INTEGRITY

GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM

c Integrity 1976   ISSN: 0095-2184

Vol. 2  No. 8   June-July 1976

 

INTEGRITY:  GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc., a nonprofit religious, charitable, educational, and literary organization of Gay Episcopalians and our friends.  Editorial offices are maintained at 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030.  Subscriptions and all business matters are received at INTEGRITY, P.O. Box 2516, Chicago, IL 60690.  Signed articles represent the views of the contributors.  The editors reserve the right to revise all sexist language.  Copyright 1976 by Integrity, Inc.  10 issues/$10, including membership, unless otherwise requested.  Add $1 for all subscriptions that require plain envelopes.  Couple rates are $13 for one newsletter. 

 

Editor-in-Chief............................ Louie Crew, Ph.D.

Business Editor............................... David Williams

National President.............................. Jim Wickliff

National Vice President.............................. Dan Fee

National Executive Secretary....................... Bob Diehm

 

Trustees:     Ernest Clay, Louie Crew, Julie Peterson,

              The Rev. Richard Younge

 

Consultants:The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, The Rev. Robert W. Cromey, The Rev. Norman Pittenger

 

COLLECT FOR GAY STRENGTH

 

Lord Jesus Christ, who in proclaiming with power the Kingdom of God disrupted the Temple and so scandalized the religious authorities that they determined upon your death:  Grant us a like zeal and courage; strengthen us to suffer if need be for your sake; forgive those who through malice or ignorance would destroy us; and bring us at last joyfully and gaily into that Kingdom, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and forever.        [Fr. Richard Younge]

 

ALUMNI NOMINATE CREW FOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES AT GENERAL

 

The Executive Committee of the Associate Alumni has nominated as one of the candidates for election to the Board of Trustees at General Theological Seminary, Dr. Louie Crew, founder of INTEGRITY.

 

Election is by the alumni of General and will occur over the summer.  Polls close on Oct. 15.

 

Crew was denied admission as a student at General recently explicitly because General was not "prepared at this time to admit a homosexual couple into regular residence with you as a full­time matriculated student," according to The Very Rev. Roland Foster, Dean of the Seminary.

 

In a similar election, Crew was recently notified that he is a nominee for delegate-at-large post on the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association, the largest organization of English and foreign language professors in American colleges.

If elected, he will represent minority interests in the Assembly.

 

Crew has also recently been elected as one of 30 members of the Board of Directors of the National Gay Task Force.

 

TIME's VIEW  6/7/76

The Perplexing Question

 

"Neither the immoral, nor idolaters nor homosexuals ... will inherit the Kingdom of God," wrote St Paul.  That attitude has survived the centuries.  Christians have been grudging in their acceptance of homosexuals in their cong­regations, if indeed they acknowledge them at all.  This tepid welcome has not deterred gay activists from press­ing for recognition and even for or­dination, issues that spared long de­bates at two recent national Protestant Church assemblies.

 

Last week the gays received a set­back when the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in Baltimore voted that it would be "injudicious if not improper" to ordain homosexuals.  After a two-hour session the church re­affirmed its position that "the practice of homosexuality is a sin."  However the delegates also voted to undertake a study of the "perplexing" question of homos­exuality leaving the door open a crack for Gays in the future.  Said the final re­port:  "We do not believe that a position taken in any period sets forth the final understanding of His Word to the Church."

 

A firmer stance was adopted by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church meeting in Portland Ore. last month.  Strong support for a conservative position resulted in a refusal  to fund a broad study on sexuality and a toughening of an official 1972 Methodist position on homosexuality.  The statement that the church did "not recommend" marriage between people of the same sex was changed to "not recognize."

 

A New Climate.  Among the major denominations only the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church have demonstrated some degree of acceptance for the ordination of homosexuals.  In 1972 the Northern California Conference of the United Church of Christ ordained the first avowed gay to the ministry of an established denomina­tion.  The Episcopal Church has one out­spokenly lesbian deacon Ellen Barrett, 30, ordained last December.  Said Paul Moore, Jr., the Bishop of New York af­ter Barrett's ordination:   "Historically many of the finest clergy in our church have had this personality structure, but only recently has the social climate made it possible for some to be open about it."

 

Barrett, who hopes t become an Episcopal priest, believes that St. Paul's condemnation of "dishonorable passions" referred to homosexual acts rather than a whole way of life.  She says, "Paul wouldn't understand that a person could grow up gay."  Neither, it seems, can most U.S. Protestants, who seem unlikely to accept  homosexual leadership in their churches soon.

 

TOWARDS OUR CONVENTION IN SAN FRANCISCO

 

San Francisco.  The Rev. Richard Younge, Convenor of our chapter here, has announced several additional program details for our Convention meeting here 6-8 August, at Trinity Parish and Grace Cathedral.

 

The Rev. Canon Dr. Clinton R. Jones will be the preacher at our main Mass on Saturday at Grace Cathedral.  Bishop Kilmer Myers will hopefully be the chief celebrant.  The Rev. Ellen Barrett former INTEGRITY president, will serve as the liturgical deacon. All Episcopal clergy in good standing in their own dioceses are invited to concelebrate.

 

As announced in an earlier issue, The Rev. Malcolm Boyd will be our keynoter for the Convention.  Ms. Barbara Gittings of the Task Force on Gay Liberation at the American Library Association will be the recipient of INTEGRITY's annual award for "contributions to Christian understanding of human sexuality," and she will address an awards banquet.

 

Others on the program include The Rev. Laud Humphreys, Dr. Louis Crompton, Richard Amory, Paul Mariah, and many more.

 

For additional information and registration blanks, write INTEGRITY, Box 6444, San Jose, CA 95150.

 

Considering how much you have invested in going to conferences with no focus on us at all, isn't it time you seized this opportunity to participate in the outpouring of God's Spirit among us?  This could well be one of the most important occasions of your life.

 

TOWARDS GENERAL CONVENTION IN MINNEAPOLIS

 

Decisions are expected very soon from the Executive Council and the Board of the General Convention regarding the fate of the Gay-related resolutions reported for consideration at General Convention by the Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs.

 

The machinery for getting an open hearing on the issues has already been set in motion.

 

For more information, contact our GC Committee chairperson, The Rev. Ron Wesner, 5014 Willows Avenue, Phila, PA 19143.

 

INTEGRITY ELECTIONS

 

Chicago.  The Rev. Grant Gallup, Chairperson of our Nomina­tions Committee for new INTEGRITY officers, has reported that his committee will make nominations at our Convention rather than by advance mail ballot, as originally planned.

 

The Committee would welcome input from members not plan­ning to attend the Convention, where the elections will occur.  Such persons and anyone else with views about our new officers should communicate those views, nominations, and write-in votes to Fr. Gallup as soon as possible, 1619 W. Warren Blvd., Chicago, IL 60612.

 

OUR NEW MAILING LABELS

 

Chicago.  The chapter here, which is now doing all of our printing and mailing for Forum, has retyped and recoded all of our labels.  The date given on your label is the date we understand your subscription (month and year) will expire.

 

If you have any other understanding, you are urged to communicate that to the Subscriptions Dept., INTEGRITY,  P.0. Box 2516, Chicago, IL 60690, at your earliest convenience.  Plain envelopes now cost us, and you, $3 extra.

 

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"Do you love me?  Feed my sheep."

This important ministry needs your full participation now.

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ANOTHER VIEWPOINT . . .  and . . . A BISHOP'S RESPONSE

 

(The following letter is one parish's response to the letter of Founder Louie Crew's local vestry in Ft. Valley, who earlier has asked him to find some other place of worship "more in sympathy with your thinking and efforts toward gay people."  Dr. Crew had worshipped at St. Paul's, Orangeburg, from 1971-73.)

