A Manifesto! The Time Has Come! by John Shelby Spong
Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell writes of A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!
Years ago I joined the debates precipitated by those who believe, as does my United Methodist Church that; "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching." My denomination long ago, determined that anti-semitism, sexism and racism did not have Biblical justification. But, as we continue to reflect heterosexism in our legislation of denunciation, prohibition and punishment of same gender loving persons, I am uncertain about the seriousness or depth of our earlier condemnations of anti-semitism, sexism and racism. The ease with which we have moved from one ism to another ism to another ism, suggests that we have not adequately un-earthed the roots responsible for all of the isms that have made the church less than it should be.
Thus, I will allow Bishop Spong's, "A Manifesto! The Time Has Come!" to inspire me, not to the practice of a new celibacy of non-activism in my small efforts to confront and challenge heterosexism, but rather to inspire me to a more determined effort. I do this with the inspiration provided by the words of Bishop Spong in the past and by his new and understandable, "Manifesto".
I have made a decision. I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance that emanates from so many right-wing Christians about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, as if that point of view still has any credibility. I will no longer discuss with them or listen to them tell me how homosexuality is "an abomination to God," about how homosexuality is a "chosen lifestyle," or about how through prayer and "spiritual counseling" homosexual persons can be "cured." Those arguments are no longer worthy of my time or energy. I will no longer dignify by listening to the thoughts of those who advocate "reparative therapy," as if homosexual persons are somehow broken and need to be repaired. I will no longer talk to those who believe that the unity of the church can or should be achieved by rejecting the presence of, or at least at the expense of, gay and lesbian people. I will no longer take the time to refute the unlearned and undocumentable claims of certain world religious leaders who call homosexuality "deviant." I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that "we love the sinner but hate the sin." That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement. I will no longer temper my understanding of truth in order to pretend that I have even a tiny smidgen of respect for the appalling negativity that continues to emanate from religious circles where the church has for centuries conveniently perfumed its ongoing prejudices against blacks, Jews, women and homosexual persons with what it assumes is "high-sounding, pious rhetoric." The day for that mentality has quite simply come to an end for me. I will personally neither tolerate it nor listen to it any longer. The world has moved on, leaving these elements of the Christian Church that cannot adjust to new knowledge or a new consciousness lost in a sea of their own irrelevance. They no longer talk to anyone but themselves. I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness by pretending that there is some middle ground between prejudice and oppression. There isn't. Justice postponed is justice denied. That can be a resting place no longer for anyone. An old civil rights song proclaimed that the only choice awaiting those who cannot adjust to a new understanding was to "Roll on over or we'll roll on over you!" Time waits for no one.
I will particularly ignore those members of my own Episcopal Church who seek to break away from this body to form a "new church," claiming that this new and bigoted instrument alone now represents the Anglican Communion. Such a new ecclesiastical body is designed to allow these pathetic human beings, who are so deeply locked into a world that no longer exists, to form a community in which they can continue to hate gay people, distort gay people with their hopeless rhetoric and to be part of a religious fellowship in which they can continue to feel justified in their homophobic prejudices for the rest of their tortured lives. Church unity can never be a virtue that is preserved by allowing injustice, oppression and psychological tyranny to go unchallenged.
In my personal life, I will no longer listen to televised debates conducted by "fair-minded" channels that seek to give "both sides" of this issue "equal time." I am aware that these stations no longer give equal time to the advocates of treating women as if they are the property of men or to the advocates of reinstating either segregation or slavery, despite the fact that when these evil institutions were coming to an end the Bible was still being quoted frequently on each of these subjects. It is time for the media to announce that there are no longer two sides to the issue of full humanity for gay and lesbian people. There is no way that justice for homosexual people can be compromised any longer.
I will no longer act as if the Papal office is to be respected if the present occupant of that office is either not willing or not able to inform and educate himself on public issues on which he dares to speak with embarrassing ineptitude. I will no longer be respectful of the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who seems to believe that rude behavior, intolerance and even killing prejudice is somehow acceptable, so long as it comes from third-world religious leaders, who more than anything else reveal in themselves the price that colonial oppression has required of the minds and hearts of so many of our world's population. I see no way that ignorance and truth can be placed side by side, nor do I believe that evil is somehow less evil if the Bible is quoted to justify it. I will dismiss as unworthy of any more of my attention the wild, false and uninformed opinions of such would-be religious leaders as Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, Albert Mohler, and Robert Duncan. My country and my church have both already spent too much time, energy and money trying to accommodate these backward points of view when they are no longer even tolerable.
