Claiborne to Address Mennonite Brethren Youth
November 18, 2010
In a move that’s sure to raise some hackles, the Mennonite Brethren have invited a speaker to next year’s National Youth Convention (NYC) who doesn’t hate gays! Shane Clairborne will be the keynote speaker for San Antonio 2011, slated for April 16-19, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas. The National Youth Convention is held every four year years for Mennonite Brethren high school students to gather together from a wide variety of churches.
Shane Clairborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, will address the largest gathering of Mennonite Brethren in the United States. Clairborne is founding partner of The Simple Way, a faith community in Philadelphia that has helped create and connect radical faith communities around the world.
From a Q Podcast featuring Shane Clairborn: (great podcast interview, btw!)
| “Many people in the gay community don’t seem to have issues with Jesus but rather with those claiming to represent him today. It’s very much an ‘us-versus-them’ mentality, as if a war has been declared. In the book, unChristian, 9 out of 10 people see Christians being anti-homosexual. How can Christians change this perception by showing compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle?” |
From “7 Burning Issues: Gay Rights” on Relevant:
| “Not to mention it’s so scandalous that there are these heterosexual, married people pointing fingers and saying gay folks are breaking up our families. There’s such a narrow understanding because the contradictions are glaring. Evangelicals are surpassing the divorce rate of secular society. And yet we’re accusing gay folks of breaking up the family while all of them want to get married. What’s happening here? What did Jesus talk about? He had a few things to say about divorce. Those are big things, but I also want to create communities where we can have a healthy conversation and not just point fingers and excommunicate people who disagree with us.” |
Inclusive Church Workshop in Kansas
Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, Kansas, will host “Building an Inclusive Church” workshop this weekend, November 19-20. The workshop is sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in affiliation with the Brethren/Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests.
| “Every person, regardless of gender or sexual identity, deserves to be honored as a beloved child of God. Every person, no matter who they are, deserves to be welcomed and celebrated at Christ’s table. Yet, far too often our churches are neither welcoming nor honoring of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Building An Inclusive Church offers powerful tools to help the Church be the Church it is meant to be: just, loving and extravagantly welcoming.” |
For more information, click here.
Mennonite Pastor Blogs about Gay Bullying
November 10, 2010
Referring to polls linking suicides of lgbt people to religious messages coming out of churches, Mennonite Pastor Michael Danner of Matamora Mennonite Church addresses the issue on his blog:
| “I think it is fair to say that the anti-homosexual rhetoric coming out of many churches does, in reality, contribute to violence and discrimination against homosexual persons. It’s here that churches that claim to follow Jesus need to take a long look in the mirror….As a Mennonite, I’m particularly interested in how a ‘peace church’ like Mennonite Church USA will respond. |
Read the entire post here.
Should Mennonites Be MORE Inclusive?
November 9, 2010
While some Mennonite churches continue to debate allowing gay and lesbian people into their congregations and others outright exclude them, Jan Lugibihl recently asked Chicago Community Mennonite Church whether they should be doing more to support lgbt Mennonites!
| “Sometimes I wonder if there’s more I and we as a congregation can and should be doing to support our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered sisters and brothers. I know we respond when asked, but I wonder if we could be more pro-active sometimes. And I wonder that even more often as I read the accounts of gay teenagers being bullied and committing suicide. “ |
In the past, Chicago Community (then called Oak Park Mennonite Church) was disciplined by MC USA for having church members who were gay or lesbian. In her October 24th “Sermon on Romans 1: 18-32,” Lugibihl commented on this experience:
| “…when I think back to those days of being disciplined and what led to the discipline being lifted, I know it was not any new ground-breaking exegesis we or anyone else did of this passage from Romans or any other biblical text. What changed people was, I believe, our constant, faithful living out of the inclusion we were called to as a congregation and our conviction that God was and is at the center of our life together. Our persistent showing up even where we might not have been welcomed.” |
Read the full sermon here.
A Room with a Point of View
November 1, 2010
A “conversation room” is being planned for next year’s annual Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) convention, to be held July 2011 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. According to an official communication from MC USA Executive Board, issued by moderator Ed Diller, the rooms are a response to delegate requests for “opportunities to talk with other adults about important issues outside of the actual delegate meetings.”
Though the Executive Board does not specifically list the gay issue as a topic for the “conversation room,” the memo’s multiple use of the phrase “agree and disagree in love” signals that the issue is definitely on the convention planners’ radar, particularly after the large showing at last convention by Pink Menno.
From MC USA’s official communication:
“…we are committed to ongoing dialogue and discernment and ‘agreeing and disagreeing in love’ even when we have differing understandings around questions of faith and life.”