 

Dear Dr. Crew,

 

As a Vestry and as individuals we are inordinately distressed by the news that you have been asked to "find some other place of worship" as an alternative to the Episcopal Church you have chosen to attend.  This request, conveyed to you through a document signed by members of one Vestry, places upon all Vestries (including ours) the burdensome question as to the nature of our functions.  Are we elected to oust from our Churches those whose lives do not conform to what we consider the norm, whose moral integrity [is] nationally debatable, or who deviate from any other arbitrary standards we undertake to establish?  Our answer as a Vestry is that we believe and we are confident the Episcopal Church believes, that we are all one under God, called into one holy fellowship in which the claim to membership of any individual increases in direct proportion to his need for grace.

 

We recall your years among us with great fondness and still appreciate the commendable contribution you made to our worship as a member of the Choir, to our fellowship as an inspiring participant, and to our community as a brilliant educator.  As Vestry members we accept in varying degrees your views on human sexuality, but nonetheless we admire and respect you for your outright honesty and unbending convictions.

 

In view of what you have suffered from one arm of the Body of which we are all parts, and because of our continued love for you, we unanimously passed a resolution at our last Vestry meeting that you should be invited to re-establish your canonical membership at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Orangeburg, SC, especially if you are ever denied admission to, or made to feel unwelcome in, any other Episcopal con­gregation.  Our beloved Priest has given his bles­sing and sanction to this resolution, and while we sincerely hope that you will not need to resort to this offer, we wish to emphasize that it remains open and permanent in the rare event that circumstan­ces are such that you find it necessary to take advantage of our invitation.

 

With best wishes for your continued success in all endeavors, yours truly in Christ,

 

          The Vestry of St. Paul's

          Orangeburg, SC

          [signed by all 11 members]

 

(Upon receiving the letter [at the left] above, Dr. Crew notified his bishop, The Rt. Rev. Bennett Sims, as a courtesy, of his intentions to share the letter publicly.  He noted that it gives hope to all Gay people, that it counters the notion that white urban centers outside the South have some kind of monopoly on Christian kindness.  For the reasons rehearsed below, Bp. Sims requested that Dr. Crew not release the letter, but Dr. Crew explained that in all conscience he could not muffle this important nonGay Christian witness.)

 

Gay Activist Won't Face Church Group

By Alice Murray

Constitution Religion Writer

 

A leader of the gay activist movement in the Episcopal Church refused to attend a standing committee meeting of the Diocese of Atlanta Monday to be disciplined by the bishop.

 

Dr. Louie Crew, associate professor of English at Fort Valley State College and a founder of Integrity, the na­tional Episcopal gay organiza­tion, said he would not appear before the committee until he had retained a lawyer.

 

The Rt. Rev. Bennett Sims had called Crew to the meet­ing Monday for "disciplinary action" because the homosexual leader had made public correspondence between himself and a local congregation in South Carolina.

 

Bishop Sims publicly rebuked Dr. Crew for the disclosure of support from the South Carolina church because the act served to "disrupt the peace nd good order" of the church.

 

Dr. Crew was told in March ­by the elected board of laity of St Luke Episcopal Church in Fort Valley, of which he a member, that the church members "would all be ­pleased if you would find some other place to worship ­that may be more in sympathy to your thinking and efforts toward gay people."  

 

Following that letter, Crew received and made public a letter from the priest and vestry of his former congrega­tion, St Paul's in Orangeburg, S.C., saying they were "inordi­nately distressed" at the action of St Luke's and inviting him to reestablish his membership.

 

Bishop Sims said in a letter to Crew "I rebuke you for your defiance of my explicit request not to make a public issue of a pastoral matter."  He added that the discipli­nary action is not directed to Crew's identity as a homosex­ual.

 

Bishop Sims said the matter concerning Crew is "under advisement by the standing committee and the bishop as to what action will be taken next."

 

Dr Crew said he feels Bishop Sims "has no authority to restrict one freedom to report information of any kind particularly information that helps to discredit attempts to defame one's character."

 

Our church does not and should not require communicants to suspend our first amendment rights under the Constitution of the United States," he said.

 

"I too am concerned to protect the peace and good order of the church, but I see nothing peaceful or in good order when the church gags someone who is shouting alarm when asked to leave the church for having started an unpopular ministry," Dr. Crew said. 

FOLLOWUP:

 

Notice of the meeting of the Standing Committee arrived on a Friday before the Monday meeting.  Eminent Anglican legal persons advised Dr. Crew not to attend without counsel; so he asked for a continuance of at least two weeks.  Counsel has now been retained, an attorney who is an Episcopalian, but the Bishop and Standing Committee have postponed the disciplinary session until after General Convention, at which time they have agreed to have Dr. Crew accompanied by his attorney.  Persons wishing to contribute to the costs of this defense are welcome to do so, c/o the Fort Valley office of INTEGRITY.

 

              THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Tues. June 8, 1976

 

GAY AMERICAN INDIANS ORGANIZE

 

For information on the Gay American Indian viewpoint, contact a vital and active new group: G.A.I.  (Please use the initials), P.0. Box 2194, South San Francisco, CA 94080.

 

GAY CHRISTIAN WORKSHOP IN SAN DIEGO

 

San Diego.  DIGNITY and INTEGRITY are joint sponsoring a workshop on "Homosexuality and the Church Today" with Fr. Tom Oddo as the keynote speaker, on Friday, 18th June.  For information, contact Dr. Lazenby at our SD chapter, listed on our back page.

 

DIOCESE OF FLORIDA

 

Jacksonville.  On 28th May a clergy conference here focused specifically on homosexuality, with much attention given to psychological viewpoints.

 

HETERO BLACKMAIL

 

Anderson, SC.  Fr. Mark Phillips, writing in the Old Catholic Saga here, tellingly observes:  "As a people much experienced in being 'blackmailed,' we can relate to Representative Hays ...  But the whole affair reminds one of the oft-stated excuses given by politicians that they oppose having gays in 'security-­type' positions and high-ranking government or military posi­tions, since gays can be easily blackmailed.  They now have their come-uppance."

 

SNORTS OF THE DRAGON LADY...

 

Austin, TX.  Ms. Dorothy Faber, Editor of the controversial rightist Anglican paper The Christian Challenge, has reported the largest reader reaction (pro and con) ever to her recent materials treating the revisionist efforts with the sacraments.  We reproduce below the material therein dealing with marriage, including her illustration:

 

[illustration - line drawing of two males, with hands joined, standing before a priest]

 

MATRIMONY

 

 

The Special Committee on Love and Marriage, having met for the past three summers at their headquarters in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, N.Y., has concluded that the Church has held theologically incorrect understanding of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony since the days of the Apostles.  Basing its findings on an in-depth study and investigation of the teachings of St Paul, as found in Galatians 3:28 ‑‑ "In Christ there is neither male nor female" -- the Committee concluded that the sacrament of Holy Matrimony should be made available to all persons, regardless of sex.

 

In this unisex age, it is considered irrelevant that a person's sex be considered in the understanding of Holy Matrimony.  Jesus stressed the prime importance of love throughout His entire ministry, and there is no place in Scripture that He declared it should be limited to only those of opposite sexes.

 

It is, therefore, urged that the General Convention change the conditions for Holy Matrimony to allow for the joining of persons of the same sex.  To do otherwise would be to invite justifiable criticism of the Church for being a sexist organization.

 

              from The Christian Challenge

 

JILL RAYMOND FREE

 

Lexington, KY.  Jill Raymond was released at midnight here on 4 May, after 14 months in Kentucky jails for refusing to testify before a grand jury wanting to pry the intimate details of her relationship with Susan Saxe.  This date was the day the grand jury expired, and she was detained until the last possible moment that they might have recalled her.

