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Gay clergy: the state of the debate (update)

Posted by Editor • April 2nd, 2007 • Printer-friendly

It’s the battle that seemingly never ends. For many denominations, the polarizing argument over whether to ordain gays and lesbians rages as fiercely as ever. And in some places – most dramatically, the Episcopal Church – congregations are voting with their feet, vowing not to continue an association with a denomination that would consider countenancing something that many conservative Christians consider sinful.

The debate in U.S. denominations over whether to ordain homosexuals also is highlighting connections and polarities between Christianity in the Northern Hemisphere and in the global South – in Africa, Latin America and Asia, where views on gay ordination tend to be more conservative and where alliances are being built with American congregations that disagree with their denominations’ stances on gay ordination.

At the same time, the influence of the secular world – where gays increasingly are visible and accepted, particularly among young people – is having an impact too. Some who favor gay ordination contend that minds and hearts will be changed one at a time – by seeing the faithfulness of gays and lesbians demonstrated in positions of leadership. Others say that runs contrary to Scriptural teaching and God’s will.

And some nondenominational congregations that condemn homosexual practice were shaken by scandals in 2006 after finding that their leaders – most prominently, Ted Haggard, former president of the National Association of Evangelicals – may have had secret homosexual encounters of their own.

What lies ahead in the debate over gay clergy? More conflict, certainly. And, perhaps, schism.

Why it matters

As in the parallel arguments over same-sex unions, some see homosexuality activity as incompatible with the Bible’s strictures on sex. Others hold that biblical injunctions against homosexuality are cultural artifacts akin to Scriptural proscriptions on women or divorce that have been largely superseded. long been superseded. They say modern concepts of human rights and social justice should allow for equality for homosexuals, as long as they are in stable, faithful relationships. The role and rights of gays and lesbians in American society will be determined in large part by how their roles and rights are viewed in the religious world.

Jump to:
What’s new
Where religious groups stand

National sources
Regional sources
Background

What’s new

Conservative Judaism: After years of debate, the highest legal body in Conservative Judaism voted Dec. 6, 2006, to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and to allow rabbis to conduct commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples. That’s a significant shift for the centrist branch of Judaism – and a controversial decision. Since the vote, the nation’s two conservative Jewish seminaries – the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles – have announced that they have begun accepting openly gay and lesbian candidates. (See a March 27, 2007, New York Times story.) (Ed. note: The University of Judaism merged with Brandeis-Bardin to become American Jewish University in 2007.)

The Committee on Conservative Jewish Law and Standards – a group of 25 scholars that interprets religious law – adopted three statements, somewhat contradictory, involving gay ordination. Four of the committee’s members quit in protest. Individual Conservative congregations now will decide whether to hire openly gay rabbis and cantors, and individual seminaries whether to ordain them.

Two of the three answers the committee gave to the question of what Jewish law allows regarding homosexual sex uphold the traditional position: Homosexual relations are not permitted. A third answer permits same-sex unions and the ordination of gays and lesbians, while saying that sodomy is not permitted.

Read a Dec. 6, 2006, account of the action from The Associated Press, published in The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Dec. 7, 2006, stories from The Washington Post and The New York Times. Read background material on the decision http://www.jtsa.edu/cjls/ from the Web site of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Episcopal Church: Some had hoped the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in June 2006, might find a way to bind the wounds of such a deeply divided denomination. That hasn’t happened.

The convention, conscious of how deeply run the rifts in the worldwide Anglican Communion, voted to pass a nonbinding resolution not to consecrate any candidates for bishop “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider Church.” That follows the furor that arose in 2003 when the convention consecrated Bishop V. Eugene Robinson, an openly gay man living with a partner.

But the convention did not officially repent of consecrating Robinson. And on June 18, 2006, the convention elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as its presiding bishop – a woman who voted to confirm Robinson in 2003 and who supports ordaining gays and lesbians and blessing same-sex unions. Read the transcript of a Religion & Ethics Newsweekly story from June 23, 2006, and an Associated Press account from June 21, 2006, posted by Beliefnet.com, summarizing the convention’s actions, and a Washington Post story from July 3, 2006, about the response to Jefferts Schori’s election.

On June 27, 2006, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, proposed creating a theological “covenant” that geographic provinces would have to promise to abide by in order to retain their full status as “constituent churches” in the Anglican Communion – a step that some viewed as potentially opening the door even further to possible schism. Read a New York Times story from June 28, 2006.

Since the convention, American congregations and diocese disenchanted with what they see as a too-liberal Episcopal denomination have moved to consider severing their ties with the U.S. church. For example, eight congregations in Virginia, including two large, historic churches, have aligned themselves with Archbishop Peter K. Akinola in Nigeria – see New York Times stories from Dec. 25, 2006, and Dec. 17, 2006.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, a California diocese that does not ordain women, voted in December 2006 to take the first steps to leave the Episcopal Church and align with conservatives in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Read stores from Dec. 4, 2006, from The Washington Post and Dec. 3, 2006, from The New York Times. At least a half-dozen other Episcopal dioceses are considering leaving as well.

Moves such as those to join with conservative Anglicans in places such as Africa and Latin America put a spotlight on differences between the Episcopal Church in the U.S. and members of the Anglicans’ 37 other provinces – many of whom hold unequivocally that the Bible does not permit homosexuality.

And such departures are igniting painful legal fights over who owns church property, the congregations or the denomination. Listen to a Dec. 28, 2006, story from NPR’s show Day to Day.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in June 2006, did not change the denomination’s rules, which limit ordination to those who practice fidelity if they’re married or chastity if they’re single.

But it did approve a controversial recommendation to allow candidates for ordination to declare a “scruple,” or an objection based on conscience, to the national standards – read a June 21, 2006, story from The Associated Press, published in The Washington Times. That leaves it up to local governing bodies to decide whether to grant individual exceptions and to possibly ordain a gay or lesbian living in a committed partnership. Under Presbyterian governance, regional presbyteries ordain ministers while local churches ordain deacons and elders. Read a Religion News Service story, published in The Washington Post on Sept. 2, 2006, and an Associated Press story from July 8, 2006, published in the Eugene Register-Guard.

Since the assembly, more than a dozen presbyteries have passed resolutions saying they will not grant any exceptions and will enforce the national ordination standards. Challenges have been filed in the church courts to some of those resolutions.

Scott Anderson, an openly gay man who leads the Wisconsin Council of Churches – formerly a Presbyterian minister who set aside his ordination and is living in a committed partnership – has announced his intention to seek ordination again and on Nov. 14, 2006, was approved by John Knox Presbytery as an “inquirer.”

The New Wineskins Association of Churches acknowledged at its February 2007 meeting that some churches may choose to remain within the denomination while others may wish to move to a nongeographic presbytery in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Nondenominational: Many were stunned when Ted Haggard, then the married pastor of the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs and the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned in November 2006 in a sex-and-drug scandal. Haggard stepped down from both posts after Mike Jones of Denver said Haggard had paid him over a three-year period for methamphetamine and for sexual encounters. The church determined that Haggard had committed “sexually immoral conduct.” Haggard, while admitting being a “deceiver and a liar,” denied using drugs, having sex with Jones or being gay. Read a Nov. 5, 2006, story from The Denver Post.

About a month after that, in December 2006, Paul Barnes of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel in Denver resigned as well. Barnes – who had denounced homosexuality from the pulpit – admitted to his congregation that he had struggled with his own homosexual urges since childhood. Read a Dec. 11, 2006, story from The Denver Post.

Those revelations have led to renewed conversations about how evangelicals view homosexuality, and about whether it’s possible to be a faithful evangelical and a gay or lesbian at the same time. See a New York Times story from Dec. 12, 2006, and another from Dec. 13, 2006, published in The Denver Post.

Roman Catholic: Roman Catholic clergy would seem to be exempt from much of this debate since priests must be celibate males. But an apparent rise in the number of gay men being ordained, combined with revelations in recent years that a number of gay priests were not abiding by their vow of celibacy or were engaged in unhealthy or abusive sexual behaviors, led the Vatican in 2006 to try to halt the ordination of any homosexual, regardless of whether he said he would remain celibate. The new policy caused consternation and confusion, especially in the United States, and observers say it is unclear whether the bishops can or will enforce it.

Where religious groups stand

Reform and Conservative Judaism both ordain gays and lesbians. While many denominations are debating gay ordination, no major U.S. church has fully endorsed ordaining sexually active homosexuals, even if they are in a committed relationship. At most, some denominations, such as the United Church of Christ, allow but do not enforce a policy of gay ordination because they do not have a central authority or ecclesial polity that requires uniformity. Conservative-minded evangelical and fundamentalist churches will not consider the possibility of ordaining homosexuals or allowing gay marriage. That includes the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest U.S. denomination after Roman Catholicism, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons. African-American churches and churches in the Pentecostal tradition are also overwhelmingly against sanctioning a role for gays in church. Islam and many other religious traditions that are newer to America also tend to disapprove of homosexuality and do not allow gay clergy.

There are a few small denominations dedicated to ministering to homosexuals and that specifically endorse gay clergy.

  • Most prominent among these are the Metropolitan Community Churches, founded in 1968 to provide “a primary, positive ministry to gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender persons,” as their web site says.
  • The United Church of Canada is the second-largest denomination in Canada after the Catholic Church. In 1988 it affirmed that homosexuality “is not in itself a barrier” to ordination. A May 1998 church news release explained the history and fallout from that historic debate.