“…engage in specific conversations about the resolutions and statements that Mennonite Church USA has adopted over the years, such as those dealing with health care, immigration, sexuality and human trafficking.”
“Some of these conversations might be difficult or involve topics with which we are not comfortable. Our hope is that the Conversation Room will be a place where … we can agree and disagree in love.”
Read the full statement here.
Gay Bullying and Mennonites
October 25, 2010
This from Tim Nafziger at The Mennonite:
| “Unfortunately, in many Mennonite communities today, having a gay or lesbian son or daughter carries deep social stigma. Children soak up their parent’s attitudets with razor sharp clairty. They do not grasp the nuances of love the sinner and hate the sin. They do understand right and wrong and sin. And if they find a child who fits their image of fag or queer, they will do their best to give them their own little hell on earth: just punishment for the damned.”
“Will it take the suicide of a Mennonite child before we take this issue seriously?” |
A Sermon for “Everyone”?
Phil Kniss, pastor of Park View Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Virginia, began his October 10 sermon “Marriage as a Call to Ministry“:
| “This is a sermon for everyone here. Everyone.” |
A few minutes later, he clarified:
| “The unmarried here today are not married for many different reasons.
I won’t conjecture numbers and percentages here, but the reasons certainly include . . . [those who] have a same-sex orientation, that makes marriage a non-option, at least in most states, and in this church.” “Same-sex marriage is not something I can affirm, or that the church affirms.” |
So, in Pastor Kniss’ sermon on marriage, he preaches that marriage is not an option for gay and lesbian Mennonites at Park View Mennonite Church, nor can he affirm marriages of his gay or lesbian congregants. Yet, his sermon is for everyone. Hmmmm.
Read the full sermon here.
Commentary: Table Scraps
The Spirituality of Change
by Gary Barber
October 23, 2010
Last week I read an interesting article on CNN’s website by Jane Velez-Mitchell, entitled “Anti-Gay Backlash a Stage on the Way to Social Justice.” In the article, Velez-Mitchell noted that: 1) recent anti-gay violence and rhetoric point to an upsurge in homophobia; 2) the more frequently that gay issues show up in the news and on television, the more people are compelled to face their biases, and; 3) because this backlash is a step toward social justice, lgbt people should ensure that they are not complicit in hate.
I often think about this struggle for lgbt civil rights in terms of what I’ve learned in Alcoholics Anonymous. The main premise of AA is that one can stop one’s self-destructive behavior through a process of spiritual change. Often this change occurs simply because we allow it to; other times, because we direct it to. But it usually happens when one realizes that one must change or die. This is called miraculous thinking, as opposed to magical thinking. Magical thinking involves the idea that a drink, a drug, a sexual experience, or a cheeseburger is going to make everything perfect and wonderful. Behind this thinking is the idea that one can control ones use of the substance, thus learning to live with it. It is not a miracle one seeks, but the magic of performing the trick over and over.
As I relate this type of thinking to current anti-lgbt events, I find myself more able to understand why Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Mennonite pastors and leaders, and government officials demand more time pass before allowing equal civil rights for lgbt people. After all, these leaders have spent their entire lives and careers speaking about and teaching their communities that lgbt people are improper and inhuman. Now, they are suddenly faced with the overwhelming reality that they have been wrong all this time. Judges and legislatures are telling them so. I imagine it must be difficult for an official or minister to hear a federal court say that what you are preaching or endorsing is unjust and discriminatory.
My congregation’s pastor, Sheri Hostetler of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, has had her ordination credentials placed on a two year probation because she legally married a gay couple, members of our congregation. Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference’s response is that if Sheri does not legally marry any other lgbt couples within the next two years, then her ordination credentials will be restored.
Secretary Gates states that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needs to stay in force until a December 1st study can be completed. Excuses include: We should wait until the war is over, and we should wait until the economic crisis or healthcare crisis is over. This type of justification is similar to that used by those working on controlling their addictions. It is simply an excuse to put the inevitable on hold. It is a way for government officials and churches to delay the terrible duty of having to admit they were wrong and having to explain to their followers and worshippers that they were led astray for purposes other than justice. They are denying the miracle of life in order to partake in the magical process.
People are inherently spiritual and capable of truly amazing acts of kindness and justice. People absolutely do not need two more years of conversations or studies in order to have a spiritual experience and be liberated from a lifetime of enslaving others and themselves, either because they were told to do so or were simply in the habit of doing so. If this were not true, then no one would ever get sober, lose weight, make love, or give up the addictive activities that so easily bind them.