 

OUR CONSTITUTION REWRITE

 

Why do the nations so furiously rage together?  Often ­because the heads of state get together and make decisions without consulting the people they represent!  We're not that kind of nation, and we're not that kind or organization.  Rewriting our Constitution is an important matter, and you should all have something to say about it.  The rich and varied program INTEGRITY/San Francisco has planned for us in August isn't going to give us a lot of time to rap about this -- which is why we have a Committee hard at work right now to put a draft together in time for presentation there.  Write to Chairperson Joe McCauley, INTEGRITY/Boston (address on back) and let him know your ideas.  He will share your ideas with the rest of the Committee, and the final draft will be published so that everyone, not just Convention attendees, can vote on it.

 

If you don't have a copy of the present document, write to Jim Wickliff, c/o Wm. Stanley and Associates, 218 Prudential Plaza, Chicago, IL 60601.

 

 

SUSAN SAXE NEEDS US

 

Philadelphia.  Susan Saxe, arrested last year in Philadel­phia after being on the FBIs Ten-Most-Wanted List for four and a half years for her alleged participation in antiwar action in 1970, is presently in the Worcester Co. House of Correction, West Boylston, MA.  She faces trial charges stemming from a Boston bank robbery in September 1970, during which a policeman was killed.  Because Massachusetts has a "felony murder law," she faces conviction on first-­degree murder charges even though she is not alleged to have had anything to do with the actual murder. Susan is presently preparing her defense with her lawyer, Nancy Gertner, for her trial, set to begin September 15th, in Boston.  Those wishing to contribute should contact Susan Saxe Defense Fund c/o Phila. Nat'l Lawyers Guild, 1427 Walnut Street, Phila, PA 19102.

 

LESBIAN MOTHER BATTLES FOR HER CHILDREN

 

Portland, ME.  Carol Whitehead, divorced from her Georgia husband in 1971, is battling here in court to retain custody of her two children.  The father helped in support for a year after the divorce, but then decided to withdraw support and to attack his former wife for her sexual orientation.

 

For Maine, this marks the first time that an open lesbian mother will fight in court for such custody, and the ruling could set a vital precedent.

 

Contributions are needed and should be sent to Carol Whitehead Defense Fund, Box 4542, Portland, ME 04112.

 

GAY QUAKERS MEET

 

Chicago.  On 7-9 May, The Friends Committee for Gay Concerns held a midwest gathering here.

 

Workshops were held on areas such as:  gay life styles, gayness and spirituality, coming out in meeting, gay rights issues, sexism and/or women's separatism, gay persons and health care, and what we would like to see happen at General Conference in Ithaca.

 

GAY EVANGELICALS MEET

 

Miami.  A special confab of EVANGELICALS CONCERNED convened here on Memorial Day weekend to discuss the continuing practice of the "silent conspiracy" within the evangelical churches regarding Gay Christians.

 

Persons wanting a report of the entire gathering should write to Contact, EVANGELICALS CONCERNED, P.0. Box 331299, Miami. FL 33133.

 

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MCC Illiamo writes:  "Now you know, Your Holiness, how it feels to be publicly condemned and to be put on the defense.  We do not take a stand on your 'guilt' or 'innocence' because being homosexual to us is a part of our being that is to be enjoyed, just as heterosexuals enjoy their sexuality.  If you are indeed gay, we say welcome to you.  We can always use another celebrity....  We do not discriminate.  God loves all his children at MCC.  No set decorum on the way you dress so beads and rings are o.k.

 

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A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT

 

(When Jim Wickliff called me in late November or early December of 1974, all I knew about him was that he had an historically significant name.  Shortly thereafter he gave birth to a new reality for us, by convening our first chapter, in Chicago.  A few months later we elected him our leader, and he has served indefatigably in this capacity during our vital first year of growth.  We have worked very closely together, and I have grown in my respect and love for him.  We have wanted him to continue as a candidate for another year, but he would not let us prevail upon him.  This ministry is indeed exhausting, and we need more to join us and to replace us when we tire.  I personally salute our President, Jim Wickliff, and know that I speak for many others in thanking him for his vision and his hard work.  May we not falter in carrying on the work that he has so well begun for us.  --Editor)

 

Can lt really be a year since our first convention in Chicago?   Looking at the wonderful program San Francisco has set up for the next one, I can't help feeling both a bit relieved (that they're the ones doing the work this year) and a little envious (that they're having all of the fun doing it!).  Look at all those super stars!  Boyd, Gittings, Humphreys, Jones in alphabetical order.  I hope you're all saving your pennies and that we'll have a wonderful time out there together this August.                     

You know, last year we set a kind of unofficial list of goals to reach by the next Convention.  One was to double our membership. Another was to get to know each other personally, and the third was to build some strong chapters.  I'm happy to report what you    probably already know:  we have reached all three goals, and then some.  We have doubled our membership.       Many of us have gotten to know each other through letters, visits, and the like.  And our chapters,  well!  Last year we boasted, with our fingers crossed    behind our backs, that we had nearly twenty chapters.  We weren't lying, but of that twenty-some, only a few were very large or at all active.  Now we have a full 26, most of them quite large and all of them active,  with another 12 in the formative stages.  As far as we can tell from a recent survey, all of these chapters  have members who, for some reason or another, haven't   yet joined the national organization.  With approximately 600 paid national members, and approximately 150 members of chapters who are not national members, our total membership stands at about 750.  (That is a  conservative estimate, figuring 5 non-national members per chapter.  One chapter I know of has 30 non-national members --about which more will be said later.)

 

The "and then some" includes things we didn't even think to set as goals because we really didn't think they'd happen so fast.  The first was an audience with our Presiding Bishop, a really memorable experience for Louie and me personally, and an honor for you all, since we met with him as your representatives.  Then came the Resolution by the House of Bishops     asking for dialogue with the gay Forum, and later a meeting with the Joint Commission on the Church and Human Affairs, the group that managed on very short notice to put together a supportive resolution to be presented at General Convention.  We asked for and were granted the privilege of a booth at General Convention where, with the direction of Fr. Ron Wesner's hard-at-work committee, our witness is sure to be effective.  We got listed in The Episcopal Church Annual.  Due to our presence in large part,      several dioceses in the Church have set up special committees to study homosexuality, with every group I know of also inviting openly Gay persons either to serve on the committee or to attend meetings as resource persons.

 

Some of our chapters -‑ about half -- meet at parish churches, and all of them have a significant program of worship together.  Many celebrate Holy Communion together before each meeting.  Some of these have close relationships already with their host parish. Our Philadelphia chapter is an outstanding example of what happens when Christians let love displace the prejudice in their lives!  And although we expected it to take much longer to develop, several chapters already have "Speakers' Bureaus" set up, members who go to speak before various groups, both religious and secular about aspects of the Gay Christian community.

 

Not bad for a first-year record, eh?  Most of the thanks goes to the Holy Spirit, whose presence in our lives and whose personal guidance in our affairs we have all been acutely aware of all this time.  And a lot of the credit goes to you, my beloved sisters and brothers, who have, often at great personal inconvenience and sacrifice, not hesitated to follow when the Holy Spirit beckoned.

 

Now I'd like to suggest some new goals for the coming year and point out some of the areas our development hasn't been so spectacularly successful in.  As to goals, well, the major one is rather obvious.  We have built good, solid local presence through chapter life.  Now we need to concentrate on unifying our strengths and resources nationally.

 

I'm often astonished by the question, "What is INTEGRITY/National?"  The answer is one word, You!   We in the first wave of national officers have had to play it by ear until it has become more clear what our national profile would look like.  We have also had to work within the limits of a national Constitution that is vague about many "nuts and bolts" matters.  This situation is being corrected, and a draft will be ready at Convention for discussion and review.

 

Why do we need a national identity?  Well, it isn't a question of needing one so much as it is of having    one.  We are a national organization, and we are expected to speak to some issues with a corporate voice.  To do so properly and effectively, we need to set up strong, reliable lines of communications -- member with member, chapter with chapter, committee with committee -- and maintain a group of national representatives who are receiving these communications and coordinating the needs with the resources.  We further need to coordinate our efforts with those of other national groups -- DIGNITY, MCC, PGC, UMGC, et al.  Why does our Church need a Presiding Bishop or a Church headquarters?

