A MORAL IMPERATIVE

We live in an age of ferment. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the field of religion. Struggles of conscience and soul-searchings are daily fare in the temples, pagodas and churches of our time, as new wines seek uneasy accomodation in the old bottles.

The conflict between the homosexual and certain religious attitudes is hardly new. Over the centuries its harvest has been a grisly one of executions, suicides and shattered lives.

That large numbers of homosexuals, knowing this, should reject religion and the church is understandable. The contempt so many of them feel for religion indicates the width of the gulf between the two. In rejecting the church which has rejected them thousands of homosexual men and women become unchurched or else atheists.

It should be made clear in this present discussion that ONE does not take sides either for the one or the other of the disputants. As a non-sectarian institution ONE's duty is to be as impartial as possible. Non-sectarian, in this sense, means to be broadly humanitarian and neither atheistic nor diestic, neither Christian, nor anti-Christian. This is felt to be the truly ecumenical position.

In this spirit then, we shall examine "the failure of the church" in the field of homosexuality. We shall follow this by giving specific examples of such failure, naming names, and we shall conclude with a statement of what appears to be a moral imperative facing religion and "the church" these days.

By W. Dorr Legg, Director of One Institute

one

6