The news last week said that DADT absolutely will be struck down, but it will take time. Log Cabin Republican Christian Berle is quoted in a CNN article titled, “Justice Department Seeks Stay of Judge’s DADT Ruling”: “If this stay is granted, justice will be delayed, but it will not be denied.” But I am much more in agreement with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement that “justice delayed is justice denied.” When the government, the church, and society in general actively denies justice to lgbt people, no amount of trying to make it look pretty will ever change what it truly is.
I do understand what Jane Velez-Mitchell was saying, and she is putting the very best possible spin she can on the situation. On the very cusp of our social, political, religious, and human liberation, many of our leaders and pastors are telling us to just hold on to our inhumanity a little longer, just until they and others can feel good about themselves through this “process” or “stage.” In the meantime, all the precious present moments of peoples’ lives are slipping away, never to be lived in because someone needed more conversations or studies or time to figure things out.
It is a struggle for lgbt people to be kind to or forgiving of this situation. Yet, we must. Otherwise, we risk losing our own humanity by dehumanizing our detractors, as they do us, and thus setting up a vicious, unforgiving cycle. This is why I keep going to church: to regularly hear the message of a loving God. And this somehow keeps me from becoming more inhumane than so many tell us we are
.
Wear Purple Online and Offline on Wednesday, October 20 to remember LGBT Youth
Show Support for LGBT Youth on Spirit Day
Gay Mennonite League joins The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and millions of community members and allies to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth by participating in Spirit Day and remembering those teens who have taken their own lives as a result of bullying.
Spirit Day, created by teenager Brittany McMillan earlier this month, now counts millions of Americans committed on Facebook to wearing the color purple on Wednesday, October 20, 2010.
In addition to wearing the color purple, McMillan is also asking people to turn their Facebook and Twitter photos purple until Wednesday and to share messages of support for LGBT youth. For more information on the free application and suggested messages, please visit http://www.glaad.org/SpiritDay.
“I will be wearing purple on Spirit Day,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. “The tragic suicides of our youth have started an important dialogue among Americans about the dangers of bullying, and now is the time to show our children that millions of Americans accept and value them regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Purple symbolizes ‘spirit’ on the rainbow flag, a symbol for LGBT Pride that was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978. The goal of Spirit Day is to show LGBT youth who are victims of anti-LGBT bullying and harassment that there is a vast community of people who support them. As the event’s Facebook page says: “This event is not a seminar nor is it a rally. There is NO meeting place. All you have to do is wear purple.”
Last week after receiving thousands of concerned e-mails from constituents, GLAAD worked with Facebook to develop a solution to address violent and hateful anti-LGBT comments posted to a Spirit Day Facebook event page. That page now has over one million people confirmed to participate.
For more information please visit these events on Facebook: “R.I.P. ;; In memory of the recent suicides due to gay abuse, wear purple” and Spirit Day, A GLOBAL Day of remembering.
LGBT youth in need of immediate help should contact The Trevor Project ‘s 24/7 Lifeline at 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386) or The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Mennonite pastor sanctioned for marrying gay couple
Sheri Hostetler, pastor of First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, has been disciplined by Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference (PSMC) for presiding over the marriage of a gay couple from her church. In addition to sanctioning Hostetler, PSMC has placed her ministerial credentials on probation for two years and has asked her to step down from her role as a conference member.
In a statement, Hostetler says she “understands this action as an integral part of her pastoral call to serve her congregation by being a pastor to all of the members of her congregation, without exception.”
Pointing to Mennonite Church USA’s policy of “Agreeing and Disagreeing in Love,” First Mennonite Church issued a joint statement with PSMC to announce the Conference’s action against Hostetler. Both the First Mennonite Church and PSMC claim to be “committed to remain in dialogue and to walk together through this process.”
First Mennonite Church of San Francisco is a member of Supportive Congregations Network, a network of Mennonite congregations that openly affirms and welcomes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to participate actively in all aspects of congregational life.
BMC NewsNet and GML Crisis Info
The latest Brethren Mennonite Council newsletter is available.
Also, Gay Mennonite League has added info to our “For LGBT Menno Youth” page about Trevor Project, a national hotline for lgbt youth in crisis. Great information to support and empower our lgbt Mennonite youth!
Mennonite author makes an impact
October 5, 2010
An appearance by Mennnonite author Roberta Showalter Kreider in Daniel Karslake’s documentary For the Bible Tells Me So is mentioned in a recent Huffington Post blog by author Christine Wicker, “Learning to Talk About God and Sex.”
|
Most impressive to me was the essay written by Roberta Showalter Kreider, a devout Mennonite now in her eighties who grew up believing homosexuals were destined for an eternity in hell. After her beloved younger brother died of AIDS in 1984, she spent the next 10 years praying for God to send her other homosexuals so she could help them save their souls. But when a neighboring Mennonite church flouted policy and began welcoming same-sex couples, she felt her soul stirring in an unexpected direction. Tentatively, she began seeking out and listening to the stories of the homosexual Mennonites who attended the nearby church.