I make these statements because it is time to move on. The battle is over. The victory has been won. There is no reasonable doubt as to what the final outcome of this struggle will be. Homosexual people will be accepted as equal, full human beings, who have a legitimate claim on every right that both church and society have to offer any of us. Homosexual marriages will become legal, recognized by the state and pronounced holy by the church. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dismantled as the policy of our armed forces. We will and we must learn that equality of citizenship is not something that should ever be submitted to a referendum. Equality under and before the law is a solemn promise conveyed to all our citizens in the Constitution itself. Can any of us imagine having a public referendum on whether slavery should continue, whether segregation should be dismantled, whether voting privileges should be offered to women? The time has come for politicians to stop hiding behind unjust laws that they themselves helped to enact, and to abandon that convenient shield of demanding a vote on the rights of full citizenship because they do not understand the difference between a constitutional democracy, which this nation has, and a "mobocracy," which this nation rejected when it adopted its constitution. We do not put the civil rights of a minority to the vote of a plebiscite.
I will also no longer act as if I need a majority vote of some ecclesiastical body in order to bless, ordain, recognize and celebrate the lives and gifts of gay and lesbian people in the life of the church. No one should ever again be forced to submit the privilege of citizenship in this nation or membership in the Christian Church to the will of a majority vote.
The battle in both our culture and our church to rid our souls of this dying prejudice is finished. A new consciousness has arisen. A decision has quite clearly been made. Inequality for gay and lesbian people is no longer a debatable issue in either church or state. Therefore, I will from this moment on refuse to dignify the continued public expression of ignorant prejudice by engaging it. I do not tolerate racism or sexism any longer. From this moment on, I will no longer tolerate our culture's various forms of homophobia. I do not care who it is who articulates these attitudes or who tries to make them sound holy with religious jargon.
I have been part of this debate for years, but things do get settled and this issue is now settled for me. I do not debate any longer with members of the "Flat Earth Society" either. I do not debate with people who think we should treat epilepsy by casting demons out of the epileptic person; I do not waste time engaging those medical opinions that suggest that bleeding the patient might release the infection. I do not converse with people who think that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans as punishment for the sin of being the birthplace of Ellen DeGeneres or that the terrorists hit the United Sates on 9/11 because we tolerated homosexual people, abortions, feminism or the American Civil Liberties Union. I am tired of being embarrassed by so much of my church's participation in causes that are quite unworthy of the Christ I serve or the God whose mystery and wonder I appreciate more each day. Indeed I feel the Christian Church should not only apologize, but do public penance for the way we have treated people of color, women, adherents of other religions and those we designated heretics, as well as gay and lesbian people.
Life moves on. As the poet James Russell Lowell once put it more than a century ago: "New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth." I am ready now to claim the victory. I will from now on assume it and live into it. I am unwilling to argue about it or to discuss it as if there are two equally valid, competing positions any longer. The day for that mentality has simply gone forever.
This is my manifesto and my creed. I proclaim it today. I invite others to join me in this public declaration. I believe that such a public outpouring will help cleanse both the church and this nation of its own distorting past. It will restore integrity and honor to both church and state. It will signal that a new day has dawned and we are ready not just to embrace it, but also to rejoice in it and to celebrate it.
Rev. Dr. Karen P. Oliveto, Pastor of Glide Memorial UMC in San Francisco, preached the following sermon for the National Equality March at Capitol Hill UMC in Washington, DC.
...We in the United Methodist Church fight for both rights (R-I-G-H-T-S) as well as rites (R-I-T-E-S) within our church and beyond. We are in a most schizophrenic situation. The UMC supports the civil rights of glbt persons in the world, but denies rights/rites within the church. We encourage the participation of openly gay and lesbian persons in the military, but have enacted a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy for gay and lesbian clergy within the church. We oppose homophobia and heterosexism in society but limit the church’s ability to openly and honestly discuss issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity because of a funding ban which does not allow the church to “promote homosexuality”. We support legal contractual relationships between same-gender loving couples in society, but refuse to honor sacred covenantal relationships in our churches for the same couples. We affirm the importance of loving parents for all children, but refuse to work for the civil rights of same-gender parents which would support these families. We acknowledge that teens dealing with questions about sexual orientation are at a greater risk for suicide and then allow the name-calling of glbt persons as “things that come from the devil” on the floor of General Conference. Church, it is time to practice what we preach!
It is time for us to heed the call of the prophet Amos: "I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals…hate evil and love good and then work it out in the public square.”...
Glide Church, a Reconciling Congregation and B-WARM stand in front of the United States Capitol. Rev. Dr. Karen Oliveto is in the middle.
National Equality March: What's Next? Maine and Washington
"The Gospel of Christ knows no religion but social, no holiness but social holiness. You cannot be holy except as you are engaged in making the world a better place. You do not become holy by keeping yourself pure and clean from the world but by plunging into ministry on behalf of the world’s hurting ones."
--John Wesley
There was tremendous grassroots energy at the National Equality March. Here is powerful mongage of rally speakers that will give you a flavor of the march.