 

As I visit and hear from chapters, I am deeply impressed by the talent and ingenuity of our members.  If there were some way to draw on all this and spread it around for all our chapters to use and to contribute for each other, what a fantastic ministry we would perform.  Our gifts are unique.  So are those of DIGNITY, of MCC, and of all the others.  If we could build an interchange of all our resources, share our gifts, pool our strengths -- what a witness we would be for the love of one God -- what a demonstration of the true and workable meaning of ecumenism   we would make.  The really exciting thing is that we can!

 

The first thing that we need is ‑‑ and I'm not going to apologize or feel guilty about saying it -- MONEY.  It takes cash to buy postage stamps, envelopes, printing, etc., and these are the first vital steps to building the kind of network of love between our­selves and between INTEGRITY and God's other children.  We need money, too, to buy the necessary equipment some projects require, to pay for long distance phone calls that are often necessary when time is short.  We need money for travel when that is necessary, and the stronger that we get the more it will be.  This first year, thanks to a very, very few donors, we have had enough to scrape by on, with our officers, convenors, and individual members paying a lot of their INTEGRITY expenses out of their own pockets.  I suppose that this situation will never change very much -- it is the nature of volunteer groups that their officers have to pay a lot of their own organization-related expenses.  But friends, we still need your financial help, we need it now, and we need it desperately.  Buy us one drink a week -- only forget the drink and send us the price it would have cost you.  You more affluent brothers, some of you could give $100, $200 or possibly more, with less hardship than when I plop $3 worth of my own quarters into a pay phone for an urgent call to the Convenor in San Francisco!  Larger gifts are tax deductible, too (write me if you want information on how to do it that way).  With your financial help we can do great things next year.  Without it, well, we may not even be able to publish Forum.

 

Another thing we need from you is more personal involvement in national activities.  An election is coming up, for example.  Vote for your candidate!  Last year only about 50 voted in the election of officers ‑‑ not much of a show of confidence.  Believe me, your officers need to feel that you are supportive of them, and the most convincing expression of such support begins at election time with your vote.  Let your officers and the Forum editor know where you stand on any issue that comes up.  If you don't tell them, you can't expect them to know when time for a decision arrives.

 

Join committees for national and/or regional projects.  As funds allow, we'll have more and more of these in a variety of interests.  For a list of those going right now, write me.

 

Write me about your own interests.  Maybe you have an idea for our ministry that no one has thought about or that we thought no one would take on.  All of this will go into our files for whoever the next officers are, and if I can't follow up on it, they will.

 

Many ideas will be coming out of our meetings in August as to where INTEGRITY goes from here.  Your new officers will also bring their own visions to share with us.  Regardless of the specifics, I think that yo can be certain that the main things I've touched on here -- our need for national unity and coordination, our desperate need for funds, and our equally intense need for your increased involvement -- these will be the general goals on which we'll set our sights for the year ahead.

 

Finally, while I have complained my share this past year, I have loved every minute of the experience.  I am deeply grateful for the wonderful friendships that have grown out of my involvement with INTEGRITY and for the warm sense of belonging you have given to me.  I love you all very much indeed.  God bless all of us as we prepare to start this second year, ant help us to serve Him ever more faithfully in the joy and the integrity of knowing God is ours and we are God's.

 

                   --Jim Wickliff

 

EPISCOPAL BISHOP APPROVES GAYS

 

(This article was published in Forum, Vol. 2, No. 1, Nov. 1975, in the original Spanish.  One of our members has kindly provided us with this anonymous translation.  The article originally appeared in Pa'fuera!, Vol. 2, No. 5, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.)

 

The Episcopal Bishop of Puerto Rico, Francisco Reus Froylan, has approved "the right (of each individual) to be different ... and the corresponding obligation to respect that right."

 

In a seminar on "The Rights of the Homosexuals" which was held at the School of Law of the University of Puerto Rico in August (1975), Reus Froylan expressed the opinion that machismo* is reducing the personality of man to only one dimension, and he advocated the elimination of the laws against homosexuals in Puerto Rico.

 

Reus Froylan was one of five panelists in the seminar meeting of three hours, sponsored by the Legal Review of the University of Puerto Rico.  The other panelists who also approved the elimination of the laws against Gays, to the applause of the public, were the lawyer Ramon Cancel Negron, legal adviser to the legal penal commission of the House of Representatives, the psychologist Dr. Ramon Fernandez Marina, the constitutional lawyer Santos P. Amadeo and the president of the Community of Proud Gay (COG = Comunidad de Orgullo Gay) Rafael Cruet.

 

In his discourse, Reus criticized the official position of the western churches towards homosexuality and described the Puerto Rican society as a "sociedad machista ... hypersexualizada" (as a society of hypersexed maleness).

 

The most controversial opinion was that of Dr. Fernandez Marina, who limited himself to the moral consideration of the subject, but he could not undo the sentiment of the seminar, and for which he was severely criticized by those in attendance, who numbered more than 300, the major­ity of whom were law students.

 

Fernandez Marina, although he defended the elimination of the antiGay laws, compared homosexuality to infantile paralysis, classifying it as "a fault in the development of the biological functions" which did not permit Gay per­sons "the proper use of the genitals."  One of the members of the public asked him on what he based his declaration as to the cause of homosexuality pointing out to him that a study of the books which treated on the subject gave 67 causes for homosexuality.  Fernandez then made vague references to "many psychologist." 

 

His argument on "the proper or usual use of the genitals" -- a moral consideration -- was also depreciatory, asking if it were not possible to have homosexual relations over and above (instead of as a fault) -- an ability (or talent) to extricate oneself from the patterns of conduct of the majority.

 

* Machismo has the connotation of maleness of the aggressive type, the two-fisted guy who gets what he wants, when he wants it, the rugged, outdoor type so familiar to the movies and to pulp fiction.

 

THE GAY CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND

By David Blamires

 

At the Student Christian Movement (SCM) Conference Center at Wick, near Bristol, on 30th April-2nd May, over fifty men and women met for a conference on "Toward a Theology of Gay Liberation."  The conference was arranged by Malcolm Macourt, editor of SCM's pamphlet of the same title, and past contributor to Forum.

 

Fr. Giles Hibbert, 0.P. (Blackfriars, Oxford) spoke on "Gay liberation in the context of Christian liberation -- the Gay challenge to Christian theology," emphasizing the need to see Gay liberation as an authentically human force within Christian liberation.  The New Law of Jesus is to love unrestrainedly and to find through our commitment to his New Commandment what the laws are that should govern our loving.  How we love is depen­dent on our really loving, and not the other way about.  Our guide is to see how the promises, care and love of God for his people are fulfilled in the life, compassion, suffering and resurrection of Jesus.

 

The Rev. Michael Keeling (St. Mary's College, St. Andrew's) considered "A Christian basis for Gay relationships."  He started from the point that since salvation is communal, morality is concerned primarily with relationships rather than with certain kinds of actions.  There is a shift now from a morality of rules to a morality of relationships.  The mutual learning process of relationships involves a death to self so that a resurrection to maturity may emerge.  Such relationships demand commitment, discipline, and a respect for the otherness of the other person. In­stead of asking "Are casual relationships morally accepta­ble?" (a question frequently discussed throughout the conference and one to which Michael Keeling felt he could give no categoric answer), perhaps we should con­cern ourselves with why some people fail to achieve long-term relationships.