“Confronting the reality of people’s integrity,” she writes, “makes it difficult to judge or condemn.”
She discovered, as the families in Karslake’s film did, that one can be both wholly gay and a holy Christian. |
For the Bible Tells Me So, selected by Entertainment Weekly magazine as one of “Five Movies That Changed the World,” explores how some Christians have moved beyond fear and hatred toward a Christ-like unconditional love for gay and lesbian people. The film has now launched a companion study program called “This I Know.” The six-week course for individual and small-group study is published by Northaven United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. To learn more about the study, visit www.thisiknowstudy.org
Roberta Showalter Kreider is the author of From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them, Together in Love: Faith Stories of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Couples, and The Cost of Truth, a collection of powerful stories of Mennonite and Brethren who have been denied leadership in the church relating in some way to their sexual orientation or acceptance of other lgbt people. Roberta has also written Fifteen Reasons Why I Have Changed My Mind.
Commentary:
FOR OUR CHILDREN, FOR OURSELVES
by Gary Barber
During the past week there have been numerous events regarding emotional and physical violence targeting lgbt youth and adults.
13-year-old Seth Walsh (above) died after 10 days on life support following a hanging attempt. The Tehachapi, California teen spent the last few years being tormented by classmates at Jacobsen Middle School. On Sunday, September 19, he was found unconscious and not breathing after apparently trying to hang himself from a tree branch. He was airlifted to a local hospital, where he died surrounded by family. Police say they cannot prosecute any of the kids responsible for his torment, since school bullying is not a crime.
Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old freshman at Greensburg High School in Indiana, hung himself after enduring bullying torment from his peers — just a few weeks into the school year. His mother found her son, hanging, in their barn. On Billy’s Facebook web memorial, he’s remembered with comments like, “Everyone made fun of him.” At least one former student says he made administrators aware of his own LGBT bullying, but school administrators did nothing.
Asher Brown (above), a 13-year-old eighth grader at Hamilton Middle School outside Houston, shot himself in the head last week after being “bullied to death.” Asher was tormented for being small, for his religious beliefs, for the way he dressed, and for being gay.
University of Michigan’s Student Body President is being harassed by Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, who not only uses offensive language and images in his blog, but has shown up at the student’s home/
A 19 year-old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi (above) jumped off the George Washington Bridge after secretly recorded video images of him in private with a male were broadcast online by his roommate and another person.
And finally Tifatul Sembiring, the Information Minister and a member of the National AIDS Commission for the Indonesian government, is under fire for posting anti-gay comments on Twitter and joking about people with AIDS.
In 1989, when I was married with two children, there was a difficult moment for my ex-wife and I when we realized the marriage would not last and that we would be getting a divorce. For me, such an action would result in two things occurring: people would know I was divorced, and people would know I was gay. I distinctly recall the feeling that I had at the time–that of being trapped in a burning room with no windows or doors for escape.
For a brief time, I seriously considered suicide. But I talked about it with my ex-wife and others and came to realize that killing myself would not be a good way to solve my problems. This does not mean that my coming out was easy or pain-free. It was excruciating. But it wasn’t unendurable.
It is virtually a universal experience for lgbt people that by the time we are having our first sexual feelings, we may have also developed a belief–sometimes true and sometimes not–that we are unacceptable to our family and society. I don’t recall hearing anyone speaking against homosexuals per se, but I was very aware by the time I was 12 that my life would have to be a secret and no one could ever know that I was gay. It goes without saying that this was also a reflection of my own internalized homophobia and self-hatred which would raise its ugly head years later in the form of alcoholism and drug addition. I have had to learn a lot about self-respect and self-love, and I still have a ways to go.
This is why I have been thinking about the recent suicides and bullying of these young gay boys and wondering why a promising young person would decide that there is no hope in their future. I have also been wondering how people who could be straight allies can speak and act without regard for the violence that could result.
Our society is not well, and as a result groups like the lgbt community, racial minorities, women, immigrants and others who have been historically discriminated against continue to have to find a way to live well without being on an equal legal and/or social footing with the dominant culture. Though the lgbt community is making great strides towards winning equal civil rights through the courts and legislation, it is clear that politically correct language around lgbt people and issues doesn’t necessarily translate into actions that could make a difference.
