Leaders Say 9-11 Should be Remembered for Extreme Statements

DALLAS -- The anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks should include the memory of statements that blamed gays and lesbians for bringing God's wrath on the nation, a council of gay-friendly Christians said Monday.

Those targeted by such comments are "equally victims, 365 days a year of the kinds of teachings the Christian extremists espouse," said the Rev. Mel White, who spoke at a Dallas news conference in front of a colorful collection of 30 religious stoles representing defrocked or closeted gay clergy.

White, a former ghost writer for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders, said repeatedly: "It's over, it's over."

"We will not anymore stand silently by while they blame us for the ills of this nation, when we are at the very heart of what this nation represents," he said, amid "Amens" from supporters, including several wearing religious robes and clerical collars.

Although Falwell wasn't named, in 2001 he partly blamed the terror attacks on groups that "tried to secularize America," singling out pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the American Civil Liberties Union.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Falwell said after the attacks in an appearance on "The 700 Club", Pat Robertson's religious TV program. He later apologized.

When reached by phone on Monday, a spokeswoman for Falwell had no immediate comment.

Since 2001, religious groups and political leaders have continued attacking gays, according to the group of about 30 faith leaders who called the news conference during a three-day summit in Dallas.

The participants, who said they were meeting in the tradition of the historic church councils, want to spread a message of peace, said Bishop Yvette Flunder, a United Church of Christ minister from San Francisco. Sponsors included The Fellowship, Dignity USA, the Institute for Welcoming Resources and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.

The Dallas council announced no concrete plan of action but said it is "dedicated to reclaiming their faith based on the gospel of inclusion, justice and love."

"Certain religious groups have aggressively sought to define their agenda in the public's mind, through publicity and lobbying, as the Christian agenda," said the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a lead organizer and UCC minister. "On the contrary, there is a growing movement of Christian clergy who reject this agenda, for whom bigotry and exclusion have no place in the church."

White, founder of the gay rights group Soulforce, joked in response to a question that even Southern Baptist churches have gay members.

"If all the gay organists quit playing on Sunday morning," he said, "there would be silence in Christendom."

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.