Theda Good, Lbian Mennone Mister, Licensed In Denver, A First Step Towards Gay Ordatn | HuffPost Relign

Contents:

• COLORADO PASTOR ADMS TO GAY SEX, RIGNS CHURCH POST
• THEDA GOOD, LBIAN MENNONE MISTER, LICENSED IN DENVER, A FIRST STEP TOWARDS GAY ORDATN
• EVANGELIL CHURCH OPENS DOORS FULLY TO GAYS
• IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?
• UNED METHODIST CHURCH BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP VLATN OF S L: 'INMAT NNG THE ASYLUM'

COLORADO PASTOR ADMS TO GAY SEX, RIGNS CHURCH POST

Pl Barn of Grace Chapel Doug las County preached to his 2, 100-member ngregatn about tegry and grace the aftermath of the Ted Haggard dgs-and-gay-sex sndal. “I have stggled wh homosexualy sce I was a 5-year-old boy, ” Barn said the 32- mute vio, which church lears permted The Denver Post to view. The ller had overheard a nversatn which someone mentned “blowg the whistle” on evangelil preachers engaged homosexualy, cludg Barn, Palmer said.

– The foundg pastor of a send Colorado church has rigned over gay sex allegatns, jt weeks after the evangelil muny was shaken by the sndal surroundg megachurch lear Ted Haggard. Haggard, a gay-marriage opponent, admted to unspecified "sexual immoraly" when he rigned last month as print of the Natnal Associatn of Evangelils and pastor of the 14, 000-member New Life Church Colorado Sprgs. Click here to read the Denver Post church board of elrs accepted Barn' rignatn on the viotape, which The Post was allowed to view, Barn told church members: "I have stggled wh homosexualy sce I was a 5-year-old boy....

THEDA GOOD, LBIAN MENNONE MISTER, LICENSED IN DENVER, A FIRST STEP TOWARDS GAY ORDATN

Facg shockg allegatns that he paid a gay prostute for sex, proment Colorado Sprgs pastor Ted Haggard placed himself on admistrative leave Thursday om his church posn and rigned as print of the Natnal Associatn of Evangelils, a platform that ma him a risg star nservative polics. The timg of the disclosure has stirred ntroversy, g days before Colorado voters will ci on two measur related to gay rights and marriage. “He has been the person wh the evangelil muny Colorado Sprgs, more than any other lear, been the fenr of the rights of homosexuals wh his work on the language of the amendment, ” Brendle said.

- show your support for Colorado gay marriage as well as Same-Sex Marriag, domtic partnerships, Same-Sex Marriage Ceremoni, holy unns and same-sex unns the U.

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. However, growg ncern for jtice and civil rights the Uned Stat durg the 1960s, begng wh discrimatn agast blacks and women, was extend at length to homosexuals.

EVANGELIL CHURCH OPENS DOORS FULLY TO GAYS

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.

IS BIBLILLY ALLOWABLE FOR A PASTOR TO BE GAY?

Many Adventist pastors, evangelists, and publitns terpreted the emergence of the gay liberatn movement 1969 as a sign of the end of the world.

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. But the ads helped to create works among some gay Adventists, and this rulted the formatn of a support anizatn ambly named Seventh-day Adventist Kship Internatnal. In 1976, a seri of articl Insight proclaimg that victory over homosexualy through fah was possible drew a large pile of letters om young people seekg help.

He held himself up as proof of what he advoted, and rpond to the tert by distributg ten hours of tap unr the tle “Homosexualy and the Power to Change.

UNED METHODIST CHURCH BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP VLATN OF S L: 'INMAT NNG THE ASYLUM'

” 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.

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. ” 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.