In a recent Virginia Mennonite Conference workshop, A Pastoral Approach towards Persons with a Homosexual Orientation, a Bible verse from Leviticus which states in part, “both shall be put to death,” when referring to a “man who lies with another man” was endorsed and promoted in the workshop materials. Gay Mennonite League responded, stating that the use of such a verse gives tacit approval to violence against lgbt people. The VMC response? Workshop leaders said that VMC was not recommending that gays be put to death. That’s it. No discussion, no explanation, and no change in the document. The workshop went forward with the verse included in its presentation, and the document continues to be available and distributed, with no revision, as an official Mennonite denominational document.
This tacit acceptance of saying one thing while endorsing another is truly dangerous, not only for lgbt people but also for heterosexuals. Because we have been taught to put a positive spin on everything without concern for actual intentions or results, everyone is victimized. Consider relationships between the federal government and lgbt military personnel, or the State of California and lgbt people who wish to marry, or Mennonite Church USA and Supportive Communities Network, to name just a few. With the intention of making everything appear to be normal, these divisions foment violence and discord. And consider that it is entirely possible that the complacency that we have for our own situations may result in the idea among lgbt youth that things will not improve, as well as the idea among abusers and bullies that anything can be said or done to a lgbt person and there will be few, if any, repercussions.
So, while lgbt people wait patiently for our government entities, our churches, and our families, co-workers and classmates to choose to give us equal legal and social standing, there are a few things I have decided to do. I am going to continue to volunteer my time with organizations that openly and publicly work towards enacting these legal and social changes. In my case, that is Equality California, Project Open Hand, and the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Band. I am going to continue working diligently to be one, whole person with self-respect and an ability to give love and respect to others. Wherever and whenever I observe abuse and injustice, I will do my very best to stand up and make a difference.
I am also going to ask myself the following questions: Am I supporting political candidates who will make real change happen? Is my tithe to my local MC USA congregation being used to further violent and abusive attitudes in a denomination that has no serious concern with unjust relationships between itself and Supportive Communities Network congregations? Do my relationships, no matter what type, have integrity and honesty as the cornerstones of their existence? Am I willing to stand up, speak out, and act when an injustice occurs? Some of my responses to these issues will be immediate and some will be ongoing, but I think it is important that I be active in my attempts to be fully present in my life and in the lives of others.
Sadly, the recent deaths of a gay and lesbian young people will not be the last terrible and unjust deaths to occur in the lgbt community. It is my hope that I can learn from their sad and terrifying experiences and demand equity and justice from the groups in our society that wield so much political, financial, religious, and social control.
Children should not have to commit suicide to convince others that there is a serious problem with the way that lgbt youth and adults and other minorities are treated. It is my hope that we can learn to step up and make a difference in society before more of these terrible situations can occur.
Another Mennonite Church,
another anti-gay workshop
In another misguided attempt to “lovingly” deal with gay and lesbian people, New Holland Mennonite Church recently announced that Garden Spot Village and Lancaster Mennonite Conference have invited an ex-gay advocate to teach them about homosexuality. John Freeman, President of Harvest USA, an ex-gay organization that believes gay and lesbian people are “broken” and should turn straight, will present a three-evening seminar in which the anti-gay proponent will enlighten participants on the bible and homosexuality and, ironically, teach them how they can make Mennonite churches safe places for “strugglers.”
The three-session seminar began September 13 and continues September 20 and 27 at the Garden Spot Village Chapel.
J.C. Shenk, Ann Krehbiel and Pastor Randy Spaulding of Covenant Mennonite Fellowship’s Leadership Council.
A Mennonite Church that Welcomes Everyone
August 27, 2010
The current edition of the Sarasota Herald Tribune features a wonderful story on Covenant Mennonite Fellowship and its practice of unconditional love for all people. Led by Pastor Randy Spaulding, Covenant Mennonite provides a church home for those who want to maintain their connection to a Mennonite community, yet yet often find themselves at odds with the Mennonite Church’s denominational position against gay and lesbian people and womens’ roles in the church.
Read the full story here.
As was previously reported by Gay Mennonite League, Pastor Randy was married last June to his partner, Gary Stephens. The couple reside in Sarasota, Florida.
Mennonite gets boost from Eat, Pray, Love
August 15, 2010
With the release of Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling spiritual memoir Eat, Pray, Love as a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts, new light is being cast on the popularity of spiritual memoirs, such as Rhoda Janzen’s Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. Gilbert has provided glowing endorsements for Mennonite and refers to it as “a balance between devotion and irreverence through the careful use of humor and irony,” in a recent article on Huffington Post.
“Janzen gripes about her ‘painfully uncool childhood’ and criticizes Mennonites’ parochialism, sexism, homophobia, and hostility toward higher education. But she also praises the community’s commitment to peace, nonviolence, simple living, and loving others in Jesus’ name.”
