A MINISTER AND HIS

In an

In an article in the May 1953 issue of ONE, I made the following statement:

"You cannot legislate morals and ethical behavior. As a minister, I must forego the self-preservative comforts afforded the legalist. I must accept the social responsibilities that come with the kind of religious interpretation that seeks the spirit rather than the letter of Divine Truth, its meaning and purpose rather than merely its language and symbols."

Anyone

2.2.

nyone taking this stand must be willing to be misunderstood. Some, during the depression, condemned me for fighting for old-age-pensions and unemployment compensation. During the San Francisco strike I was with the workers, especially the seamen. From my own experience at sea, I knew the conditions that prevailed. I have long pressed for the philosophy of minority group "Integration" as opposed to "Segregation," while most churches are still sponsoring race and national congregations, lest the "elect" be contaminated by "furriners."

Thus, my response on receiving, in 1952, a circular from the old Mattachine Foundation, should not be surprising. It was hardly difficult, after reading Kinsey, to realize the need for such a program of research and education on the problems of sex-variants, with the aim of promoting social and moral responsibility and their integration into society.

My early service had been in a church where confession was optional, and private counselling had been my practice in later church work. My files contained coded case histories of hundreds who had come to me in twenty-five years of the ministry. Their most prevailing problems were sexual. Because of this, I sought a seminar in the early 'Thirties with Magnus Hirschfeld at his Institute For Sexology in Berlin. I am still much guided in giving advice by his approach, though many new and extended works are now available.

I did what I could as a minister to help the Mattachine Foundation (but felt required to withdraw from activity when the new society was formed). Through the Foundation I met many qualified persons concerned with legal, psychiatric and educational aspects of the problem.

It was particularly in the therapeutic field that I did considerable research.

Dr. Kinsey has reminded us of the origin of cur sex-laws in the early Jewish codes, in turn molded by older formulations. Current books on the psychology of religious experience leave the investigator uncertain whether sexual acts pertain to nature or to the "spiritual" domain.

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