Debate on gays reflects church doubts

By Darrell Holland naked Religion Editor

A vote on the civil rights of homosexuals in Florida's Dade County Tuesday is linked to the religious convictions of many.

Despite the apparently honest motives of those who oppose rights for gays, the referendum makes one wonder whether the U.S. Constitution is taken seriously by many Americans.

Voters in the county, which includes Miami, must decide whether they want to retain or abolish a civil rights ordinance adopted in January by the Dade County Commission.

The

ordinance guarantees

Religion

homosexuals equal rights in jobs, housing and public accommodations. rights which all persons ideally are guaranteed by the Constitution.

But the Constitution often has been subjected to the whimsical wishes of the nation's majority.

For gays, constitutional freedom long has been a goal.

The issue has deeply divided Miami's diverse religious community. It also mirrors the wider national church debate on homosexuality, one of the most vexing and volatile subjects to confront churches in many years.

Liberals, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who have fought for years for the civil rights of blacks and women and who opposed the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, have taken a more conservative position on homosexuality.

In most instances, church groups have favored the rights of gay persons in society, but have refrained from declaring that gays can participate fully in the church's life and enter its ministry.

One could accuse the church of directing society to put its house in order on homosexuality, while

refusing to cope with the question within its own structure.

Most churches have said they need more time to study the issue of human sexuality, including homosexuality, before they take positions on gays.

Among Miami's clergy and laity, the disagreements reportedly have been heated.

Opponents of the ordinance, led by Anita Bryant, entertainer and avowed born-again Christian, argue on moral and religious grounds that to strengthen civil rights for gays will lead to approval of homosexual acts. They contend such activity is immoral.

On the other side, 125 clergymen and laymen, in a signed advertisement in the Miami Herald, have supported continuing the ordinance.

They said the ordinance does not approve or condemn any one life-

style and said homosexuals are persons of sacred worth. Religion is a vital need in homosexual self-fulfillment, they said.

No major American denomination has reversed its belief that homosexual acts are immoral, but many question whether the common biblical and theological arguments supporting their positions are valid.

Some clergymen, including the Rev. John McNeill, a Roman Catholic priest from New York City and an avowed celibate gay, contend that homosexual acts should be judged by similar ethical standards heterosexual relationships.

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Gay groups in almost every major denomination have also challenged traditional stands on homosexuality.

Several churches at the national and state levels have begun studies of human sexuality, although many times the committees have been established to delay the time when the churches will have to take a position.

It is important, many gays argue, for churches to remove their past opposition to homosexuality. By

doing so, the gays believe their civil rights in society will be won more quickly.

Religious opposition to homosexuality has been based primarily on three passages from the Bible. One is that homosexuality led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Another is the so-called "Holiness Cade" in Leviticus. The third is St. Paul's inclusion of homosexuality in his list of sins in Romans..

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But some biblical scholars, including Father McNeill, contend that Sodom and Gomorrah citizens were guilty of the sin of inhospitality rather than homosexuality, and that St. Paul was really opposing pagan worship, not homosexuality.

They also say the Leviticus code is antiquated, pointing out that the person caught in homosexual acts was put to death, a sin in the same category as one caught cursing his parents.

Next week's vote in Florida may indicate how near the American public is to granting gays their full civil rights, even though most Americans may not approve of their sexual preferences.

Editor to speak

The Rev. J. Martin Bailey, editor of the monthly religious magazine A.D., published by the United Church of Christ and the United Presbyterian Church, will speak at the 9:15 and 11 a.m. services tomorrow at Avon Lake United Church of Christ, 32801 Electric Blvd., Avon Lake. He will dedicate the church's new education building.