This week, I will be standing out in 107-degree heat delivering a petition with 10,000 signatures to the Southern Baptist Convention asking the group to apologize for its treatment of LGBT people. The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Believe OutLoud, Faith in America, GetEqual, and Soulforce will join my organization, Truth Wins Out, in this action.
Some skeptics ask -- why waste time appealing to this hostile and intransigent group that has no intention of apologizing?
The first reason is to reach LGBT youth who are growing up in Southern Baptist homes. Some of these young men and women have tumultuous experiences like Ben Alley. According to the Des Moines Register:
Ben Alley misses his parents. He's 18 and just graduated from East Marshall High School in Le Grand, with scholarships to almost cover his costs at the University of Iowa. It's a time for open houses and pride. But he won't be getting that from his once-close family -- the Southern Baptist minister father and the mother who home-schooled him early on.They're not dead; he's dead to them. In his sophomore year, Ben informed his parents that he is gay. They informed him he wouldn't be coming home after school the next day -- or ever again.
The second reason we are asking for an apology is because it's aspirational and serves as a map of what the SBC must do to stop the harm it is perpetrating against LGBT people. Clearly, the SBC will not change positions overnight, but the first step to an apology is asking -- and that is what we are doing.
Third, it is critical that we hold the SBC accountable for supporting morally bankrupt and scientifically unsound "ex-gay" programs.
"The anti-gay teachings of the Southern Baptist church nearly led me to suicide," said Dr. Jerry Stephenson, a former Southern Baptist minister and board member for Truth Wins Out. "I entered an 'ex-gay' ministry that falsely claimed I could change my sexual orientation and this led to a deep depression. Only after I accepted my true self was I able to reconcile my faith and sexual orientation."
Finally, the SBC likes to portray its position on homosexuality as an unchangeable moral absolute. The facts, however, show that the SBC has changed its positions on minorities before.
Indeed, June 15th marks the 16-year anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention's historic apology to African Americans for the denomination's support of slavery and segregation. Sadly, it took the SBC 150 years to finally acknowledge the tremendous suffering, death, and devastation caused by their misreading of Scripture. We'll never know how much better the world might be had this apology occurred in 1895 instead of 1995.
Describing the apology proclamation, the SBC's Richard Land said:
Well, it says that slavery played a role in the formation of the convention and that too often we had not acted to promote racial equality, and we apologize for that. We lament that. We grieve over that and we repent of it and we ask for the forgiveness of our African-American brothers and sisters.
Given the arc of justice and the trajectory of history, there is no doubt the SBC will offer a full-fledged apology to the LGBT community in the future. However, this will take time -- considering the SBC did not apologize for the sin of racism until 1989 (they apologized for slavery in 1995).
For those who think an apology is a pipe dream, just remember that it was only 1958 when the late Baptist minister and segregationist Rev. Jerry Falwell preached in a sermon, "The true Negro does not want integration. He realizes his potential is far better among his own race."
Within years of making this despicable statement, Falwell saw the light and reversed course. Fortunately, times change and old prejudices wither on history's vine. George Wallace, who for most of his career was the face of segregation, renounced and apologized for his previous views. In our day, prominent political figures as diverse as Bill Clinton, Laura Bush, Ken Mehlman, and Cindy McCain have gone from opposing marriage equality to publicly supporting it.
The big story from the SBC's annual meeting is the election of Fred Luter Jr. as the denomination's first African-American vice president. This would have been as inconceivable only a generation ago. Clearly, it is only a matter of time before a gay man or woman also leads the Southern Baptist Convention.
Each year, polls show more people support LGBT equality than ever. If the SBC does not change with the times, membership will decline and the denomination will wither as the majority of Americans come to view the SBC's views as immoral and fringe. Two words, "I'm sorry," would show that the SBC was ready to leave its spotty past behind and truly enter the 21st century.
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But the important, relevant facts are the facts that Besen does NOT want to to hear: the facts are that gays are NOT just another 'minority', they are an inhomogeneous group of people that are 'united' in a group only by opposition to Christian morality. As such the only 'right' the church should feel compelled to grant them is the right to repent.
We have nothing to repent for because we have done nothing wrong. I speak of who I am for the sake of those who think they are alone. Not to change your mind or any other Christian. I care about the other gay people out there who think they are evil because of the things they've been told by the church. I am here to tell them they are not, in spite of what you say. I'd rather live my life in "opposition" to your institutions (it's ridiculous that they should feel that my simply being alive and seeking happiness is such an offense to them, BTW) than to live it in the closet, bathed in darkness, secrecy and misery. That's all that is accomplished by this.
"If the SBC does not change with the times, membership will decline and the denomination will wither as the majority of Americans come to view the SBC's views as immoral and fringe."
Oh screw "prophet". They think they are God.
Frankly though, I would not hold my breath waiting for an apology. Tey ARE doin' it fer Jeezus after all.
Grow up yourself.
As proof, I offer the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, written in 1796 by Joel Barlow, an American diplomat. Article 11 of the Treaty clearly states:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Barlow forwarded the treaty to U.S. legislators for approval in 1797. Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state, endorsed it and John Adams concurred (now during his presidency), sending the document on to the Senate. The Senate approved the treaty on June 7, 1797, and officially ratified by the Senate with John Adams signature on 10 June, 1797. All during this multi-review process, the wording of Article 11 never raised the slightest concern. The treaty even became public through its publication in The Philadelphia Gazette on 17 June 1797.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Seems to me that the Founding Fathers thought EVERYONE was entitled to the same rights......
Actually, it's based on what they THINK it "says in the Bible" (which is often the same thing as what they've been TOLD it says in the Bible). And they're wrong.
And the founding fathers were not necessarily all Christian.
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html
Jesus himself spoke out about divorce, saying that if a man divorces his wife and remarries he is committing adultry (Breaking one of God's Commandments) against his first wife.
And yet, gays are really only mentioned by St. Paul. Hardly equivilent to God and Jesus, and yet the SBC isn't advocating to outlaw divorce or adultry.
So their lie that their views are Bible based is just that, a lie that is an excuse for their bigotry. If the Bible was truly the foundation for their beliefs, then anybody divorced would be a much larger target for them than gays. But hypocrites don't want to attack any sin that THEY themselves may need to commit.
"There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and our enemies are always throwing them up to us usually in a vicious way and very much out of context. What they don't want us to remember is that there are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a great deal more supervision."
It's called SELECTIVE fundaMENTALism.
Cynical as it sounds those churches, including the SBC, will do the same with their attitudes toward non-heterosexual sexuality at whatever point that not doing so becomes embarrassing and causes a loss of attendance and income. In the meantime, I commend Mr. Besen's actions in considering young LGBT people growing up in these churches. And let's hope the day comes soon when "God's people" don't turn a blind eye toward parents rejecting and disowning sons and daughters like Ben Alley's parents did.
If the weather will be in the 90s or 100s, be sure to bring ice water and a sun hat!
BYU will kick out students found to be gay, and the church will tell parents to throw them out because they are no longer their children and are evil inside.
So some of these churches are ALWAYS behind the curve when it comes to bigotry and civil rights. Hopefully the SBC and the Mormons don't wait as long as they did to acknowledge racial civil rights.
Kinda like the taliban to muslims.
Save that 10% tithe folks, you are going to need it in this economy.