 

The Rev. Malcolm Johnson (St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London) spoke on "What is a Christian Gay relationship?"  Opening with the caution that marriage itself is an institution with different forms in different societies and periods of history, he suggested that one-to-one life-partnerships may not be what God wants for all Gays, many of whom look to heterosexual marriages as a model. There are many concrete problems:  meeting a lover may be harder than accepting oneself as Gay and "coming out"; how do physical needs find a non-dominating place in one's life?; the destructive tensions involved in not feeling free to be open; the lack of acceptance by Church and society, which necessitates a sustained program of education for most con­gregations.

 

The Rev. Jim Cotter (Gorville and Caius College, Cambridge) talked about "The Gay challenge to traditional notions of human sexuality."  Like all the other papers, this showed how much Christian attitudes towards homosexuality form part of a larger uneasiness towards sexuality generally.  We need to overcome the opposition of sensuality warring with spirituality and to accept sexuality and spiritedness as part of each other.  Love is wider and deeper than sex, but physical acts are good too.  We have to learn to overcome the touch taboo and come to terms with the opposite sex that lives within our own individual psyche.  Moreover, the con­ventional need the unconventional to pioneer or explore other possibilities .

 

Finally, the Rev. Michael Day (Anglican chaplain, Universi­ties of London) filled in some historical background on "The sexual ideas of the early fathers," showing how the fusion of Platonism with Jewish tradition produced an ascetic attitude towards sexuality in general, including marriage.  The details of this -- especially such features as the notion of the superiority of the spirit to the body -- are helpful in showing how the present confused position arose.

 

In the discussion which followed, there was a strong feeling that as Gay Christians are already facing the challenge of rethinking our own positions, we can be helpful to the whole church in attempting to produce a more adequate response to the facts of human sexuality and their meaning in the Christian context.  The conference enabled a lot of sharing of ideas and personal experience to take place.  Perhaps its highpoint was the joint communion service on Saturday evening after dinner.  All felt strengthened in the task of promoting dialogue and understanding of homosexuality within our particular Churches and congregations.  This has to be done at all levels -- among the leaders as well as in local situations, through writing, speaking, and acting.  Everyone has a contribution to make.

 

(Note:  Copies of the Movement pamphlet "Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation" -- See review in Forum, Vol. 2, no. 2, Dec. 1975, p. 2 -- are still available from SCN Publications, 1 Prince Arthur Terrace, Rathmires, Dublin 6, IRELAND.  Information concerning the aims of the Gay Christian Movement can be obtained from the Secretary, 15 Bermuda Rd., Cambridge, ENGLAND.)

 

OFFICIAL SEX

 

A REVIEW

 

Male and Female:  Christian Approaches to Sexuality.  Edited by Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse and Urban T. Holmes III.  NYC:  Seabury, June 1976.  Paper, $4.95.  274 pp.

 

 

The Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin commissioned this work as one of three on the nature of ministry.  Twenty-two "specialists" from the fields of law, theology, psychiatry, medicine and the Church contributed the essays.

 

In most portions of the book there is a notable mingling of the personal with the professional.  Dr. Menninger, for example, annotates his very lucid review of Freudian theory by once referring to his own daughter's childhood experience of the phenomenon of penis-envy.  One female contributor spends her entire article talking about her personal experience of the female anatomy.  As much as one may question the degree of generalizability of these personal points of view, this reviewer welcomes them as very much in place in a book ostensibly about Christian approaches to sexuality.  The focus is not just through antiseptic measuring instruments, except when the focus is on Gay experience.

 

Perhaps the saddest reality about this book is that its Gay materials are largely ghettoized rather than integrated into all of the essays.  Thus this review also focuses mainly on this Gay ghetto in our Church's official sex book:

 

Chapter 12.  "Homosexuality:  An Overview," by Alan Bell.

Chapter 13.  "Homosexuality Is Not Just an Alternative Life Style," by Charles W. Socarides.

Chapter 14.  "A Theological Approach to Homosexuality," by Norman Pittenger.

Chapter 15.  "Some Words of Caution," by William Muehl.

 

Conspicuously absent are any openly Gay witnesses here.  I cannot imagine our Church producing a study of any other minority without considering the points of view of at least a token number of Church members openly identified as a part of the minority in ques­tion!

 

In as glaring an omission, there are no Gay women here; and very little explicit attention is give to Gay women by any one of the four male writers.

 

Socarides argues:  "Regarding the homosexual and his [sic] condition, there is no substitute for the information ga­thered from the in-depth clinical situation."  I doubt that any nonGay is prepared to say that "regarding the heterosexual and her/his condition" one should use as definitive of the group those heterosexuals so unfortu­nate as to have needed "the in-depth clinical situation."  In defining heterosexuality we insist on fully functioning, healthy, non-clinical models.  Why not the same for homosexuality?

 

Instead of documenting his clinical assertions, Socari­des spends his effort fighting his continuing battle against the American Psychiatric Association for its removal of homosexuality from its official list of diseases (1973).  With symptoms of paranoia, Socarides claims that the independent National Gay Task Force has taken over the policy writing of APA and has brainwashed a majority of the APA members.  Socarides sees himself as a member of a small remnant still speaking sanely about the illness of Gay people.  In any case, Male and Female seems an improper place for a loser to lick wounds incurred in another professional forum.

 

Bell and Pittenger are more substantive.  Bell stresses the Gay diversity and pluralism documented by the studies at the Indiana Institute for sex research.  Pittenger spends three-quarters of his paper discussing the Christian understanding of God as "pure unbounded love" (Wesley's phrase) before going on to suggest that such love is available for homosexuals and heterosexuals indiscriminately, that God's plan is to make each person the best homosexual or heterosexual lover that she or he can hope to be.

 

The Gay portions of Male and Female would have been decidedly better if the editors had insisted that Pittenger and Muehl respond to each other, and that Bell and Socarides do the same.  Instead, all four repeat points of view that they have often developed more cogently elsewhere, continuing to be independent. For example, how can Socarides continue to insist upon the generalizability of his narrow clinical sample in view of Bell's findings of vastly different para­meters for Gays outside therapy?  What can Pittenger say in response to Muehl's charge that Gay relationships are "essentially sterile unions characterized by a very high degree of instability"?  The reader can guess what answers would be forthcoming, but without the assurance that better editing could have commanded.

 

What's to be done with, for, and to Gays?  Bell offers no comment, only the social scientist's distant insistence that we all be treated individually, presumably even where our oppression has united us.  Socarides's approach would keep as many as possible on expensive therapeutic couches, which Gay dollars, with very little if any Church help, have kept in business for decades.  Only Pittenger and Muehl speak for a ministry, and only Pittenger with respect for Gays as whole persons.

 

Muehl, with possible allusion to Pittenger's emphasis on God as "pure, unbounded love," urges:  "One of the most popular errors in the realm of Christian ethics has been the effort to make love an omnipotent spiritual quality which has the power to sanctify anything that is done in its name."  Muehl's "loving" response would be to establish a long respite in the Church's dealings with Gays.  He admits: "It is altogether possible that much of what seems essentially destructive in the gay life style is really the neurotic consequence of a hostile environment."  Rather than focus his attention on the machinations of that hostile environment and his own part in it, Muehl recommends that the legal bans on same-gender sex be removed and that Gays be allowed to mate freely, but without the support of the Church unless we desist in affirming our way of life publicly and accept a second-class status "recogniz[ing] it [our homosexuality] as a problem."  After such long-term enforced secular incubation, our relationships should, if valid, on their own produce genuine Christian union!  If this is pastoring, we do not need wolves.

 

By contrast, Pittenger has embraced hundreds of friends in the Gay Christian community and has become involved with us as a consultant, pastor, speaker, and the like.

 

Both Muehl and Socarides repeatedly emphasize millennia of human tradition opposing Gay behaviors.  I think that I understand this reluctance to believe that God in our time is acting through the least of these God's children:  nevertheless, the major fault I find in Muehl's and Socarides's position is that they are casting themselves in the awesome role of telling God whom God can or cannot love.

