The right to life, abortion, freedom of choice issue is much the tougher issue and a healthy debate should continue until some sort of understanding is reached and codified into laws that are firmly upheld by our courts. I suspect the most workable solution is not yet on the table for discussion. We Americans are good at prolonged debate. This willingness to discuss and debate is a basic reason we are a great nation.
The rights of gay people are a different matter. About 35 years ago when I first began facing the fact of the presence of gays in our churches, I became a very lonely advocate for their full acceptance and participation. The accepted opinion was that homosexuals were sick or woefully sinful or both. The majority of Americans have moved a long way from that damning evaluation. American opinion is moving us in the direction of full equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.
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I have tried to analyze what has happened to bring this shift of opinion in so short a time. I offer three reasons.
First, gay people slowly but surely have come out of their closets. Gay people have always been around us, in our families, in our communities, in our churches and in our institutions. Our gay family members and friends were invisible to us. The most highly developed skill of a gay person was to remain undetected. No one can point to a single event and say, “It started here,” but there are milestones in the opening of the closet door.
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall incident. New York City police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. A riot broke out. That single incident, more than any other, is the rallying point for gay activism. The celebration of the Stonewall riot is the base for all gay pride celebrations and parades.
The next milestone, especially for gay Christians, was the publishing of a book in 1972 titled, “The Lord Is My Shepherd, and He Knows I am Gay.” It was written by a Pentecostal minister named Troy Perry. Because of Perry’s efforts there is now a sizable denomination called Metropolitan Community Church that offers a safe church home to gay people who have been turned aside by their churches. Reading Perry’s book was pivotal in shaping my own understanding of the homosexual phenomenon.
The importance of Phil Donahue cannot be overstated. More than any other person he took the discussion of homosexuality into the public arena. He was a pioneer in the world of television talk shows. He took the discussion of the gay presence among us out of the closet. He took what had been a private concern into the public square.
At first gay people came out of their closets in a trickle. The trickle became a stream and today is a flood. Twenty years ago the typical gay person came out of the closet in college. Now kids in junior high are joining the ranks of the openly gay population. The closet is nearing extinction.
The second factor in establishing gay rights has been the battle over the Bible. Forty years ago, Churches of every stripe rejected gay people and especially sexual activities among gay people. The commonly held perspective was that the Bible rejected homosexuals and homosexual activities of all kinds. Then Biblical scholars began their homework. A few scholars starting in the mid-1980s looked more intently at the nine Bible passages that were commonly identified as rejecting homosexual activity. In the 1990s a flood of scholarly books hit the bookstores. I have them all in my personal library. The verdict: Not a single passage in the entire Bible speaks about a loving, committed, intimate relationship between two people of the same sex. The Bible neither endorses nor condemns same-sex relationships. The Bible cannot be used to reject gay people.
Primarily because of the influence of scholarship, opposition to full acceptance of gay people in mainline Christian churches is melting away. I suspect that 50 years from now, Christians will be as embarrassed about the rejection of gay people as they are now about the denial of equality for women and their support of the horror of black slavery.
The third influence may be the most important. As gay people moved out of their closets and into a more public presence, they have proven themselves to be good public citizens. Our communities are blessed by teachers, lawyers, business owners, legislators, carpenters, doctors and ministers who just happen to be gay. When we get to know our gay neighbors, denying them their full rights, including the right to marry legally becomes all the more absurd.
Full acceptance of gay people in our churches and in our American society needs to be affirmed and celebrated. We need to put this dark night of ignorance and discrimination behind us. The 40th anniversary observances of the Stonewall riot are a good time for thoughtful people of good will to walk hand-in-hand with our gay neighbors.
The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.
Comments
19 comment(s)Angela wrote on May 22, 2009 9:50 PM:
TO Traci wrote on May 22, 2009 11:18 AM:
MAXKATT from NY wrote on May 18, 2009 1:52 PM:
Traci wrote on May 18, 2009 12:52 PM:
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
No matter what we say, think or fight about, God's word and His law remain the same. I have no issue with the people themselves, it's the lifestyle they have chosen that is wrong. How can you say you believe just parts of the Bible? Doesn't it make more sense to believe the whole thing, as God intended it? It does to me. "
Huh wrote on May 14, 2009 2:54 PM:
longtimevalleyRES wrote on May 14, 2009 12:43 PM:
Thank You wrote on May 14, 2009 9:48 AM:
People who live in fear and have nothing but hate in their hearts will find fault with you. But those who truly live in the light will not only embrace your words, but share them with others.
I believe God challenges us each day to either simply grow older, or grow wiser. You're a very wise man, Rev. Bess, and brave to boot.
Thank you for your column. "
Bobbie wrote on May 10, 2009 9:23 PM:
Bobbie wrote on May 10, 2009 9:14 PM:
Bobbie wrote on May 10, 2009 9:07 PM:
Dave wrote on May 8, 2009 2:40 PM:
God's Word will be the finial judgement on each and every life. Not mans interpretation. "
Kate wrote on May 8, 2009 2:37 PM:
GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED "
marc wrote on May 8, 2009 1:04 PM:
Who are you to judge anyways, with your interpretation of the bible.
This country will never get anywhere unless people keep religion and abortion out of politic's, it has no place there.
Palin is a fool. "
Lynn wrote on May 8, 2009 11:33 AM:
B. Johnson wrote on May 8, 2009 10:22 AM:
Regarding homosexuality, not only does 1 Corinthians 6:9 warn, DO NOT BE DECEIVED, about such things, but Romans 1:25-27 tells us that same-sex sexual relationships are a consequence of idolatry. In other words, such relationships are a consequence of disobeying the 1ST COMMANDMENT, a major aspect of the GREATEST COMMANDMENT, to love God with all your being. "
Verna wrote on May 8, 2009 9:10 AM:
face the facts. The BIBLE is the true word of God and your are diffinitly not using the Bible as a reference for your Sinful article. God will hold your account for those your miss lead. "
Earl wrote on May 8, 2009 7:28 AM:
May Christs return come before you misslead more people to follow the ways of Sin "
Joel wrote on May 8, 2009 7:24 AM:
"Homosexials will not inherit the Kindom of God." That is what the BIBLE says.
Please read and follow what the Bible says. If you want to get into Heaven "
Verna wrote on May 8, 2009 4:05 AM: