wfn.org | Scholars, Clergy Call for Acceptance of Homosexuals in Churches

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

1-February-2000 
00053 
 
    1,000 Scholars, Clergy Call for Full Acceptance 
    of Homosexuals in Churches 
 
    Critics call the statement "arrogant" 
 
    by Chris Herlinger 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
NEW YORK - A thousand liberal religious scholars and clergy in the United 
States have endorsed a statement affirming sexuality as God's gift and 
calling for the full participation of women and gays and lesbians in the 
life of religious institutions. 
 
    "We feel there is a need to develop a clear and articulate basis for 
the living out of sexuality as a life-affirming gift," John Thomas, 
president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), told ENI. 
 
    The declaration, known as the "Religious Declaration on Sexual 
Morality, Justice, and Healing," was publicly released on Jan. 18.  The 
text of the declaration and a list of supporters were published this week 
as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times.  Conservative critics 
of the document accused the signatories of trying to overthrow Bible-based 
morality. 
 
    Liberal Protestants dominate the list of signatories, though a smaller 
group of Roman Catholics and Jews also endorsed the resolution.  John A. 
Buehrens, head of the Unitarian Universalist Association of  Congregations, 
endorsed the declaration, along with 14 bishops from various denominations, 
15 seminary presidents and academic deans, and theologians from more than 
32 U.S. seminaries. 
 
    Originally 850 people signed the resolution, but since its release to 
the public, a further 150 have added their support. 
 
    Among prominent clergy endorsing the document were Edmond Browning, 
retired presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, and Paul Sherry, former 
president of the United Church of Christ, who has been honored for his work 
in ministry to gays and lesbians. 
 
    The document's signatories declared they were speaking out "against the 
pain, brokenness, oppression, and loss of meaning that many experience 
about their sexuality." 
 
    "Our culture needs a sexual ethic focused on personal relationships and 
social justice rather than particular sexual acts," the document said. 
"All persons have the right and responsibility to lead sexual lives that 
express love, justice, mutuality, commitment, consent, and pleasure. 
 
    "Grounded in respect for the body and for the vulnerability that 
intimacy brings, this ethic fosters physical, emotional, and spiritual 
health.  It accepts no double standards and applies to all persons, without 
regard to sex, gender, colour, age, bodily condition, marital status, or 
sexual orientation." 
 
    The document goes on to support, among other things, the "full 
inclusion of women and sexual minorities in congregational life, including 
their ordination and the blessing of same-sex unions," and calls for 
religious leaders to participate "in movements to end sexual and social 
injustice." 
 
    The resolution's supporters said the document was significant because 
for the first time a group of U.S. religious leaders had collectively 
called for a re-examination of sexual ethics and sexual morality.  It was 
also, they said, the first time that so many religious leaders had, as a 
group, signed a formal declaration countering traditional theological 
positions on sexual issues. 
 
    Immediate reaction to the resolution - including criticism by several 
well-known religious conservatives - focused on the resolution's call for 
the blessing of  same-sex unions, one of the most contentious issues facing 
a number of Protestant denominations. 
 
    But Thomas, of the UCC, told ENI that the document's lasting 
significance stemmed from its overall emphasis on a new sexual ethic 
linking spirituality and sexuality. 
 
    "This is a starting point for a much wider discussion," Thomas said, 
adding that liberal religious leaders "have not, in an effective and 
positive way, presented our view on human sexuality.  Often we've been 
silenced in moral debates.  We want to make the public aware that there is 
another perspective." 
 
    Larry Greenfield, the president of the Midwest chapter of the American 
Theological Society, told ENI that the appearance, in the past 30 to 40 
years, of women's and gay rights movements had fundamentally changed 
American society.  Church teachings had begun to reflect those changes, he 
said.  "Of course that is going to cause some stir." 
 
    What was needed now, he told ENI, was a broader examination of how 
religious institutions viewed sexuality and how, ultimately, they would 
recognize and foster the talents of women and sexual minorities.  "How many 
lives, for example, have we wasted in not recognizing the talents of women 
in ministry?" 
 
    But R. Albert Mohler Jr, president of Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, told Baptist Press, the Southern Baptist news agency: "The 
arrogance of this `Declaration' is breathtaking. 
 
    "These self-appointed moral revolutionaries will reject the clear 
teachings of Scripture in order to justify sexual perversions and 
destructive behaviors," Mohler said.  "In utter arrogance they claim a 
`religious' mandate for their declaration.  In a cloak of distortions they 
seek to overthrow biblical morality and put a humanistic ethic of sexual 
liberation in its place." 
 
    The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States 
(SIECUS), a sexual education organisation, sponsored the drafting of the 
statement. 
 
(Editor's note: The declaration was signed by 50 Presbyterians.) 

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