 

With the imprimatur of the Presiding Bishop the editors hope that "this book will contribute to the resolution of today's questions with today's theology" and they are "firmly convinced that there may be an emerging consensus" in Male and Female.  I hear no consensus at all in the four essays on Gayness, and I hope that no reader will force one without more input from Gay Christians.

 

                               Louie Crew

 

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FORUM

 

If the world were to have beautiful people like you, we should not have so many troubles.

 

My name is Nguyen Kinh Doanh.  I am a 23-year-old native and citizen of Vietnam.  On October 7, 1974, I was sentenced from the District of New Mexico.

 

The U.S. law is so nebulous and abstruse that it leaves me completely baffled.  During my trial, I was entirely lost and unaware of what was actually taking place.  By January 1975, I was told to sign some papers that would deny my appeal.

 

I would like to appeal my case but have been sadly unable to find someone who is willing to help me.

 

If you know of someone who can help me, please advise me.

 

I am prepared to pay a reasonable fee for this proceeding and all other expenses involved in the appeal.

 

My parents, who are Vietnamese refugees, want to open a grocery store for living.  Since nobody in my family has knowledge of this business, my assistance to them is necessary to start it.

 

It should be noted that in January 1975, the U.S. Attorney through my Federal Public Defender advised me that he had made some mistakes "unintentionally" on my case.  Furthermore, it has been established by your courts, in interpreting the meaning of the due process rights, that a waiver of a legal option, such as the right of appeal, must be done knowingly and with a full understanding by the waiving party of the legal ramifications and liabilities which come from the waiver.

 

I was so ignorant of my rights that the waiver should be invalid.

 

              --Nguyen Kinh Doanh

              P.O. Box W

              Lompoc, CA 93436

 

I have read of your activities and sincerely applaud the work you are trying to do for the Gay community within the Anglican Church.  I pray that your work will be blessed with success.

 

              --Roger

 

The pity of it all is that most Gays are unchurched and rarely unite in a common cause.  Most probably don't realize or care about our emphasis, i.e., that we love God and each other.  Just imagine what could be accomplished if all Gays were to unite nationally at all political levels?  What a force we would represent!  Could the churches then have any choice?

 

You know, when one thinks of prominent persons who are well known to be Gay, one wishes they would participate.  Of course, I'm a fine one to talk about anyone else, as I sit in my closet, but I can't help comparing some notables, probably Episcopalians if asked, but as likely to speak out as Howard Hughes was to leave anything to the Episcopal Church, at least as far as we know.

 

Let me compliment you on the [poetry] issue of Forum.  It was novel and interesting.

 

              --Warren

 

I was sorry to read about your problem with your parish.  How un-Christian can Christians be?  I hope that things will sort themselves out, if they haven't already.

 

              --The Rev. R. L. Dowling

              Merlynston, Australia

 

I have watched with interest the growth of the Forum.  There is a great ministry to the Gay Community which has gone "a-begging" and therefore I watch with interest the presence of INTEGRITY within the Anglican Community.  In Canada the Church is as conservative as in the States.  The Bishops are by and large not terribly sympathetic men and the general subject of human sexuality seems to scare many of them off.  Our diocese has several clergy who are gay, but no active ministry is available to the homosexuals because of a fear of being branded and labelled.  It is a shame because there is a tremendous need for some of these people to share their own experiences with others.

 

I cannot anticipate the establishment of too many chapters of INTEGRITY in Canada in the near future.  However there will be some of us who will try to foster interest in the organization whenever the chance does arise.  I would gladly be of help if someone contacted INTEGRITY from Ottawa seeking to know if there were likeminded people present in the Diocese.

 

In other words, keep up the good work, being the voice of the closeted ones in the 'institutional' church!

 

              --The Rev. Alan Gallichaw, Rector

              St. James, 255 Edmund

              Carleton Place, Box 43, Ontario KOA1JO

 

In volume 2, No. 5 of Forum The Rev. John Lenhardt stated that "the Church refuses to deal with sexuality as a positive gift from the Creator, but rather prefers to see sex as a negative but necessary aspect of our humanity."

 

Well, Mr. Crew and whoever is responsible for the contents of this newsletter (supposedly representing Episcopalian gay persons) -- the Church will continue to think this way as long as our printed matter reflects sexual trashiness like our last "poetic" number contained.

 

I also take issue with the offensive cover hymn of the Christmas (of all times) issue that was jokingly re-written entitled "We Three Queens of Orient Are."  I love a laugh, and being a cartoonist, I have to pull out humor constantly and love doing so!

 

I have longed to show a copy of this newsletter to my parish priest, finally showing him my orientation and the fine "religious" organizations that I belong to, proving that I am, at the same time, highly religious and homosex­ual, but for God's sake, none of the issues have been presen­table to a heterosexual priest who possibly might accept a gay religious by seeing some positive proof of religious intent in our movement.

 

There is much in the newsletter worth showing and digesting, but I do not see how immoral poems and words and immoral thoughts can be included in a news sheet hat speaks for a religious organization.

 

We have this problem, viz., that the sexually oriented gay person in most all cases seems unable to separate the sacred from the profane, AND THERE IS A SEPARATION.

 

PLEASE pull your heads out and see the Church needing to see us proclaiming Christ, not freedom to fornicate or commit adultery before their eyes in poem or bed.

 

It is my heartfelt need to someday be welcomed to the altar rail as a gay person, and in order to be welcomed, our hetero churchpersons are going to have to see us striving to be Christ-like, not sensationalists who thrive on shock-value and prurient rhetoric to get our points across.

 

              --Frank

 

SUNSPOTS

A VOLUME OF POEMS BY LOUIE CREW

 

GLARING VISIONS

FOR CHRISTIANS AND PAGANS, GAYS AND NONGAYS

64 Pages.  Paper.  $3.50.  ISBN 0-916418-0605

 

Ready July 15 from

Lotus Press

P.0. Box 601

College Park Station

Detroit, MI 48221.

 

GREEN ENERGY

 

Beloved sisters and brothers, your national trea­sury is urgently in need of the kind of energy that fuels our checking account!   [See the President's article in this issue.]  Some of you reading this are bishops or rectors of parishes -- we know the demands put on your discretionary funds, but are you absolutely certain there isn't a measly C-note (or even half a C) that can be squeezed out for INTEGRITY's important ministry?  You Chapters, sure, you're being hit hard by requests to raise money for our General Convention efforts and for a lot of local proJects, but couldn't you throw just one money-raising event especially for funding these national projects?  And you individual members, now everybody knows us queers is loaded!  Can't you let go of something so we can do something arty, make something pretty?   Skip having your Mercedes polished this week; put off buying those platinum cufflinks; you don't really need that weekend at Cape Cod, do you now? -- or that chinchilla-lined bowling ball carrier.  Sacrifice SOMETHING in your luxurious lifestyle (you ARE Episcopalians, aren't you), and send the fattest check you can get into an envelope to Bob Diehm, Exec. Sec., 7820 South Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60649.  We promise you, the instant he receives it he will send you a personally signed thank you note suitable for framing in the style of your choice!

 

(I think I read somewhere in something written by one of those guys who understand us best, that homosexuals, when faced with a crisis, often use flippancy to cover up their inner desperation

-- Bergler or Socarides or Rueben, or one of those experts:  so is this flip enough for you?!) J.W.

 

SHOULD HETEROSEXUALS BE ORDAINED?

BY HOWARD ERICKSON

 

(This article originally appeared in The Gay Lutheran, No. 12, "The Humor Issue," p. 3, and is used with the kind permission of the author and editor.  The Gay Lutheran is the newsletter of LUTHERANS CONCERNED for GAY PEOPLE, Box 19114A, Los Angeles, CA 90019.)

 

There is a growing debate in American churches as to whether one's sexual orientation or affectional pre­ference should be considered in approving candidates for ordination.

