FamilyOfFaithSpiritVoice_February1997.pdf
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- FamilyOfFaithSpiritVoice_February1997.pdf
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AN OUTREACH TO MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OFF AMILY OFF AITH MCC
KEEPING THE FAITH
The Intersection of Gays,
God and Government
WEEKLY
Sundays
9 :00 am Adult Ed.
11:00 am Worship Service
By Danial Zingale
As people of faith see it, one of
the worst things that religious
political extremists do to lesbian and
gay people is to create barriers
between us and God. By preaching a
message of "love the sinner but hate
the sin," or, even worse, trying to
alter our sexual orientations through
their so-called change ministries,
groups
like Pat Robertson's
Christian Coalition are signaling that
gay men and lesbians are not
welcomed by organized religion.
Despite those messages, the gay
community is a spiritual community,
with many gay men and lesbians
participating in organized religion
for the same reasons non-gay people
do - to maintain family traditions, to
better
connect
with
their
communities, to provide children
with a religious education.
Many of us believe that political
progress
for
groups
facing
discrimination in America is linked
to religion, for better or for worse.
From the fight to abolish slavery to
passage of the Voting Rights Act,
Wednesdays
6:30 P.M. Praise & Wor. ship
7:30 P.M. Choir
Thursdays
7:30 P.M. Co-Dependency
Group
MONTHLY
WISH LIST
A Pop Machine
Piano
Sound System Monitor
CD Player
Cards & Stamps
(Continued on page 2)
Family of Faith MCC
February 1997
5451-E S9uth Mingo
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1st Sunday of Month
Potluck
1st Friday of each Month
SAFE HAVEN
(ages 18-30)
2nd Sunday of each Month
Board Meeting
(open to all)
10th of each Month
Newsletter Articles Due
3rd Wednesday of each
Montli
Newsletter Mailing
Tulsa, OK
622-1441
(Continued from page 1)
many political victories have been
won by convincing Americans of
the essential immorality of
discrimination. Of course, our
foes from the religious right also
try to use dogma to defeat us,
which makes it even more
imperative that we fight them on
these terms.
Leading the way among gays
and lesbians of faith is the
Metropolitan Community Church
(MCC), the first Protestant
denomination founded to minister
to gay men and lesbians. Just as
the black churches were essential
to the African-American
civil rights movement, MCC can
emerge as an important force for
gay and lesbian equality. HRC
recently initiated a partnership
with MCC to distribute voter
registration forms to churchgoers
at more than 200 MCC
congregations nationwide.
And the Rev. Troy Perry,
MCC's founder, recently wrote in
a letter to the Universal
Fellowship of Metropolitan
Community Churches, "it is
incumbent upon every member
and friend of our denomination to
be registered to vote."
Within mainstream religion,
more and more thoughtful people
are questioning anti-gay beliefs
and practices. Heeding a call to
conscience, many of these friends
are working on behalf of gay and
lesbian civil rights. For instance,
Rabbi David Saperstein, director
and counsel of the Religious
Action Center of Reform
Judaism,
testified
before
Congress against the so-called
Defense of Marriage Act: "This
bill is about targeting scapegoats;
(Continued on page 3)
"A knowledge
of the path
cannotbe
substituted for
putting one
foot in front off
the other."
- M. C.
Richards
- Carol and Family, who
are dealing with AIDS
- MCC of Greater Tulsa's
pastoral search
- Family of Faith's
pastoral search
- Deb Hardy, who has
AIDS
abortion are no big deal." Even
and as a people who have been the more recently, Reed wrote in his
"[R]eligious
quintessential
scapegoats
of autobiography:
Western civilization, we stand with conservatives must shun harsh
our gay and lesbian brothers and language on critical issues _ chiefly
sisters in saying that this bill is abortion, Clinton-bashing, and
immoral and unjust." The United homosexuality and learn to speak
Church of Christ has also been a of our opponents with charity."
consistent and active voice on Nevertheless,
the
Christian
Capitol Hill against the Defense of Coalition has not stopped using
Marriage Act and in favor of the gay and lesbian Americans as
Employment Non-Discrimination scapegoats for their narrow
Act. When Elizabeth Birch political agenda. Indeed, the
addressed
members
of the Christian Coalition has been a
Christian Coalition during their leading promoter of anti-gay
annual meeting in September 1995, marriage bills in state legislatures
she was introduced by Hilary and before the U.S. Congress.
Shelton, program director of the Reed's actions prove that his softer
United Methodist Church. This tone is meant to disguise a
appearance was unprecedented; a persistently hateful agenda. But the
national gay leader and a fact that he felt the need to tone it
mainstream
religious
leader down may also suggest that the
confronted the anti-gay religious religious politics of exclusion and
political extremists on their own demonization will prove no match
turf. Ralph . Recd,· Chri_stian for the simple notion that we are all
Coalition •executive
director, children of God.
refused to allow Birch and Shelton
to address the convention directly, Daniel Zingale, HRC's political
so they spoke in an adjacent room director, attended the Harvard
at the same hotel. "Neither of us Divinity School and graduated
ram the Kennedy School o
should forsake our fundamental
at
Harvard
convictions," Birch said, reading an Government
open letter to the coalition. "But
we could hold those convictions
with a humility that allows room
for the lives of others." Afterward,
several
Christian
Coalition
members who chose to attend the
speech told Birch that she had
raised serious doubts in their minds
about their leaders' anti-gay tactics.
