Gay People in Church: Division Deepening As Denominations Draw Lines

The Rev. Sandi Rice, left, and the Rev. Carlene Wood offer the Eucharist at New Creation International Christian Community Church on Grace Way in Fletcher. Co-pastors Rice and Wood have been partners for 11 years.

By Andre A. Rodriguez
Mail: ARODRIGUEZ@CITIZEN-TIMES.COM ---— At a time when some religious denominations are tightening their policies toward homosexuals, others are looking at liberalizing their stance.

The board of directors of the 1.2 million-member Baptist State Convention of North Carolina announced recently a policy proposal that would forbid churches from ordaining gay clergy, making public statements supporting homosexuality or accepting as members people who have refused to “repent of the sin of homosexual behavior.”

On Tuesday, the Episcopal Church (USA) will begin its General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, where the issue will once again be raised. The 2.3 million-member denomination has been under fire from members of the worldwide Anglican Communion since 2003, when the ECUSA consecrated the first openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Convention delegates will decide whether to fulfill a request from Anglican leaders for a moratorium on electing partnered gay Episcopal bishops and on creating blessing ceremonies for gay couples.

The debate over the inclusion of gays has broiled here in the mountains during the past year, first as Christian groups with opposing views of homosexuality held national meetings at area conference centers last summer, and in more recent months as three Asheville pastors protested the disparity between homosexual and heterosexual marriage rights.

In July, Exodus International, a Christian organization of former gays, hosted its annual Freedom Conference at LifeWay Ridgecrest Conference Center near Black Mountain with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, as special guest.

Then in September, Reconciling Ministries Network, a national organization that wants gay United Methodists to be able to fully participate in the church, held its Hearts on Fire convocation at Lake Junaluska Assembly.

More recently, Asheville pastors Joe Hoffman and Mark Ward announced they would no longer perform civil marriage ceremonies until the state recognized same-sex marriages. Shortly thereafter, the Rev. Howard Hanger, also of Asheville, resigned his United Methodist ordination, citing the denomination’s opposition to same-sex unions.

“I have decided that I can no longer operate as a minister under the banner of an institution which so blatantly discriminates against the love of 10 to 20 percent of the world’s population,” Hanger wrote in a letter announcing his resignation.

Both sides cite Scripture
The main point of contention between the Episcopal Church (USA) and the majority of the Anglican Communion — and many other denominations that find themselves taking sides in the debate over homosexuality and the church — is what the Bible has to say on the subject.

The Communion teaches that gay sex is “incompatible with Scripture,” as does the Southern Baptist Convention, of which the Baptist State Convention of N.C. is the second-largest association.

According to the Rev. Billy Cline, retiring pastor of Celebration Church in Weaverville who previously ministered at Merrimon Avenue Baptist for 30 years, a Christian who understands Scripture will not want to be a homosexual.

“I think you can become a Christian when you are a homosexual, but I think once one understands — at least as many evangelical Christians do — that the practice of homosexuality is a sin, then they’ll want to overcome that,” he said. “They will depend upon God to help them do so, though it’ll be a struggle just like anything else.”

The Rev. Steve Runholt, pastor of Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church, disagrees and points out the fact that over the years the Bible has been used to support any number of things from slavery to war.

“The Bible has been used in any number of ways over the years to oppress or even victimize people,” he said. “It’s a very complex book. That’s the truth of the matter.”

Gay Christians
The Rev. Kathryn Cartledge, 59, and her partner of 24 years, Elizabeth Eve, 61, attend First Congregational United Church of Christ. Cartledge was ordained into the Presbyterian Church in 1986, but she was turned down for a chaplain’s position in 1996 because she was a lesbian.

“Because of my sexuality, I still have not had the opportunity to pursue a wide range of options in the church or in occupations even outside of the church like a hospital setting,” Cartledge said.

The Rev. Sandi Rice, 41, who pastors New Creation International Christian Community Church in Arden with her partner of 11 years, the Rev. Carlene Wood, 54, said there are seven or eight gay ministers attending her church who have been shut out of Christian ministry because of their sexual orientation.

“It breaks my heart. It really does,” she said. “The call to ministry, the call to service in my own life has been very powerful. It wasn’t something I went looking for — it came looking for me. And to run up against ecclesiastical walls everywhere saying, ‘No, you are not welcome,’ ‘No, you are not acceptable,’ knowing that God has placed a call upon one’s life has got to be one of the biggest conflicts and anguishes a person can experience.”

Eve considers herself to be spiritual but doesn’t call herself a Christian because she doesn’t like what Christianity has become.

“I would consider myself Christian in the sense that Christ meant for us to live our lives but not the way that it’s evolved in the last several hundred years,” she said.

Excluding gays
As gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church stand on the cusp of fuller inclusion into the life and body of the church, the Baptists and others are taking steps to make their views on homosexuality clear.

According to a May 24 report in the Biblical Recorder, the newspaper of the Baptist State Convention of N.C., the BSC board of directors and executive committee recently met to create a policy that would exclude churches from membership in the association for making public statements in support of homosexuals, ordaining homosexuals, accommodating same-sex marriages or blessings, giving money to groups that support homosexuals or accepting members who refuse to give up homosexuality.