WHAT IS NEXT? WHAT CAN I DO?
Maine and Washington State are facing ballot measures similar to California's Proposition 8.
MAINE
NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality is a statewide, grassroots campaign defending the marriage equality law challenged by Question 1. Voting NO on Question 1 preserves the law that was enacted this Spring after thousands of Mainers testified before the Legislature.
Marriage equality honors the commitment that thousands of loving same-sex couples in Maine have made to each other, often for decades.
Without marriage equality loving, committed same-sex couples are not recognized as a legal pair. They cannot file taxes jointly, do not have access to health insurance as a family and are not allowed to inherit property at the time of death without the hardship of crushing taxes. Their children are not entitled to all of the rights and protections conferred automatically on a family headed by a married couple.
Separate is not equal and everyone, including gay and lesbian couples, should be treated equally under the law. Marriage equality reflects traditional Maine values of fairness and equality.
Referendum 71 needs to be approved to keep the domestic partnership law in Washington State. There are several hundred rights at stake. A few examples of rights we need you to approve:
The right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner
The right to wages and benefits when a domestic partner is injured, and to unpaid wages upon the death of a domestic partner
The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits
The right to workers' compensation coverage
Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after the death of a domestic partner, conversion rights and continuing coverage rights
Rights related to adoption, child custody and child support
Aggravated homosexuality will be punished by death, according to a new bill tabled in Parliament yesterday.
The private member’s bill was tabled by Ndorwa West MP David Bahati (NRM).
A person commits aggravated homosexuality when the victim is a person with disability or below the age of 18, or when the offender is HIV-positive.
The bill thus equates aggravated homosexuality to aggravated defilement among people of different sexes, which also carries the death sentence.
The Bill, entitled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, also states that anyone who commits the offence of homosexuality will be liable to life imprisonment.
This was already the case under the current Penal Code Act.
However, it gives a broader definition of the offence of homosexuality.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Reprinted News Alert by Rev. Stephen Parelli of Other Sheep
Uganda is largely evangelical. Uganda's hateful stance against homosexuals is very Bible based, so they think. Therefore, evangelicals worldwide cannot look on and watch the Parliament of Uganda enact laws against homosexuals that are, as this bill is, criminal, without speaking out. The evangelicals of Africa and from outside of Africa must address their fellow Christians of Uganda and tell them they must, in the name of God, stop this inhumane bill from becoming law.
The AEA, with the endorsement of Warren, Stott and Carew, published a feature article on "Homosexuality" in the Africa Bible Commentary (2006) that in word and in spirit can be taken as an endorsement of this Anti-Homosexuality Bill of Uganda. AEA must clarify that its publication (in partnership with Zondervan Corporation, Grand Rapids, Michicgan, USA) does not in any way indicate agreement with what is happening in the Parliament of Uganda at this time.
This past week I received an email from an Associate Member of the AEA. The person's email was in response to the recent Other Sheep eNews on the Ugandan bill. This AEA Associate Member wrote that he/she agrees with the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 because it is "in obedience to the Word of God." What is, therefore, the position of the AEA on this bill? Obviously this individual was speaking for him/herself and not necessarily expressing what is the general viewpoint of the members of the Executive Board of the AEA. Nonetheless, this individual's email is alarming. Does it express the viewpoint of evangelicals throughout Africa, especially evangelicals in leadership like this individual? If it does, evangelicals in Africa are on a witch hunt and more responsible evangelicals, both from within and outside of Africa, need to speak out now.
Take action now by writing evangelical leaders in Africa and worldwide. Sample letters and contact information follow below.
Sample Letter to the Association of Evangelicals in Africa
Pastor Rick Warren
Saddleback Church
1 Saddleback Parkway
Lake Forest, CA 92630-8700
Phone: 949 609-8080
Fax: 949 609-8002
Email: rickw@saddleback.net
Author, The Purpose Driven Life
Rev. Dr. John R. W. Stott
Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church
Langham Place in London, England
Mail to:
Dr. John R. W. Stott
c/o Zondervan
ATTN: Author Care
5300 Patterson SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49530
Email: zauthor@zondervan.com
Dr. Douglas Carew
Vice Chancellor
Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (N.E.G.S.T.)
PO Box 24686
Karen 00502
Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: +254 020 3002415
+254 020 3002416
+254 020 3002417
Fax: +254 002 882906
Email: douglas.carew@negst.edu
Sample Letter International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
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A Manifesto! The Time Has Come! by John Shelby Spong
Thursday October 15, 2009
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NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality is a statewide, grassroots campaign defending the marriage equality law challenged by Question 1. Voting NO on Question 1 preserves the law that was enacted this Spring after thousands of Mainers testified before the Legislature.
Referendum 71 needs to be approved to keep the domestic partnership law in Washington State. There are several hundred rights at stake. A few examples of rights we need you to approve:
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