Reed and Robertson appear
cognizant of the rumblings of
dissension among their flock. In his
book, "The Harvest Begins With
You" Robertson wrote: "We have
'
taken some polls of evangelical
Christians, and about 20 percent of
them say homosexuality and
(Continued from page 2)
AROUND THE FELLOWSHIP
WE ARE FAMILY
Defending Our Rights
As Parents
By Nancy Buermeyer
One of the most critical issues
facing the lesbian and gay community today is the assault by
extremists on our rights as parents. A central tenet of the bigotry aimed at lesbian and gay
people is the premise that having
young people see us, know us or
even learn of our existence will
somehow be detrimental to their
well-being. While family law and
education policies have traditionally been left to states and local
communities, more and more often these issues have reached the
federal arena.
The
104th
Congress considered two such
legislative initiatives: adoption
rights of District of Columbia residents and so-called "parental
rights" legislation.
D.C. Adoption Amendment
In the summer of 1995, the District of Columbia courts ruled
that two unmarried individuals
could both be the legal adoptive
parents of a child. The case,
which involved two gay men, set
an important precedent.
As Congress considered the District's budget for 1996, Rep. Jay
Dickey, a Republican from
Arkansas offered an amendment
'
in the Appropriations Committee to overturn the court case by forbidding unmarried couples from jointly
adopting children. The amendment was backed by such organizations as the Traditional Values Coalition, a
religious political extremist group run by the notoriously anti-gay Lou Sheldon.
The amendment was included in the House version of the bill, but was not included in the Senate bill. Sen.
James Jeffords, R-Vt., who chairs the Senate committee handling the D.C. budget bill, led the efforts to remove
this discriminatory language from the final version of the bill.
The Human Rights Campaign organized a group of lesbian and gay parents from the District to lobby key
members of Congress at a critical point in the process. It was an extremely successful day as members of
Congress and their staffs got to meet face-to-face with lesbian and gay families.
The attempts by Dickey and the Traditional Values Coalition to add the anti-gay language to the 1997 budget
were unsuccessful, but HRC anticipates further state and national attacks on the rights of lesbian and gay
parents.
"Parental Rights" Legislation
The Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act of 1995 has an entirely reasonable name, but this legislation
would have sweeping and very damaging effects if it ever became law. So-called parental rights legislation is
one of the 10 planks of the Christian Coalition's "Contract with the American Family" and was a top legislative
priority for them in this Congress.
While purporting to protect parents' "fundamental rights," this legislation could subject programs that help
children to a slew of lawsuits. Whenever a public library, public school, or health or welfare agency made a
decision or merely offered information that a particular parent disagreed with, that parent could file suit in
federal court. It could undermine the ability of minors to get essential medical care, protection from child abuse
or lifesaving information including sex education. The implications of such legislation are extremely broad and
devastating, particularly for the lesbian and gay community.
"Among other things, passage of this legislation would completely change public education as we know it,"
says Rebecca Isaacs, public policy director for People for the American Way. "For instance, any public school
providing life-saving information to lesbian and gay youth would be subject to lawsuits in federal court, even if
the overwhelming majority of the community supported the policy." The availability of basic information about
homosexuality, sex education curricula, school library materials and health care services could be challenged,
even by a single individual filing suit. Schools could be forced to tailor curricula for each student based on the
demands of individual parents.
HRC has joined a broad coalition opposing this legislation. Headed by People For the American Way, it
includes children's health and safety advocates, parents, educators and religious and civil liberties groups. The
bill's prospects in the 104th Congress remain unclear, but it is probable that similar legislation will be back next
year, in both state legislatures and Congress.
HEARTWINGS '97
"LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES"
February 14-16
Denton Texas
Featuring Marsha Stevens in Concert February 15th
.
,...
OVLSuvitilet~ Metrch 2vitil
FetmiL~oj Fetith M CC
WiLL tilo somethin,g NEW- somethivig BOLD...
Something we've never done bejore...
Join us ett thejirst-ever
Cong reg(itt~on,(il,l
Forum
oiket-- "CHEW & SPEW"
FoLLowivigpotluck we wiLL hvive £ii
reLaxefiianfii informal questiovi anfii
Ctvtswersession on topics that YOU
hvLvechosen. We vLLL
know how
importlitnt it is to communictitte,
so Letus hellr from !1DU ... bring
!10urself civifii vi coverefiifiiish
for potLuck, civifii Let'stetLk!!!
.
,
' ....
February
1997
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
11:00 am Worship
Potluck after
Worship!
9
11:00 am Worship
6
7
6:30 PM Prayer &
Praise Service
7:30PMCoDependency Mtg
Safe Haven
7:00
10
Worship Team Mtg
7:00
11
Fund Raising Mtg
7:00
17
13
12
6:30 PM Prayer &
Praise Service
14
15
21
22
7:30PMCoDependency Mtg
7:30 Choir Practice
18
19 20
5:30 Newsletter
Malling
11:00 am Worship
7:30PMCoDependency Mtg
6:30 PM Prayer &
Praise Service
7:30 Choir Practice
23
11:00 am Worship
8
7:30 Choir Practice
Newsletter Articles
Due
16
5
24
25
26
27
6:30 PM Prayer &
Praise Service
7:30 PM CoDependency Mtg
7:30 Choir Practice
. .,
28
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
POST AGE PAID
PERMIT NO. 145
Family of Faith MCC
P. 0. Box 382
Jenks, OK 74037-0382
JENKS, OK
Address Correction Requested
Herlandof OKC
Pat Reeves
2312NW
39th Street
OKLAHOMA
CITY,OK73112
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