Ethics for Gay Christians?: The Seventh-day Adventist Experience – Adventist Today

Contents:

• SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS
• A GAY MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE ADVENTIST CHURCH
• “SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS”
• ETHICS FOR GAY CHRISTIANS?: THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST EXPERIENCE

SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS

Homosexuals also fell to the send tegory: jt as an unmarried pregnant member was seen as shamg the church, when a gay or lbian was disvered among s members — and those days disvery was ually the rult of the publitn the prs of the nam of those arrted followg a police raid on a gay meetg place — this was seen as embarrassg, and that person was purged immediately. This quickly garnered support om key anizatns: the Amerin Bar Associatn issued a ll for the crimalizatn of homosexual behavr between nsentg adults 1973, and the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn voted to remove homosexualy om s official list of mental disorrs the same year. The more liberal nomatns also rpond: the Uned Church of Christ and the Unarian-Universalist Church, emphasizg that God loved all his children, voted to orda openly gay and lbian pastors.

For example, when, 1977, Ana Bryant succsfully took the lead the mpaign to reverse a civil rights ordance that had helped protect homosexuals agast discrimatn employment and hog Da County, Florida, her mpaign spawned bumper stickers that urged people to “Kill a gay for Christ. However, the relig right, ma up of fundamentalists, Mormons, and many Catholics and Evangelils, is strivg to unrme same-sex marriage, and their ngregatns rarely wele people known to be homosexual. Vernon Henrshot, who was print of the Adventist Semary when was loted at the General Conference plex Washgton, DC, disappeared sudnly after beg arrted durg a police raid on a gay meetg place 1952.

For example, a stunt at Avondale College, Atralia, the 1970s, who nfsed to beg homosexual between his fal examatns and graduatn, was not allowed to graduate and fally received his gree the mail a year later. ” Although the number of church members whose homosexualy was disvered so dramatilly was relatively small, the proportn of gay and lbian members who grew up the church was no doubt about average, and many others also joed as adults. Although unselors and pastors regularly advised homosexuals to pray for liverance, and to date a woman and marry her expectatn that God would answer their prayers, two books on sex published durg the 1970s regnized that change orientatn was unlikely and urged that dive strength be enlisted to rist temptatns.

A GAY MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE ADVENTIST CHURCH

” In another ntributn to Insight, 1980, he timated that there were between ten and twenty thoand homosexuals wh the Adventist Church the Uned Stat alone, and chastised the church for failg to foster mistri to help the members.

I found a group of gay men who were much like me: they were uncerta whether God accepted them, their guilt and self-hatred had ma difficult to form a relatnship wh another man even after marriag had failed, and this had rulted promiscuy and lonels.

“SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS”

I asked each of the Semary profsors to tell whether God would accept gays and lbians as Christians; all said that would be somethg new for them to explore, but they were eager to do so. ” However, he sisted on two ndns: Kship uld not e the participatn of clergy as an opportuny to claim the prs that the GC had accepted homosexualy; and Col Cook, whose claim to be able to help homosexuals change their sexual orientatns was attractg favorable attentn among church lears, should be add to the five ved.

ETHICS FOR GAY CHRISTIANS?: THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST EXPERIENCE

” One person after another told of the isolatn each had felt bee almost all had been nvced that he or she was the only gay Adventist the world; of years of unavailg stggle and unanswered prayer for a miracle that would make them heterosexual; of overwhelmg guilt and self-rejectn; of nsequent difficulty tablishg relatnships; of promiscuo patterns and more guilt; of rejectn by their fai and trangement om their ngregatns. Sce they had been tght that was impossible to be both Christian and gay, but had found themselv irretrievably gay, they had spaired bee they assumed that they were eternally lost — some had been told that homosexualy was the unpardonable s.

The biblil scholars nclud, as a rult of their study advance of the Kampmeetg, that the Bible was silent about persons wh a homosexual orientatn and that the ltle said there was directed to heterosexuals volved pagan fertily r or havg same-sex fun on the si. Dmond Ford after his trial, held at Glacier View, Colorado, the week followg the Kampmeetg, and were buried when a letter mpaign, orchtrated by a right-wg publitn, queried whether the participatn of GC-sponsored clergy a homosexual “kampmeetg” dited that the nomatn had “accepted homosexualy. “The problem of homosexualy the church was discsed, emphasizg the need to help those who are enslaved by this perversn to fd liverance …It is not possible for the church to ndone practicg homosexuals …The efforts of the church mt be foced on dividuals, rather than groups, who sire help and liverance …We nnot negotiate wh anized groups who refer to themselv as SDA gays and lbians, and we nnot tablish “diplomatic relatns” wh rporatns which the mds of most people, would be nsired as regnn and official endorsement of a viant philosophy and liftyle.