By a close vote of 927 - 877, the delegates of the 1991 Biennial Convention of the American Baptist Churches USA, held in Charleston, West Virginia, called for a study of Christian perspectives on human sexuality. Finally. I can't give you the exact wording of the decision nor was I present for the discussion prior to that vote. But the closeness of the vote clearly indicates that a significant number of folks were at best unhappy or uncomfortable with making that decision. But I would say, "Thank God that our denomination and other mainline churches are beginning to look at human sexuality." Not hoping it will go away. Not placing it on the shelf. Not hoping somebody else will talk about it. But that we, the church, are beginning to look at this important issue in which we are immersed.
Now, I hope that our church as well as other churches in our denomination take this call seriously. I hope that between now and the 1993 Biennial we too look seriously at the issue of human sexuality and all of its ramifications. That we look at the joy and the gift that is human sexuality but also at the pain and the struggle that is human sexuality. This decision can be an opportunity for ministry and also a vision for ministry that the church has heretofore ignored and not embraced.
Unfortunately, there was another decision made at that meeting that for my understanding shows a real lack of vision. By a two to one margin, the delegates also approved a statement of concern on homosexuality that calls for encouraging "...the repentant homosexual to establish new relationships." It also says, "We do not accept the homosexual lifestyle, homosexual marriage, ordination of homosexual clergy, or establishment of gay churches or gay caucuses." This decision, I believe, is a decision without vision. And I would like to share with you some of the reasons I feel this is so.
For one thing, this decision lacks a vision of justice. Consider our Old Testament Scripture readings for a moment. Jeremiah charges the careless shepherds, the careless leaders, both religious and political leaders of the day, with adulterating the Word of God and destroying the covenantal relationship between Yahweh and Yahweh's people, by allowing Baal worship to infiltrate the peoples' religious practices. Jeremiah says that these leaders, these careless shepherds, have driven away the people from the covenant faith and the covenant community and have not attended to them; the leaders have sold out to an idolatrous culture. The danger is that this remnant of people, by incorporating Baal worship, will gradually begin to disappear, and that there will be no one left of the remnant. Jeremiah warns the careless leaders that they have not been attending to their flock. I think in part that that is what happened at the Biennial. Careless shepherds were not attending to the flock.
Now it is said, that those who opposed this decision, who feel the decision was a mistake, are accommodating our larger culture. Phooey. We live in a culture that is at least 80 percent heterosexual and, according to various studies, we live in a culture that is at least that much anti-gay. Voting against this decision at the Biennial is not selling out to our culture at all. But I believe that the decision itself, the vote against the homosexual community, is a decision that is selling out to the larger culture.
Look at our culture, at how we operate. Attitudes toward people who are perceived as different in our culture are governed by negative myths and stereotypes. We allow false labels, distorted characterizations, and serious misconceptions to justify our fears, our ignorance, and just plain hatefulness against people of color, against people of different religions be they Jews or Muslims or whomever they may be, and against the gay and lesbian community. The self-idolatry that proclaims "You are different; therefore I am superior" is reinforced by the decision made at the Biennial. In this decision we have sold out members of our own ABC family. We have pushed them away, driven them from the faith and from the covenant community.
In a moving address at the M&M Board luncheon at the Biennial, Howard Moody, pastor of Judson Memorial Church in Brooklyn, spoke of this very thing. He said these people -- the gay and lesbian members of our community -- are those whom we have taught in our Sunday Schools, who attend Vacation Bible School, who go to church camp, who sing in our choirs...and we are slamming the door in their face. Well, I suggest to you that justice will prevail. Jeremiah says that God will bring back those who have been pushed away, bring them back into the fold and raise up leaders who will attend to them and they shall not fear or be dismayed. Leaders at the Biennial I believe made a decision without vision. And I believe inevitably that decision will be overturned, because it is not just, and because God will raise up just leaders in our denomination.
Another problem I have with this decision is its total lack of vision or concern for the pain within the gay community and within their families and friends. There is an absence of empathy and compassion. In the Mark passage, Jesus shows compassion to those who come to him searching for what he has to offer healing and wholeness. It seems to me that we are called to follow in Christ's footsteps and offer that healing and wholeness to others. And yet people in the gay community have come
to the church and have received harsh treatment from us. During a special study series that we had last spring dealing with gay and lesbian issues, we saw on the first Sunday a tape where a woman was sharing about her son who was gay and how he went to the church for help and support and as a place where he could struggle with his understanding of himself. The treatment that he received pushed him away and she told of hearing the news that her son leapt off an overpass, onto a freeway, taking his life.
This is what the church has done. We need to have a vision of empathy and compassion.
