Pl-Anthony Turner, a gay semary graduate, has a ep mment to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. "I will not leave Adventism," he says. "I won't hand over to people who operate out of fear and bigotry."
Contents:
- SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS
- “SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS”
- A GAY MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE ADVENTIST CHURCH
- I AM A SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTIST
SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTISTS
Good News for Gay Adventists * gay adventist *
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.
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. 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. 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”
” 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.
” 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. 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.
A GAY MAN’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE ADVENTIST CHURCH
“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. ” In September 1987, eleven months after the suatn was disclosed, Mistry published another long terview wh Cook which, although ditg that there had been improprieti, strongly endorsed Cook’s methods as the answer to homosexualy and announced ( a photo ptn apparently left by mistake) that he would “soon rume leadg semars for revery by homosexuals. How many people who claim the mantle of ex-gay have bought to the notn that simply a matter of "pray the gay away" and you will somehow miraculoly bee straight, only to fd out after years of livg nial that they have been brawashed to a cel hoax when realy of all crashg down on them.
I AM A SEVENTH-GAY ADVENTIST
I gus what I'm tryg to say is this, while I agree the Bible do not sanctn immoral behavr of any kd, why is that an entire group of people are wrten off by the church at large and stigmatized bee ant gay activists have given them the imprsn that gays are not worth the time or effort to evangelize. It's only others they fd ntemptible, but is impossible to look at that child that bore and watched through childhood and now disver he is gay, your whole attu will change–unls you ci to disown that child and that is so spible that is unthkable for any parent to even nsir. Why is that whenever I hear a story of a person that was born gay, who overme that and went on to a happy celebate life or a happy life wh a member of the oppose sex, those people are met wh rolled ey are ments such as "they are jt livg a lie" or "they were never tly gay to beg wh"?
The qutn begs to be asked, how many gays would never have gone to a liftyle that led many to an early ath wh AIDS, or felt a need to jo a gay muny where they found support and love outsi the church, if the church would have taken a more passnate approach.
What I was drivg at wh my openg statement was, that Alholism is an issue that I have seen the church handle wh a great al of unrstandg and passn, and the issue of beg gay should be handled wh the same level of unrstandg/passn, if not a whole lot more. Hansen, I agree wh Tom that the kd of rhetoric you've been g this discsn is precisely the kd of rhetoric that ph our same-sex attracted young people towards what you label as "the gay muny" — those sectns of our large ci that abound gay bars wh open arms to wele searchg young people.