 

Thus it is surely appropriate to ask whether an avowed, unashamed and practicing heterosexual can under any circumstances provide a suitable ministry in our Church.

 

With no attempt to be pre-judgmental, let us take an unbiased and objective look at this "lifestyle," as it is paraded before us by its partisans and apologists.

 

Most of them are certainly blatant about it.  You can see them waltzing down almost any street, hand in hand or arm draped around the opposite-sex partner who has caught their fancy for the moment -- sometimes even in church itself!  Their advertising on TV and billboards proclaims, even advocates, that everyone should try it "their way."

 

When two of them prepare for coition, they announce it in the newspaper "women's" pages and often in church as well, and ask the pastor to join them in holy union first.

 

While we heartily agree with those who say that human sexuality is a blessed gift from heaven, and that the honest, committed communion of two souls is worthy of blessing before God's altar, there is such a thing as a little discretion, as any gay knows.

 

Some would argue that lifetimes of happiness and mu­tual growth are the products of these heterosexual "marriages," enriching each partner and lasting for decade after decade, just like many gay relationships.

 

But a look at our nation's divorce rate, which now exceeds one marriage in three, gives cause for doubt.  Indeed, when one notes that in California last year almost as many divorces were granted as marriage li­censes, one wonders whether it is possible at all to achieve a lasting heterosexual relationship.

 

At a time when anthropologists are telling us of significant differences between women and men in personality as well as anatomy, it is not at all clear how two so different kinds of people can be expected to establish more than a fleeting encounter, related strictly to their sex drive.  We await further evidence.

 

And can heterosexuals handle their sex drive respon­sibly, in a Christian manner? Look at the facts:

 

Prostitution is overwhelmingly a heterosexual pro­blem.  No one can dispute that.  The illegitimate birth rate is 100% heterosexual.  And it is rising.

 

The pornography shops and theaters of any major city cater preponderantly to heterosexuals, as a glance at their dehumanizing, exploitative and scarlet wares reveals.

 

While it is true that some heterosexuals maintain attractive yards and keep up their property, their "adult bookstores" and "massage parlors" depress pro­perty values and threaten the labors of gay couples to restore the stained glass and beautiful ornate woodwork of the classic Victorian homes in many of these same neighborhoods.

 

Rape is exclusively a heterosexual tragedy -- except in modern prisons and during Bible times, by the victors over the vanquished.  And in such cases, same-sex rape is less a sexual than a political act of aggression and dominance, performed by men who, outside of prison or after the war, are completely heterosexual.

 

Finally, there must be our concern for the chil­dren, in whom resides the future of our beloved country.  And again, child molestation is overwhelmingly a heterosexual problem.  Fortunately, scientific evi­dence proves that a single such sexual experience does not make one "that way" for the rest of one's life.

 

Still, in light of all these shocking facts, can any­one ask that a heterosexual be ordained into the Chris­tian ministry?

 

Perhaps.  For sexual orientation is not "catching."  Almost all gay people report that both their parents were heterosexual, as were the overwhelming majority of their teachers, counselors and neighbors.

 

We counsel a position infused with Christian love.  It is not fair to blame every heterosexual for the sins of the others.

 

Their ilk has produced many fine artists, poets, scholars,  hairdressers.  Thus, it is only right that, if an unusually intelligent, hard-working and sober Christian woman or man should seek ordination, and promises not to proselytize, an exception may be in order.

 

BEDTIME PRAYERS FROM ANOTHER ERA

BY THE REV. RON WESNER

 

night one....

God, I did it today.  I went the whole day without

looking at another man's crotch.

Help me not to masturbate tonight.

 

night three....

I don't want to talk about it, if you don't mind.

I just went in there to take a leak.  I wasn't cruising,

honest.  But when he turned and faced me I acted like a

robot.  I know I had promised you no more of that.  I

don't know why I keep doing it.  But I swear today was

the last time.

 

another night....

Hey, I had to take a leak today, when I was downtown,

and nothing happened.  I just went in, took a leak,

and left.  Nothing else happened.  And I don't think

it was just because there was no one cute there, just

the old man in the last stall.  It's been two nights

since I've masturbated.

 

another....

Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul

to take and give the damned thing to someone else, and

let me die.  Change me or get rid of me.  I don't want to

be queer.  I don't want to be me.  Why can't I die young

like all the good people?  Why are you keeping me around

when I don't want to live?  Please change me, change me

or get rid of me.

 

and another....

If it's all the same to you I'd rather not think about

what happened today.  I guess if I'm worthless dung I

may as well act like worthless dung.  I was so excited

before, and felt so lousy after.

 

another night....

Hey, did you notice when I took her out tonight, what

happened when we were dancing?  I think I got a hard-on.

How about that!  I think I'll beat off tonight, and try

to think of her all through.  Maybe it'll work.

 

DOWNSTAIRS

 

Listen:

The apple blossoms bark.

I do not have to wait

For the angel in a gold dress

To blow a fanfare of welcome

Or for St. Peter to take his key

Off a chain, clinking with the weight of judgment.

The stream water licks my feet

And a daffodil has entered my soul.

Heaven and hell have vanished into a dewdrop.

 

              --Laura Dennison

 

NOTHING IS WASTED   A GAY HOMILY

 

Reprinted from Philadelphia Gay News, No. 5, May 1976.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE:  Dr. Louie Crew, founder of Integrity (national  organization for gay Episcopalians), was the guest speaker at a special mass celebrated at St Mary's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia last March 24.  Crew received his doctorate from the University of Alabama, with a dissertation en­titled, "Dickens' Use of Language for Protest."  Academically he is a generalist, primarily teaching English literature but having ex­perience also with rhetoric, black studies, stylo-linguistics, and gay studies. He holds membership in four honorary societies and is listed in the Dictionary of International Biography (1976-77 edition) and Leaders of Black America.  Curren­tly he is a professor of English at Fort Valley State College in Georgia.

 

The author of three books and a large number of articles, Crew is a frequently published poet and has produced video and audiotapes ex­plaining the gay experience.  We are pleased to reprint in its entirety his address at the mass, which was co­celebrated by Fathers John Lenhar­dt and Ron Wessen, co-convenors of Integrity/Philadelphia.

 

by Louie Crew

 

Talking candidly about sexuality can be a way to articulate spiritual truths that must otherwise remain ineffable.  The writer of the Song of Songs knew that, as did many of the Psalmists.

 

Let me share a gay male example:

 

Two lovers deeply committed to each other were in that glorious privacy where no one invades except the warm and affirming Holy Spirit.  Still, one knew that something was not quite right when he said it:  "Oh, don't, baby, not that way; don't waste it!"  His lover stopped, looked him in the eye, and said:  "Let's get one thing straight right now:  Nothing we do in this bed together is ever wasted."

 

St. Paul said it:  "For all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God's purpose."

 

We are not clean slates on which life writes some mistakes and some solutions.  Rather, we are children of God, and God works in us to make all that we are now, all that we ever have been, and all that we ever will be work together for good.

 

This claim used to madden me; it seemed ridiculous.

 

"But repentance and forgiveness acknowledge waste," I thought.  Yet again and again God has taken that which has seemed a waste and redeemed it.

 

Our Christian faith is a faith in redemption, yet for too long we gay people have not been told that.  We have been peddled instead a second-class theology, of God as the swap-shop operator or God as the wheeler-dealer who accepts our gay selves, if at all, only as a bad trade-in on a heterosexual self.  We have been told that if we through our own effort change ourselves, we will be saved.

 

By contrast, Christ tells us as Christ tells everyone:  God redeems persons just as they are.  The redeemer, as opposed to a swapper or trader, always acknowledges the value of what or whom is to be redeemed.  The purpose of redemption, whether of things or of people, is to make more accessible the value which the redeemer has already determined.  God does that with our gayness.

