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| THE CHURCH DIVIDE | |
 May 8, 2000 
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LEE HOCHBERG: It sounded like a usual Sunday service, at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Bakersfield, California. (Singing) But times in the Methodist Church are not as usual. Leaders of the 8.5 million member denomination-- America's second largest-- are embroiled in a feud over homosexuality that threatens to tear apart the Church. REV. ROBERT KUYPER, Methodist Minister: The Bible says that certain behaviors are wrong. We cannot judge, but God says certain behaviors are wrong. LEE HOCHBERG: The subject was on the mind of Pastor Robert Kuyper in the days leading up to this week's national Methodist Conference in Cleveland. He told his congregation that homosexuality is a sin. REV. ROBERT KUYPER: In Leviticus Chapter 18, it says you shall not lie with a man as with a woman, that's pretty clear to me. Certain behaviors are sinful according to the Bible. You know, it's not my opinion, it's in the scripture. LEE HOCHBERG: Kuyper takes his cue from United Methodism's national leadership. At a time when gays in many churches are demanding full inclusion, Methodist leaders in 1998 banned gay and lesbian marriage ceremonies. At Kuyper's church, a poster urges gays to seek rehabilitation, and most members reject the idea of gay rights. ROGER CLARK, Methodist: We should continue in the future as we have in the past, and I always ask of these people who are trying to change things, to change it to what, today? What are you going to do tomorrow? WOMAN: My love for you grows deeper with each passing day. Jesus has loved you for 15 years and I promise to love you the rest of my life. LEE HOCHBERG: But the ban on gay marriage hasn't stopped unions of gay and lesbian Methodists. (Applause) Last January, as an act of conscience, Sacramento Methodist Minister Don Fado presided over this union ceremony. DON FADO: I couldn't obey that rule, that told me I can bless anybody's house, I can bless their job, I can bless their automobile, their tractor, their animals, their stuffed animals, anything, but don't put a blessing, or say a prayer for two people if they're the same gender and they want to make a commitment to each other for life. LEE HOCHBERG: 67 other Methodist pastors from California and Nevada stood with Fado at the ceremony in support. DON FADO: I don't think we should be going around calling what God created an abomination. I believe sex is good. It's a beautiful thing that has been given, and sexual orientation is a gift of God, too. REV. ROBERT KUYPER: That is no more good than blessing the drink of an alcoholic. LEE HOCHBERG: The ceremony stunned conservative Methodists. Kuyper and others sought disciplinary action against clergy who participated. Ministers in Illinois and Nebraska already had been punished for blessing same-sex couples, with Omaha Pastor Jimmy Creech being defrocked after he performed two gay unions. REV. ROBERT KUYPER: We have found that many people are able to leave homosexuality behind, and no longer struggle with these desires, and to us, that's a much better solution. SPOKESMAN: (February 11) This complaint process is hereby ended. LEE HOCHBERG: At a press conference in February, officials of the California-Nevada Methodist Conference, which governs the church, announced they would not punish the 68 pastors. That decision prompted further strife. REV. GREG SMITH: This is serious enough of an issue that it may mean that we'll have to leave the united Methodist church. LEE HOCHBERG: Reverend Greg Smith's congregation at Sacramento's Hope Church is considering pulling out of the California- Nevada conference. The conservative church and six others have withheld their $50,000 annual memberships, and the Hope Church is even ready to give up its sanctuary. REV. GREG SMITH: Buildings all belong to the conference, and we'd just have to leave them behind. But we're willing to do that. And together, we're coming to the consensus that it's worth it to us to do that. LEE HOCHBERG: For all of their troubles with gay rights, Methodists are not the only denomination struggling with the issue. Conservative Presbyterians hope to expel liberal congregations at that faith's national meeting in June. And leaders of the nation's 2.4 million Episcopalians are poised for a showdown over gay unions at their meeting in July. And though southern Baptist leader Jerry Falwell stressed compassion at a meeting with gay leaders last fall, Baptists have expelled congregations for blessing same-sex unions. As for the Mormon and Catholic Churches, they contributed heavily to California Proposition 22, which last fall outlawed state recognition of gay marriages. WILLIAM APEL, Linfield College: In all of these denominations, the more conservative and fundamentalist groups have decided this is where they're going to draw the line in the sand. LEE HOCHBERG: Religious scholar William Apel, of Oregon's Linfield College, says the fray over gay rights reflects a larger battle for control of diversifying churches. He says while the purity codes of Leviticus in the Hebrew Bible and apostle Paul's letters in the New Testament do condemn homosexuality, using them to castigate modern gays is a misuse of scripture. WILLIAM APEL: 2,000 years ago they