
supposedly bans ordination for anyone having
sexual relations outside of mixed-gender marriage).
The Resolution essentially said the church would
not comply both with G-6.0106b and with other
parts of the Book of Order. On December 5, 1998, the
Presbytery of Northern New England, by a vote of 46
to 32, acknowledged that the church carries on
a valid and sacred ministry in Burlington, that the
inconsistencies in the Book of Order alleged by Christ
Church in their Resolution of Dissent do exist, and
rescinded its action instructing Christ Church to
comply with G-6.0106b. The Presbytery then voted
40 to 27 in favor of a resolution from Christ Church in
support of the Milwaukee Overture, which asks that
G-6.0106b be deleted from the Book of Order.
Religious Exemption for Discrimination?
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor
of an Alaska landlord who refused to rent to an
unmarried couple on religious grounds,
as forbidding him to discriminate violated his
constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
The ruling could override housing discrimination
laws in nine western states, according to an article
in the Los Angeles Times, which also reported
that the Alaska Attorney General's office would ask
a larger panel of the appeals court to reexamine the
case. A
Center for Law & Religious Freedom attorney
said: "Today is a victory for people of
religious conscience of any stripe," while an
attorney who filed a brief on behalf of the
Lambda
Legal Defense and Education Fund said
"Lesbian and gay couples will be swallowed up by that
exception by landlords who claim a religious
exemption."
In a related story reported by the ACLU
in December,
the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that a landlord
violated two couples' rights in 1993 by refusing to
rent to them because he believed they would be "living
in sin." ACLU of Michigan Legal Director Michael
Steinberg said, "The Supreme Court correctly
recognized that when the Legislature outlawed housing
discrimination based on 'marital status' it obviously
intended to stop landlords from refusing to rent
to couples simply because they were unmarried. The
ruling is also important because it recognizes that
a landlord's religious beliefs cannot be used
to justify discrimination."
American Life League Tries to Take Over
American Life League (ALL)
President Judie Brown has
invited all national pro-life organizations to become
divisions of ALL, and for all state and local
organizations to become associated groups of ALL,
in order to create a movement with one set of
principles and objectives, according to the
Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report.
Nine groups have become ALL divisions in the last year.
Brown mentioned opposition to birth control in a list
of issues on which ALL has opinions, but the
"Pro-Life
Activist's Encyclopedia" on their website
also includes chapters on issues she did not mention,
such as, "Atheists: Anti-Life fo the Core," "The
Position of the Jewish Faith on Abortion," and "The
New Age Movement: Highway to Hell," as well as
seven chapters concerning homosexuality including
"The True Objective of 'Gay Rights:' Total Domination!"
Georgia Holocaust Materials
The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust first deleted,
and then apologized for deleting, the only two
paragraphs in their teachers guides that discussed
the treatment of sexual minorities in Nazi concentration
camps, because they thought they were too explicit for
fifth and sixth graders, according to articles in
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The paragraphs
that had been deleted were published in full in the
newspaper, and after a six hour meeting with members
of Atlanta's gay and lesbian community, the Commission
agreed to send them in a letter to teachers who receive
the guides.
Americans United Reports Eight Churches to IRS
On December 10,
Americans United for Separation of
Church and State announced that it filed formal
complaints with the IRS, asking them to investigate
eight churches across the country for intervening
in partisan politics by distributing
Christian Coalition
voter guides just before last month's election.
Individual complaints document instances
of voter guide distribution in conjunction with a
candidate speaking from the pulpit, a party official
distributing Coalition voter guides in a church, and
church ushers distributing guides to churchgoers.
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