Though our movement was serious, we had a lot of fun along the way!
With James D. Anderson, editor of our newsletter, and Sandy Brawders,
a candidate for ordination who came out at the 1978 General Assembly.
In those days, newsletters were the lifeblood of the LGBT Christian movement.
Photo by Mark Sick.
In honor of Pride month,
this is the third of four posts adapted from a Meekhof Lecture I gave at
Newport Presbyterian Church in Bellevue (WA), January 11, 2014, regarding the
meaning of the LGBT movement for the broader church.
When
the LGBT movement first blessed the church decades ago, churchgoers feared
opening “Pandora’s Box,” which, in Greek mythology, was really a jar that
contained all kinds of human evil, which I prefer to call “challenges.” But it
also contained Hope with which to face the eight challenges represented by our
movement. I wrote of four last Wednesday: xenophobia, inertia, erotophobia, and
pleasure. Today I write of the final four.
Our fifth challenge: progressive interpretations of
scripture. During most of the 20th
century the progressive Christian movement was less defined because, I contend,
mainstream-established Christianity was itself progressive.
Only as biblical literalists and
fundamentalists and evangelicals grew in influence in society and in the church
did progressive Christianity appear to be a minority position, I believe.
You can’t read Fosdick, Evelyn Underhill,
Bonhoeffer, Tillich, the Niebuhrs, Teilhard de Chardin, Dorothy Day, John
Robinson, Pope John XXIII, Hans Küng, William Sloan Coffin, Gustavo Gutiérrez,
Mary Daly, Rosemary Radford Reuther, James Cohn, Letty Russell, Desmond Tutu, Joan
Chittister, Henri Nouwen—just to give multiple examples, and not recognize them
both as progressive and influential in the 20th century church in
America.
The problem was, though, that out of
compassion or for the sake of job security or simply because of sheer sloth,
much of what we learned in seminary did not get communicated from pulpit to
pew. I would say that’s why Bishop Spong is such a lightning rod in the broader
church: he’s spilling the beans about what most of us learned in seminary!
Our sixth challenge was gender dysphoria. Some of you may know that for a long time those whose
understanding of themselves did not match their designated gender were
diagnosed as having “gender dysphoria.”
The Oxford English Dictionary defines
“dysphoria” as “a state of unease or discomfort; an unpleasant state of mind
marked by malaise, depression, or anxiety.” I would say that now describes much
of the church in relation not only to its transgender and intersex members, but
to all who do not neatly fit gender expectations, such as lesbians, gay men,
bisexual women and men, and ever more contemporary women and men who are
shaking up gender roles.
Our seventh challenge revolved around ordination. I used to joke that trials for ordination virtually replaced
heresy trials! That was when we often determined what is orthodox in our
beliefs and behaviors. Now of course
there are more church trials, and most of them seem to be about our differing
views on homosexuality.
But what does ordination mean when all
Christians are called to be ministers? Are ordinands to be “holier than thou”?
Do the sins of the celebrant affect the sacraments offered? (Calvin said “no.”)
When a governing church body discerns that gifts for church leadership are
present, shouldn’t that be enough?
Our eighth challenge was marriage, which, as some pointed out, should’ve been discussed
before the question of ordination. In the discussions on homosexuality and
ordination throughout the church, there would be audible gasps if someone even
suggested the possibility of same-gender marriage. We’d be talking about
ordination to our spiritual leadership, but marriage was untouchable.
When the 1991 Presbyterian Study on
Human Sexuality questioned heterosexual marriage as the paradigm or model for
all sexual relations and instead suggested an ethic of justice-love that would
govern sexual relations including those of marriage, much of the denomination
went ballistic. I was at the Baltimore General Assembly that discussed the
report, and the feeling among some delegates seemed to be, “We’ll give you
ordination, just give us back marriage”!
So what is the Hope left in “Pandora’s
Box”? Find out in next week’s post!
I urge you to make a
donation to and/or attend these once-in-a-lifetime ingatherings of LGBT saints and
allies:
Oct 31-Nov 2, 2017
St. Louis Airport Marriott
Sept 8-10, 2017
Kirkridge Retreat & Conference
Center
To support this blog
ministry:
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order. Thank you!
Copyright © 2017 by Chris R. Glaser.
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