Janzen, a Mennonite Brethren, is currently hard at work on a sequel with the working title Backslider. which has been described as “an ongoing history of a skeptic’s move back to a community of faith.”
To read the full HuffPo article, click here.
To watch a YouTube interview with Rhoda, click here.
Jonathan Groff Stars in West End Thriller
August 13, 2010
Jonathan Groff is headed to the West End in a production of Ira Levin’s Deathtrap. Groff, Mennonite star of Broadway’s “Spring Awakening” and television’s Glee, stars in the stage thriller, along with Simon Russell Beale, Claire Skinner, and Estelle Parsons in the production scheduled to open on September 7 at the Noel Coward Theater in London.
Raised in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, Groff is Mennonite on his father’s side of the family, with a grandfather who was a Mennonite preacher. Last year, he told Broadway.com that he is “gay and proud” and took part in the National Equality March in Washington.
To read an interview with Jonathan Groff in today’s London Evening Standard, click here.
To see a hot, new trailer for the play, click here.
Response to Herald‘s “Pride” issue
August 11 2010
The June 2010 issue of the Mennonite Brethren Herald was dedicated to the issue of homosexuality. Even though it presented a compassionate, if not one-sided (“Love the sinner, hate the sin”) approach, it seems it was still too much for some of the Herald‘s readership.
A few quotes:
“The editorial is tendentious in its call for more grace towards homosexuals.”
“The danger in the present context is the leaven of immorality spreading throughout the Christian community.”
“The homosexual issue is a coming threat to the unity of the church, and the MB Herald does well to address it.”
Click here to read this month’s letters to the editor.
Pink Assembly?
August 7, 2010
We’ve heard rumors that Pink Menno is “sporting pink and having conversations” at Mountain States Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly in Pueblo, Colorado this weekend. Ervin Stutzman, Executive Director of Mennonite Church USA, will hold a Q & A session on Saturday afternoon. Wonder if there be any “pink” questions asked?
Common Spirit Recognition program (Carol Wise, 3rd from r.)
BMC at Church of the Brethren Conference
August 6, 2010
Carol Wise, Executive Director of Brethren Mennonite Council, has posted her reflections of the recent Church of the Brethren Annual Conference.
| After decades of largely unchallenged discrimination and hostility towards lgbt people, the Church of the Brethren seems to be wearying of the blood sport. The cynical side of me notes the panic over a declining membership and the impact of less social tolerance for blatant homophobia as motivating factors. Yet the optimistic part of me senses that lgbt people and allies courageously coming out, persistent organizing, basic education, an increased willingness to challenge the status quo, and a compelling queer theology of hope and imagination, are all contributing to a Brethren rethinking of their ideologies and practices towards their lgbta members. |
Read Carol’s full report here.
For photos of BMC at the Conference, click here.
Read NewsNet
This month’s issue of BMC’s NewsNet is available by clicking here.
Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
August 4, 2010
A federal judge (and Bush appointee) just ruled that California’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
For more on the story, go to Gay Mennonite blog.
To read the full ruling, click here.
Gay Mennonites in Amish Phonebook
Jeffrey at “Amish Phonebook” asks in a recent podcast: Gay Mennonite? “Go to Hell” or “Welcome, let’s get to know each other in Christ?” Can Mennonite Peace and Justice, be applied to LGBTQ? What about families with gay members?
Click here to listen.
Quitting the Church
August 4, 2010
New York City, and the whole of America, has been chiming in on the proposed erection of a mosque in Lower Manhattan. My initial response was very much against the idea. What could be more nonsensical than building a temple of “the enemy” so near the site of their “victory?” I wasn’t alone in my stance; American citizens, including friends and families of those who died on 9/11, were (and still are) vehemently opposed to the idea.
But today, Thomas Friedman changed my mind. In his NY Times column, Broadway and the Mosque, Friedman discusses how a variety of ideas, points of view, and cultures only serve to make us stronger, more creative, and generally better human beings.
It says a lot to the world when other countries see America embracing diversity in such a powerful way. He says, “Countries that choke themselves off from exposure to different cultures, faiths, and ideas will never invent the next Google or a cancer cure, let alone export a musical or body of literature that would bring enjoyment to children everywhere.”
Another prominent news item this week was author Anne Rice’s abandonment of Christianity. The bestselling author quit Christianity because she rejects the “anti” stances the Church seems to require of its followers. She refuses to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, and anti-secular humanist. Rice says in an NPR interview that she will not quit her relationship with Jesus, only with his followers, who often represent the antithesis of the teachings of Christ.
