Gay activists debate faith at forum

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers face increasing challenges to their Constitutional rights as American citizens, but the battle toward recognized statewide GLBT human rights continues.\nIndiana Equality and the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination co-sponsored a three-part forum June 24 titled "Journey to Justice: Promoting a Welcoming Society for GLBT People in Your Faith Community and Beyond" to introduce the idea all Hoosiers are made in God's image regardless of their sexual orientation. About 60 community members attended the event at First United Church Bloomington, and the agenda included a presentation by ICON Executive Director Dan Funk, a panel discussion and small group dialogue about what local congregation members can do to provide a welcoming and inclusive faith-based home to the local GLBT community.\n"Homosexuals and heterosexuals both have sacred worth," said panelist and St. Marks Methodist Church representative Tom Shafer. "We say 'you can be homosexual but don't practice it.' We have a real conflict in the Methodist Church."\nOther panelists included IU GLBT Center Director and St. Thomas Lutheran Church representative Doug Bauder, St. Mary Catholic Center in Evansville representative Pam Thoren and Christian Church Disciples of Christ representative Kerry Armstrong.\n"We have a 'love the sinner and hate the sin kind of thing,'" Thoren said. "The Catholic Church is conflicted and our congregation doesn't know how to feel about it."\nBauder said the three Catholic churches in Bloomington exemplify the plight GLBT community members often face when attempting to find a welcoming or inclusive place of worship: each has their own unique stance on political and GLBT issues. \n"Congregations sometimes act different than their denominations," Bauder said. "The Lutheran Church is not conflicted but schizophrenic. Our stance is 'don't ask, don't tell, and if you do tell don't tell too many people.'"\nThoren said she has had great difficulty all her life attempting to rationalize her faith in God and love for Jesus with her lesbianism because other churches she belonged to condemned her lifestyle as an abomination.\n"How do I rationalize those two issues and come up with some kind of sanity?" she said she asked herself before finding a Catholic Church in Evansville willing to sympathize with her human plight and to empathize with her need for a welcoming or inclusive faith-based congregation.\nArmstrong said about 30 percent of his congregation consists of GLBT community members, but he said his church's process of acceptance took several years of congregation member conversations. He said his church first formed small groups to discuss the issue before debating the topic as an entire congregation.\n"Our most affirming congregation members were older persons and the few detractors tended to be gays and lesbians," Armstrong said. "One voice of concern can drag everyone down. We might have several years of positive dialogue but if one GLBT congregation member becomes a detractor, the congregation might say 'that one person doesn't care so why should we?'"\nHe said the most important thing GLBT congregation members can do is "come out" to their faith-based community, but he recognized the difficulty GLBT community members face doing so because many work hard to conceal their true sexuality for fear of community retribution, like word spreading to the point of job loss.\nShafer said congregation members willing to welcome their GLBT neighbors into their faith-based hearts should consider advertising themselves as an "inclusive community with Christ-like love" so GLBT community members know where to turn for a safe place to practice their faith in God.\n"As long as there are not gays and lesbians in the community who are not out openly, they can easily be demonized by people hate or are afraid," he said. "If one person is but alone, he or she often thinks 'I've got to find a congregation that is more like me.'"\n Audience member feedback to the panel ranged from questions about the difference between a "welcoming" and an "inclusive" congregation to community members admitting their church or congregation remains biased in their interpretations of God's true will and the limitless compassion of Jesus Christ.\n"When I read and listen to things on this issue, I always have in the back of my head: 'look at what churches are denying themselves,'" a forum attendee named Sharon said in regards to her congregation's spiritual contradictions. "It's a loss on both sides, really."\nOne audience member told the audience a story about how his Quaker congregation debated about whether or not to perform a gay wedding even though Indiana does not recognize such an event as legally binding. He said the main concern for church members at first was the fear of an onslaught of GLBT community members flooding to the congregation if they found out they were a welcoming or inclusive congregation.\n"No church needs to worry about an invasion of gay people," Peter, a self-identified gay Quaker said. "Every church deals with this as an issue. If there is a split in your denomination, there is a split in all denominations." \nOne audience member addressed the need for congregations willing to become welcoming or inclusive GLBT safe places to stand by their pastor during the church's time of transition.\n"It's clear GLBT people need allies in our churches to make things happen. We also need to be allies to our pastors," a community member named Ross said. "They need support and help so they don't lose a number of people from their congregation."\nBauder responded that his experience working at the GLBT Center on the IU campus demonstrates young adult congregation members are often more open to ideas of change and are often more willing to work toward GLBT inclusion despite long-held human habits of discrimination.\n"Not all, but many young people wonder why we are still fighting about this issue," he said. "When I ask the question in classes, 'How many of you know a GLBT person?', about every hand is raised. Almost everyone has GLBT family members, neighbors or friends."\nAfterwards, community members packed into the First United Church pews for a moment of outward reflection and a small prayer of thanksgiving led by Bauder. Words from the gospel Matthew XXIII scrolled next to the wooden crucifix on the wall above the Christian altar seemed to sum up the tone and dialogue of the day's forum: "One is your Master -- The Christ -- And you are all brothers"