On May 11, the board of directors of the American Baptist Churches of the Pacific Southwest voted to withdraw from the American Baptist Churches USA because of a dispute over homosexuality. American Baptist policy states that “homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching,” but Southwestern Baptists were upset that, in local situations, practicing homosexuals were ordained to the clergy and held leadership posts in American Baptist agencies.

In November, a new Vatican decree was released saying men should not be admitted to Catholic seminaries or ordained as priests if they practice homosexuality, have “deeply rooted homosexual tendencies” or “support so-called gay culture.” Those with only “transitory” homosexual tendencies must be celibate three years before being ordained as deacons, the step before priesthood.

Moving the other direction, the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church voted on resolutions June 1 that seek to lift bans on gay clergy and homosexual unions and would call for equal access to the Methodist Church “regardless of sexual orientation.” These resolutions must be voted on at a national convention in 2008. Each quadrennial Methodist conference since 1972 has debated gay issues.

Religious capital
The Rev. L.C. Ray, president of the Baptist Ministers’ Union and pastor of Greater New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Fletcher said he doesn’t believe Christ would endorse homosexuality but added there are many more pressing issues facing society.

“We shouldn’t spend all of our religious capital on things that there’s a possibility we may not have any control over as far as changing,” he said. “I feel like we’re dwelling on things that may not help, but there is disparity in education, disparity in health care, disparity in economics and so many unkind things happening to our people whether they be black, white or in between that we should be taking stands on and speaking out boldly.”

The Rev. Rice said that while there are only a few verses in the Bible that even seem to address homosexuality, none of these came from Christ’s mouth.

“Jesus never said a word about homosexuality, never in any of his teachings,” she said. “I really believe there are so much more important issues to be dealt with such as poverty, love, peace, inclusivity, and that’s what Jesus taught.”

Jesus may not have made an issue about homosexuals, but that doesn’t mean he would approve, Ray said.

“Do I feel like as a Christian that Christ would endorse (homosexuality)? No, I don’t feel that way, but neither do I feel that Christ would endorse some of the things that straight people are doing, too,” he said.

Hoffman cautions against prooftexting, or the practice of lifting specific verses from Scripture and not reading them in their original context.

“I think all of us have to be careful not to prooftext. To lift up a passage that says what we want it to say and to say, ‘This is the whole story,’” he said. “When I read the Bible, what I find is just an emphasis on love — loving one another, loving God — and I think we are called to be loving and not to be judging in that way. That’s what overrides everything for me.”

The Episcopal convention
As the Episcopal Church approaches its national general convention, most of the world’s focus is on how the denomination is going to address the issue of electing partnered gay bishops and creating a blessing for same-sex couples. When an openly gay bishop was consecrated in 2003, fellow Anglicans worldwide were outraged.

There are murmurs of a split if the denomination moves toward acceptance of homosexuality, and rumors of a liberal group of Episcopalians preparing to take control of the denomination have also circulated.

The Rev. Todd Donatelli, dean of The Cathedral of All Souls, said it’s senseless to worry about which way the convention will choose to go. It’s difficult to predict how the more than 1,000 delegates will vote once they come together and begin discussions, he said.

“When I went to the convention in 2000, what was most heartening was that all the speculation that happened before, some of it may have come to fruition, but in the moment when people finally get together and start talking and listening and praying and going to the Eucharist together, there are things that happen in the moment that no one can predict,” he said. “There are things in 2000 I would not have thought would have happened.”

Runholt said he remembers a time when pastors and church members threatened to leave the church when African-Americans and women were invited to participate fully in the life of the church. He said he sees similarities in the current debate over homosexuals in the church.

“There are ministers in our denomination as there are now in the Episcopal Church who are threatening to leave their denomination if the sanctions prohibiting the ordination of gay clergy are lifted,” he said.

Donatelli said he is encouraging his people to pray for those attending the convention that they might have the wisdom and discernment to make the right decisions.

“What I’m encouraging all our folks to do is not to speculate at this time because that seems to me simply to cloud and already begin to draw some lines before the spirit has had a chance to get us together and talk to us,” he said.

One step at a time

Cartledge, Eve and Rice can all envision a time when the question of whether a homosexual can be a Christian will no longer be relevant, but none can imagine this change taking place in her lifetime.

“I do believe there will be a number of denominations and some faith traditions that will not come full circle, but I do believe there will be a number of denominations and faith traditions that openly embrace gay Christians as children of God just like we are,” Rice said.

Cartledge said it will be the culture and not the church that will lead to change.

“It was the culture who changed and really led the march for justice for the inclusion of African-Americans in all rights that every one deserves, and then the church kind of fell into place,” she said. “At the beginning of civil rights they were not at the forefront. It was not until they felt it might be cool with the greater part of the culture that they stepped up to the plate.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2006 Asheville Citizen-Times. All rights reserved.