As more people reject the exclusionary attitudes of the church, the church suffers, and human beings suffer as well. Churches lose people from the pews. and without the basic moral and life-affirming messages that religion imparts, people become more empty and lost. Without the hope of religion, we lose an essential piece of our souls. And people sacrifice this hopeful, inspiring message of Jesus because the church has become a place of division and exclusion over issues that are antithetical to Jesus’ message of “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Friedman says in his column, “When we tell the world, ‘Yes, we are a country that will even tolerate a mosque near the site of 9/11,’ we send such a powerful message of inclusion and openness….you never know who out there is hearing that message and saying: ‘What a remarkable country! I want to live in that melting pot, even if I have to build a boat from milk cartons to get there.”
As the Mennonite Church loses spiritual seekers because of its exclusion of gay and lesbian Mennonites, its hopeful messages of pacifism, service, and worship weaken. But when it reaches the Christ-based position of inclusion, people will say, “What a remarkable denomination! I want to be a part of them!”
-Randall Friesen
Shadrack Jackman and Henry Fenn-Straatsma
star in “David and Jonathan.”
Mennonite Teens and Spiritual Doubt
It’s safe to say that the Mennonite Church’s denominational stance against gay and lesbian people has driven scores of gay and lesbian kids away from the church, if not from Christianity altogether. So what happens when a straight Mennonite teenager decides to give up Christianity, but his gay best friend encourages him to hold onto Jesus?
That’s the basis for “David and Jonathan,” an original, one-act play that debuted this summer at Walmer Road Baptist Church, as part of the Toronto Fringe Festival.
Christian playwright Richard Peters said, “In the short time since I’ve started doing this play, I’ve had five Christian parents now who’ve talked to me about the struggle they’ve gone through with their kids. Just yesterday, I spoke to a guidance counselor from a Christian school who told me he had two students say they felt suicide seemed like the best option, because they know the church condemns them carte blanche.”
Read the full story here.
Women meeting last week at the church-wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Chicago wore rainbow scarves to support gay clergy members. (NY Times)
Reinstating Gay and Lesbian Ministers
The Lutherans seem to be in a forgiveness frenzy lately. First, they ask Mennonites to forgive them for the persecution during the Reformation, now this. The Evangelical Lutheran Church is officially welcoming back gay and lesbian pastors into their fellowship. Lutheran pastors stripped of their credentials are being reinstated as legitimate Lutheran pastors in consecrated ceremonies. To read the article in today’s New York Times, click here.
Imagine the Mennonite Church reinstating the Mennonite pastors from whom it stripped credentials for being gay or lesbian or for supporting gay and lesbian Mennonites.
Spread the Word!
Believe it or not, there are gay Mennonites who aren’t aware of Gay Mennonite League. We know! Hard to believe! Particularly given the impact GML has had on informing the Mennonite community of events, such as Affirming the Faith conference and Virginia Mennonite Conference’s recent workshop that said some pretty negative things about gay and lesbian people.
GML has received several emails from straight Mennonites thanking us for existing. And we’ve gotten lots of letters from gay Mennonite guys and gals from North America and Europe who found us and wanted to know if we could connect them with gay Mennonite communities in their areas.
We’ve also experienced resistance to GML. For example, The Mennonite told us early on that they wouldn’t report on Gay Mennonite League because the founder is Mennonite Brethren, and not Mennonite Church USA, even though GML is “inter-Mennonite” in our reporting and the communities we serve.
We’d love to make more Mennonites aware of our presence. You can help. Here are a few things you might do to be part of further disseminating the valuable information of Gay Mennonite League:
- Link to GML. If you have a blog or web presence where it would be appropriate to put a link to GML, please do. You can copy our logo and just add a hyperlink to www.gaymennoniteleague.com.
- Tell your friends about GML.
- Send us websites you think would accept links or press releases from GML.
- Send us email addresses of people or organizations who would benefit from GML’s information.
- Join our Twitter and Facebook communities.
- Give us ideas on what we could do to reach more gay Mennonites and our supporters.
- Give us feedback on what we could be doing better! Use the Contact Us button at the right to email us. You don’t have to give us your name; just type “Anonymous” in the name fields if you are more comfortable with that. Or email us directly at gml@gaymennoniteleague.com.
Each month since GML started, we have been getting about 100 new hits more than each previous month. Let’s keep the momentum going toward creating a more inclusive Mennonite Church for everybody!
Church of the Brethren discusses LGBT relationships
July18, 2010
Same-sex partnerships weighed in at this year’s annual conference of the Church of the Brethren (COB), held in Pittsburg, PA, earlier this month. Falling at the midpoint of COB’s two-year plan for considering whether to uphold a past statement that same-sex partnerships are unacceptable for Christians, this year’s conference featured a model hearing about the issue at which participants were invited to voice their views on the contentious issue.