How would you feel if the person that you loved and lived with for forty years was in intensive care and you were not allowed to visit because you were not family? How would you feel if a leader in our denomination cracked a joke about queers, not knowing about your son? How would you feel if during a coffee break your co-workers often mentioned their spouses or people they are dating, and you know you must remain silent or you may lose your job? How would you feel if you received a phone call about three people being beaten up by a gang that was screaming out anti-gay epithets and one of the victims, your sister, was in critical condition? Jesus proclaimed a message that was for everyone who was in need: the sick, the poor, the hurting, the grieving, the oppressed. Jesus spent time with those who were shunned by society teaching an inclusiveness that the church is still resisting. We don't know what Jesus had to say about homosexuality because we are not told if he said anything at all. But we do know that again and again Jesus overturned social and religious traditions that condemned people. We do know that Jesus got angry about traditions that required people to make costly sacrifices to prove they were faithful. We do know that Jesus refused to affirm traditions that excluded whole groups of people such as Gentiles and Samaritans. We do know that Jesus questioned that catalog of sins for which people could be stoned to death. We do know that he negated traditions that defined standards for condemning others and Jesus himself lived a life of love and mercy, responding to others as a neighbor, a friend, in their need. Jesus gave us a vision of compassion a vision not reflected in the decision that was made at the Biennial. Jesus brings in those who have been scattered and alienated, and so I believe we are called to do.
The decision made at the Biennial also lacks a vision of Scripture as the living word of God. The Bible is treated as if it were set in stone, a rigid book of rules and regulations. For centuries, the institutional church has promoted the view that the Bible was against homosexuality, holding up a half dozen or so passages to support this belief. Much the same way, people used Scripture to support slavery in the United States, to support apartheid in South Africa, to support the oppression of women. CRACK the whip over the slaves and say, "The Bible says you should obey your master!" Someone knocks his wife across the room and says, "The Bible says you should submit to your husband." A gang with baseball bats beats the life out of a gay person because "The Bible says homosexuality is an abomination." What are we doing to the Scriptures when we do that?
The Bible does contain problematic passages. We surely cannot affirm in Genesis Lot offering up his daughters for gang rape. We surely cannot affirm the death penalty for those who utter a curse. We surely cannot affirm Paul's saying that a woman's head should be shaved if she prays without a veil. Nor can we allow a half dozen or so passages in the Bible by the same and other authors to overrule Jesus' central message of love and reconciliation. I cannot in this sermon attempt to address all of the Biblical passages that, for some, justify the decision made in Charleston. But there are scholars, including American Baptist scholars such as David Bartlett, who have written articles in which they examine some of these Scriptures and have concluded that the issue here was not homosexuality but rather condemning the sins of violence, idolatry, rape, inhospitality, prostitution, and sexual exploitation. It is true that the Bible assumes heterosexual relationships are the norm. But nowhere is there a general principle that denies or condemns loving and faithful homosexual relationships.
The passage in Ephesians talks about estrangement and enmity between human beings and God, and between one another Gentiles and Jews, outsiders and insiders. What Christ has done, Paul says, is to reconcile us both to God and to one another. In this passage, Christ is seen as concerned for the other the Gentile, the stranger, the sojourner. And Christ is seen as much involved in their lives as in ours.
For Paul, the concept of Christ is a category of inclusiveness both universal and evangelical at the same time. The gospel of Christ focusses on grace, and its scope is inclusive and all-encompassing. Yes, we need to examine those passages used to support the Biennial decision; but we need to look at those passages in the whole context of Scripture, in light of Ephesians, as well as Romans 1. If we only look at a few passages, then we can continue to support apartheid in South Africa, the oppression of women, and violence against gays. But if we look at Scripture as a whole, as the living word of God, we may have to rethink old assumptions. God does not divide into we and they; God's grace has been made available to all of us. That love and acceptance are a God-given gift. In our diverse world, we will never reach consensus on all theological issues. What we do know is that reconciliation and grace have come to all of us without exception, as a gift through Jesus Christ. Given that, we cannot justify excluding a whole group of people, which is in effect the decision made in Charleston concerning the gay community. In Christ's church, everyone must be welcome.
A couple of months ago at our quarterly business meeting, we adopted a statement of purpose. I'd like to read to you three lines from that statement.
We affirm that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers all people strength and purpose for life. ... The First Baptist Church of Berkeley affirms that providing strength for the oppressed and encouragement for the disenfranchised are fundamental to the gospel of Jesus Christ. ... Believing that God's grace and redemptive love embraces all, we endeavor to be reconcilers in the world.
I hope in the next two years we do a serious study of human sexuality and all of the issues that are related to it, including the issue of homosexuality. I hope as we examine these issues, we examine them with the lens of justice and compassion. And I hope as we examine these issues, we study them looking at all of Scripture, at what the total living word of God has to say to the various issues that we may address. And I hope that we remember our statement of purpose and strive to live out this commitment that we've made to one another and to God.
The Rev. Esther Hargis
July
21, 1991
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