didn't have a concept of sexuality and a homosexual way of life and a heterosexual way of life in the way that we do. In other words, Paul didn't even think about the possibility that there may be gays who are committed to one another in long term, lasting relationships. (Singing in Hebrew) LEE HOCHBERG: Reform Jewish leaders, in fact-- who favor modern interpretations of scripture-- approved in March the use of Jewish rituals in gay and lesbian unions. Seattle area Rabbi James Mirel notes his temple, B'Nai Torah has a popular gay cantor and is interviewing an openly gay assistant rabbi. JAMES MIREL, Reform Rabbi: If two people really are committing themselves to each other, I think as a society, and as a Jewish community, we want to not only encourage that, but to bless that. (Organ music) LEE HOCHBERG: But even for politically and socially active churches, a comfort zone on gay rights is hard to find. Seattle's St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral last fall became the first in the country to select an openly gay dean, the Reverend Robert Taylor. REV. ROBERT TAYLOR: The lack of freedom to be who we are with those we love most is certainly a demon. LEE HOCHBERG: Gay and lesbian church members like Megan and Sasha Davis say they are thrilled. MEGAN DAVIS: It makes me feel like this is god's space, this is a place where everyone is welcome. And we mean everyone. There isn't anyone who we would not embrace here. REV. ROBERT TAYLOR: It is truly right and good and joyful... LEE HOCHBERG: Rev. Taylor, a noted anti- apartheid activist who fled his native South Africa 20 years ago, is popular among straight parishioners, too. The church says financial giving is up 45%. A crowd of 2,500, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, greeted him with an extended ovation at his installation this February. (Applause) But if the reception from the congregation has been warm, the message from Episcopal leaders has been cooler. Bishops at the most recent gathering of the worldwide Anglican Communion-- which includes the Episcopal Church-- overwhelmingly voted to declare homosexuality "incompatible with scripture." It's a vote Taylor can't ignore. REV. ROBERT TAYLOR: It is deeply hurtful. It causes great pain. Scripture can be used to support a variety of prejudices, that's been my own personal experience, as I've watched young kids being killed in the streets of South Africa in the name of God. LEE HOCHBERG: The Episcopal Church's split personality on the issue has created confusion in the diocese. Couples like Megan and Sasha received the church's blessing at a union ceremony last year, but did so without the support of the bishop of the diocese, Vincent Warner. Warner says he personally supports gay rights, but in the past has had to disapprove of unions in his official role as bishop. REV. VINCENT WARNER, Episcopal Bishop: Do I approve of the blessing of same-sex unions? Yes. Has the church approved it? No. LEE HOCHBERG: But the church has hinted it will soon leave decisions on unions to individual dioceses, and the bishop says he recently did approve a union of a lesbian couple. REVEREND: The Lord be with you. CONGREGATION: And also with you. LEE HOCHBERG: As if to show how mixed the faith remains on gay rights, another Episcopal Church only ten miles from St. Mark's has come apart over the issue. At St. Luke's Episcopal, Father Thomas Bigelow, 36 years a priest, lost much of his congregation recently when he told them he's gay. REV. THOMAS BIGELOW, Episcopal Priest: They went ballistic. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I had a third of the congregation leave without hardly even saying goodbye -- people who I had married or I had baptized, or I had gone to the hospital with. LEE HOCHBERG: He says he was surprised when an active church woman left. REV. THOMAS BIGELOW: She said she could no longer receive communion in this church, because she couldn't take the host from the hands of a homosexual. Well, I thought, "well, honey, you've been doing this for three and a half years and you haven't choked on it yet." REV. THOMAS BIGELOW: The body of Christ and the bread of heaven. The body, the bread of heaven. Do you want to take communion too? LEE HOCHBERG: With all the departures, St. Luke's has been unable to afford its monthly assessment to the diocese. Bishop Warner, however, in a show of support for the gay priest, has forgiven the debt. As religious leaders of many faiths try to integrate all the competing messages on gay rights, scholars say the issue is big enough that it could significantly change the face of American religion. WILLIAM APEL: There's going to be realignments. We will find liberal Baptists certainly having much more in common with liberal Catholics than they will with her Baptists within their own denomination. They'll be lined up in ways that I can't yet quite imagine. LEE HOCHBERG: With little middle ground on the issue, the upcoming religious meetings likely won't end the debate, but only fuel more. MARGARET WARNER: Methodist ministers holding their national meeting in Cleveland this week have decided to maintain their opposition to gay unions. They still must decide on whether gays can become ministers, and whether homosexuality itself is compatible with church teachings. |
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