The point of discussion centered on “Human Sexuality from a Christian Perspective,” a 1983 statement from the COB that supports civil rights for gay people in matters such as housing and jobs, but deems covenantal relationships of same-sex partners as “not acceptable.” Last year’s conference voted to spend two years in response to two formal requests: one, to reconsider the 1983 statement; the other, to uphold the paper.
The “model hearing” took place at the Tuesday evening session, where approximately 300 delegates and observers were in attendance. Participants were asked not to engage in debate, but to give only their personal views.
One of the more poignant stories came from attendee Eileen Wilson, who said, “I’m the mother of a gay child. When someone says to me that homosexuality is a sin, that’s personal. They’re calling my child a sinner, and my child is not a sinner. She was born exactly as God intended.”
To read more responses, see this article from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette: Brethren reconsidering stance on homosexuality. The Post-Gazette also ran an interesting story leading up to the conference: Same-sex partnerships expected to dominate Brethren meeting.
“Measurably New”
The Church of the Brethren’s treatment of and attitude toward gay and lesbian people was also the subject of a conference sermon, “Measurably New,” delivered on Monday, July 5, by past conference moderator Earle Filke, Jr. Filke said:
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I know where my faith says we should be on the issue of homosexuality. I’m not comfortable with tree separations, or any of us who are glad to put persons there. But I do not intend to press a specific resolution of that upon you in this sermon. We are apparently not yet ready as a denomination to declare any measurably new commitments in regard to human sexuality. And that is sad. But I surely hope that sooner rather than later, we will find it in our heart to accept the invitation of Jesus and let his spirit come among us as we try to take him seriously on this issue.
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The full transcript of Filke’s sermon can be read here.
The blogosphere chimed in on the sermon, with Nick Miller Kauffman’s blog Feetwashing and Four Square airing some interesting takes on the sermon and the issue, particularlly “Earl’s Sermon” by Anna Lisa Gross.
The Church of the Brethren is best known for its stance on pacifism and is one of the country’s historic peace churches.
Gary Stephens and Randall Spaulding
Wedding Announcement!
Randy Spaulding, pastor of Covenant Mennonite Fellowship in Sarasota Florida, and his partner, Gary Stephens, were married on June 19, 2010. The joyous poolside wedding was attended by the couple’s family and friends. Congratulations, Gary and Randy!
VMC Workshop Response to GML Concerns
July 14, 2010
Gay Mennonite League recently reported on an upcoming workshop at Virginia Mennonite Conference (VMC)’s annual summer assembly. Based on the Faith and Life Commission (FLC)’s A Pastoral Approach towards Persons with a Homosexual Orientation, the workshop was held on June 26 in North Carolina. The workshop was presented by members of Spiritual Discernment Committee of VMC’s Faith and Life Commission: Owen Burkholder, conference minister, and Roy Hange, of the Harrisonburg, VA area.
In our original report, Gay Mennonite League addressed FLC’s endorsement of counseling gay and lesbian clients with the Leviticus verse that reads, “Both shall be put to death” when referring to “a man [who] lies with another man.” Among other points in the document, GML objected to the document’s definition of gays and lesbians as “broken,” “deviant,” and “in bondage to homosexual sin.” Also challenged was the document’s recommended resource list for pastors, which included ex-gay ministries and books such as “Straight Is the Way” and “Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.”
It has been brought to our attention that some of the points of concern reported by GML were addressed by the workshop presenters during the course of the event.
Regarding the subtext of the FLC document’s fourth point, “Engage in careful Bible study,” which included the Leviticus verse calling for the execution of gay people, presenters noted, “It is fair to say that the subtexts have lead to a huge reaction on the web pages.” Presenters acknowledged concerns raised about the document’s treatment of gay people in this area. They assured attendees that VMC is not recommending that gays be put to death, though they neither elaborated nor defended the document’s subtexts. Sources at the workshop reported that this was a clear reference to the Gay Mennonite League website’s challenge to VMC. There was no follow-up statement made in response to the accepting GML’s logic of taking the alternate stance of full inclusion.
As regards references to gay and lesbian people as “deviant” and “in bondage to homosexual sin,” presenters said, “We have been taken to task on this.”
Responding to the FLC document’s resource materials, presenters were reported as stating, “It is fair to say that this pastoral approach statement has a section on resources. We have taken terrific heat on what we put in. A couple of years ago we added more resources. We have listed resources, but don’t know all of what they are saying.”
Workshop presenters acknowledged, “Calling a behavioral expression sin and, at the same time, calling for being in dialogue is a fundamentally difficult challenge.”
