Friday June 8, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 23 |
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Sunday, Mar 21, 2010
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| Bishop calls on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people to 'prophesy' to a homophobic culture |
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OutFront conference offers spirited opposition to religious right efforts in Arizona PHOENIX, AZ - Bishop Yvette Flunder called on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) people to "prophesy" to an American culture of racism, sexism, and homophobia. During her keynote speech at OutFront Arizona: Blessing ALL Our Families on Saturday, Flunder drew inspiration from the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel, to whom the Bible says God gave the command to preach to a valley of dry human bones, which took on flesh and began to live. Flunder drew comparisons between the valley of the bones and the conditions of homophobia, trans-phobia, sexism, and racism, and said that the efforts of LGBT people to combat these issues would bring new life to American society. "It's time to prophesy. It's time to take our truth and put it in the ears and in the laps of people who used to scare us to death; it's time to put it in the ears and in the laps of our own families," Flunder said. "The only difference between a heretic and a prophet is time," she added, "Today's heretic is recognized as tomorrow's prophet." Flunder also encouraged the 150-plus conference attendees to renew their spiritual lives, saying, "same gender-loving people throughout history have been spiritually gifted." She admonished, "Don't let anyone hollow your spiritual self out." Rev. Dr. Flunder, an African-American Lesbian, is the senior pastor of City of Refuge United Church of Christ in San Francisco and presiding bishop of Fellowship 2000, a national coalition of mostly African-American faith leaders working to develop LGBT-inclusive ministries. OutFront Arizona: Blessing ALL Our Families, which took place Friday June 1 and Saturday June 2, 2007 at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Phoenix, was co-organized by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA and No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice, an Arizona coalition of LGBT-affirming clergy. The conference offered workshops on subjects such as developing media skills, rethinking Christian sexual ethics, Transgender issues in the Church, and developing LGBT theologies. One workshop was reserved for local faith leaders to plan and strategize; the result was a call for greater statewide collaboration among clergy and lay faith leaders to change the tone of religious dialogue on LGBT issues in Arizona. Since November, when Arizona residents voted down Proposition 107, an anti-Gay marriage and anti-civil union constitutional amendment, religious right organizations have flooded the state with funding and organizing efforts. Another featured conference speaker, Rev. Dr. Marvin Ellison, professor of Christian ethics at Bangor Theological Seminary, suggested that the religious right's drive for "traditional family values" is part of a larger project of preserving cultural conformity and the power of privilege. Marginalizing LGBT people is but one strategy in this overarching campaign. "Gay bashing sends a signal, to Gays and straights alike, that any deviance from patriarchal norms will be subject to ridicule, violence, and even death," Ellison said. "Such threats are highly effective in dissuading people from giving credence to, let alone acting on, the rather intoxicating notions of sexual freedom, gender flexibility, and bodily self-determination." Ellison called on Christians to "keep the focus not on family form, but on things that truly matter ethically and spiritually: protecting the dignity and well-being of all persons, insisting on the qualities of mutual respect, non-violence, and care in every relationship&and making sure the community guarantees that every family receives the support necessary for all their members to thrive." Rev. Dr. Jay Emerson Johnson, acting executive director of CLGS and a professor of theology at Pacific School of Religion, echoed the necessity of flexibility in family form. "Theologically speaking, what matters about family is not its form or structure but how well it responds to the deep desire in each of us for communion." Johnson suggested that Christians form an ethic of "communal fidelity," based on responsibility to a larger faith family, rather than a more limited and legalistic "marital fidelity" based solely on responsibility to a biological family. "Both Jesus and Paul, as well as Christians in the first few centuries, cared far less about marriage and biological families, and stressed instead the community of discipleship," Johnson said. "Communal fidelity cannot be learned or lived in isolated household units, but only in wider faith communities, in other words, in the 'family of faith.'" CLGS presented a "Leading Voice Award" to No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice. The Arizona organization has been a significant organizing force for pro-LGBT religious support in the Southwest. Their "Phoenix Declaration," which states, "We stand with the countless Christian ministers, scholars, and laity who, from prayerful study of the scriptures and Christian tradition, find no rational biblical or theological basis to condemn or deny the rights of any person based on sexual orientation," has to date received more than 160 signers from among clergy across the state. The closing event of the conference featured a worship service titled, "A Family Blessing." Offering music in the service were members of the Phoenix Metropolitan Men's Choir, and the OutFront Choir, made up of conference attendees. Bishop Flunder preached a sermon titled, "The Both/And God." Noting the radical evolution of early Christianity on issues of ethnic, socioeconomic, and gender equality, Flunder preached, "Paul told the Galatians, 'In Christ there is no male or female, there is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free'&and if someone had held the microphone there long enough, he would have said 'no Gay or straight.'" The worship included an ecumenical communion service and a ritual of family blessing. As the choir sang, "We Are Standing on Holy Ground," families, including parents and children of all sexual orientations, same-sex and heterosexual couples, Transgender individuals and members of couples, and groups of committed friends, came forward to be blessed by clergy representing from across the spectrum of denominations. The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry's OutFront workshops are designed to help progressive people of faith and their allies throughout the country become voices of authority and agents of societal change in the current heated debates surrounding homosexuality and religion by developing their expertise in matters of sexuality and religion. A primary goal of these workshops is to enable LGBT people of faith and their allies to counter those who use religious argumentation to alienate and marginalize LGBT people. For more information on CLGS, see www.clgs.org; for more on No Longer Silent/Clergy for Justice, see www.nolongersilent.org. A CLGS press release |
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2007