 

Much in Scripture that used to embarrass me in my spiritual closet now makes sense, particularly the miracles of healing.  I like the way the translators emphasize these acts of healing as "Making people whole again," that is, giving persons access to all parts of their bodies.  Many of us right here know the joy experienced by the woman who felt the flood of strength pour into her when she touched Jesus's garment:  we have felt the same flood in Christ's unconditional acceptance of our sexuality as an integral part of our personhood, and we can repeat that flood of strength again and again in our unconditional acceptance of ourselves and of one another.

 

The healing Christ gives us is not the healing for which some of us have asked:  Christ does not free us from involuntary same-sex arousal nor from the hostility of our culture toward the same; rather Christ frees us to discover in our gayness joy, fulfillment, and common love and respect.  And let us not forget that gays long before have also witnessed this redemption:

 

I have watched God take Her love

And squeeze it through a surgeon's

Precise line of vision to save

The heartbeat of a nonGay person

Who would probably vomit to know

That she'd been saved by a Lesbian.

 

I have heard God distill His grandeur

Through a Brother's Gay fingers

Opening organ pipes in dark

Ecclesiastical corners to make

Even a tired adulterer to

Tremble at the glory of the Queendom.

 

I have watched God twinkle in the

Eye of a teacher seducing bored minds

Away from Kojak or Mary Tyler Moore

Into The Odyssey or a Renoir nude

Only to have God laughed at when

The student ossifies to say, "Teacher

Was just a harmless bit queer!"

 

And I have seen God grow bald to don

A wig and sequined flimsy gown and cruise

The streets even of small towns, laughing

Joyfully to be God, to understand creation,

To wait out the slow drainage of stupidity.

 

Recently in the secular forum of a criminal justice class in central Georgia I was amazed that the more than a dozen policemen there, hearing an openly gay professor for the first time ever and wide-eyed, when the time came for asking questions mainly wanted to ask Bible questions.  For over an hour I plodded patiently with them through all of the passages that were troubling them, weighing those passages in the context of God's central revelation through Jesus Christ the all-loving Savior.  A few stayed with me, really hearing, or trying to hear my humanity, our humanity, over the roar of the taboo.  Then one said, very feelingfully:  "But sir, how can you think it unfortunate that God would use a man like the Apostle Paul to establish Western sexual ethics?"

 

"I did not say that He did so use St. Paul.  Rather people have, and that is what is unfortunate."

 

"But God put St. Peter there at that time and that place!  Surely he wouldn't have done so if it were going to mislead the world for 2,000 years!" the student said.

 

"I think I understand your problem," I replied.  It is the problem of Judas, who possibly believed that his betrayal would force Jesus to seize earthly power.  It is the problem of the disciples after the crucifixion, who were defeated, whose God was dead because God would not interfere in human history with the unequivocal clarity that alone could guarantee that we would not mislead ourselves.

 

Yet that same God who can allow people to mislead themselves on faulty evidence from St. Paul can allow people to lead themselves aright by the witness of just such plain folks as this policeman and me.  God interferes in human history only as human beings permit ourselves to be instruments of God.

 

Nothing is wasted.  Nothing is ever wasted for Children of God.  God can take our mistakes, our shortcomings, our disappointments, our pain ... and use them lovingly.  What is more, God wants to do just that for each one of us; God's very nature is indiscriminate love.

 

For me personally one of God's greatest gifts of healing is the spiritual insight with which to appreciate the paradoxes in our painful experience.  Ernest (my lover) and I have been variously denied housing, spat upon in our streets, daily and nightly mocked with hateful telephone calls, heckled by policemen, denied access to cosmetology schools of our choice, to a seminary of our choice, intimidated on our jobs by insecure bullies, scurrilously attacked in the local media, damned by most of the local clergy.  Last week the vestry of my parish wrote asking me not to come back, provoked to this extreme only by my regular silent and peaceful presence as a worshipper.  In their letter they almost forgot that we are Episcopalians and tried to say, on a technicality, that I am not even a communicant, though the Bishop has since assured me that I am and that I cannot be excommunicated by the vote of any vestry.  As painful as these experiences are, they are joyful too!  Not in a sick way, as when one seeks out needless ways to suffer:  but in the healthiest way of all, as when one lives life honestly, openly, faithfully, prepared to watch the agonies of those forced by this witness to change their conception of the way the world is.  Paradoxically, faith is never stronger than in hours when most attacked.  "For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."  "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing."

 

Dearly beloved, we who are as Children of God would sustain our struggle were there only two gay people in the whole world.  But our faith assures us that we are not alone.  Generations past and generations to come bless these nights that we are working together.  Lift up your voices in praise and thanksgiving.  Nothing we who have been redeemed do here together in love is ever wasted.

 

THE MEANING OF SEX: ONE HOMOSEXUAL'S VIEW

by Don Melvin

 

Being sexual is part of being human: I am human; therefore I am capable of acts that express my sexuali­ty.  Being homosexual, I am inclined to express my sexuality to and through men, members of my own sex.  Though my sex drive is as normal and natural a part of me as hunger, some would condemn my use of my sexuali­ty. I myself regret the way I have sometimes used my sexuality.  After much thought, I have concluded that the guilt and regret I sometimes feel about sex come over me because I have violated the purpose of sex.

 

What is that purpose?  Some would say that the only valid sexual acts are heterosexual, and that the pur­pose is procreation.  Others would say that sex is the sacramental act of a permanent commitment of one per­son to another.  For me, however, the reason for sex­ual relations is two-fold:  physical and emotional.  The purpose of sexual relations is to fulfil the physical sex drive and to fulfil the emotional need of the human being to give of her/himself and receive companionship.

 

Dr. Norman Pittenger, in his speech at the national convention of INTEGRITY, said that sex per se is of three kinds:  good, better, and best.  All sex, he says, is good, for sex is the creation of God.  So sex with a stranger, a trick, is good, despite the "impersonality" of the encounter.  Better is the encounter between two people who have some sort of relationship and share some degree of mutual caring.  Best of all, says Dr. Pittenger, is the sexual encounter that occurs as an expression of love between lovers committed to each other.

 

I believe that evil does enter sex, however, when personal gratification only is the object, when giving is neglected.  Such selfishness perverts the purpose of sex, which is to bring persons together.  It is on such occasions, when I seek only my own physical satis­faction and neglect to give of myself -- whether physi­cally or emotionally ‑‑ that I feel guilty about a sexu­al encounter.  It is on such occasions that I have sinned, for I have violated God's purpose for sex -- his creation ‑‑ as I understand it.

 

As for the "impersonality" of many homosexual encoun­ters (or heterosexual, for that matter), I strongly object to the term "impersonal sex" if the only criterion used to determine the impersonality of the encounter is the length of time the two people have been acquainted.  Impersonal sex has more to do with the two people's attitude toward each other, how they treat one another.  A sexual encounter is impersonal when the people involved either are unable to or refuse to view each other as persons, when they "thingify" each other (to use Dr. Pittenger's word).  This "thingifying" or depersonalizing of a human being is perhaps one of the gravest of sins.

 

GIVING GAY LIB A BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS

by Jon L. Clayborne

 

Most black homosexuals, whether deliberately or other­wise, remain unfamiliar with the political aspects of homosexuality; nevertheless, there are a few blacks who are actively involved in the Gay Liberation Movement.  During the early years of the movement, the enthusiasm that arose from defying society's taboo against revealing one's homosexuality was sufficient to commit gays to the cause.  The implications of Gay Liberation, however, exceed combatting the New York Police Tactical Force in Sheridan Square and zapping public officials at Lincoln Center.  As the Gay Liberation Movement developed activists became cognizant of the other areas of concern initially unrealized.

 

Pressing for abolition of sodomy and solicitation sta­tutes used to convict male homosexuals was an obvious goal of the movement, but lesbian activists had to force the movement's mostly m