Here is a look at where the other major debates on gay ordination are unfolding:

EPISCOPAL CHURCH

The Episcopal Church has been in turmoil since 2003, when delegates from the Diocese of New Hampshire elected as bishop Robinson, a gay priest who is in a committed, longtime relationship with his partner. After Robinson’s election, and his confirmation a few weeks later by the General Convention of 2003, conservative Episcopalians threatened to break away, and leaders in other parts of the Anglican Communion demanded that the Episcopal Church be sanctioned or even expelled from the worldwide body. (About the same time, the Diocese of New Westminster in Canada gave official approval to blessing same-sex unions, contributing to the furor.) Even before that, in 1996, a bishop, Walter Righter, was accused of heresy for ordaining an openly gay man in 1990. The charges were dismissed, but the church continued to struggle with issues of gay ordination and same-sex blessings. While such rites are not officially approved, they are widely practiced at the local level.

Later in 2003, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the head of the Anglican Communion, appointed the Lambeth Commission on Communion to try to formulate an acceptable response to the controversy. Led by Archbishop Robin Eames, the Anglican Primate of All Ireland, the commission in October 2004 released its findings in the so-called Windsor Report. Among other things, the report called on the Episcopal Church to express regret for approving Robinson’s election and called for a moratorium on ordaining gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions. Still, the report did not satisfy some conservatives who wanted penalties against the U.S. church, and it upset many progressive Episcopalians.

The Episcopal Church agreed to delay approving any more bishops until more negotiations could take place. In May 2006, delegates from the Diocese of California elected a new bishop but did not choose one of several openly gay candidates. Several of the candidates were openly gay, but the convention chose a married man from Alabama, Marc Handley Andrus, as their new bishop. While that averted another crisis, Andrus actually supports gay ordination.

In April 2006 a special commission of the Episcopal Church released a 26-page report titled “One Baptism, One Hope in God’s Call” that responds to the Windsor Report and presents the resolutions and issues that the General Convention will debate in June in Columbus. This Episcopal News Service report from April 7, 2006, presents the “One Baptism” report and has links to the full text and the resolutions.

In September 2006, 21 Episcopal bishop met at the Camp Allen conference center in Texas and signed a letter, sent to the House of Bishops, urging support for the Windsor Report and expressing regret that the 2006 General Conference “did not adequately respond” to the report.

RESOURCES

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS

  • Forward in Faith’s North American branch was organized in 1999 largely in response to the debates over sexuality issues. Its web site includes a listing of member parishes.
  • The Anglican Communion Network is a leading conservative organization based in Pittsburgh. It lists member dioceses, churches and clergy. The ACN also lists Common Cause Partners, which includes the leading organizations working against gay ordination, such as the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Mission in America, the Anglican Province of America and the Reformed Episcopal Church.
  • The Stand Firm Web site advocates for “traditional Anglicanism in America” and tracks discussion and media coverage on the debate. It includes blog entries from the Rev. David Roseberry, rector of Christ Church in Plano, Texas, a large congregation that decided in September 2006 to withdraw from the Episcopal Church and to enter the temporary pastoral oversight of the Right Rev. William Godfrey, bishop of Peru.

LIBERAL GROUPS

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.)

The Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) currently requires that ministers – including elders and deacons, who must also be ordained – adhere to “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.” In effect that means no sexually active gays or lesbians, even those in a committed relationship.

The General Assembly that met in June 2006 approved a proposal unanimously submitted, after a five-year process, by a 20-member Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church.

The proposal distinguishes between “standards” and “essentials” in seeking a way to allow for the possibility that local churches could ordain some homosexuals without changing the current ban and alienating Presbyterians who are against gay ministers.

The PCUSA has tackled this issue numerous times. In 1978 the General Assembly passed a “definitive guidance” that “self-affirming, practicing homosexuals” are not eligible for ordination, as this Presbyterian News Service story explains. After the 1996 General Assembly proposed an amendment (called G-6.0106b) to codify that ban in the church’s constitution, 57 percent of the presbyteries, or regional bodies, voted to ratify it. Two later efforts to remove the amendment, in 1998 and 2002, were voted down by margins of 67 percent and 73 percent.

The next PCUSA General Assembly will meet June 21-18, 2008, in San Jose, Calif.

RESOURCES

  • This May 22, 2006, Presbyterian News Service backgrounder examines the task force’s report and debate.
  • An article in the May 16, 2006, edition of Christian Century magazine, titled “Exception to the rule: PCUSA eyes ‘third way’ on homosexuality,” is a useful analysis of the issues. The article has not yet been posted online.
  • See a Feb. 3, 2006, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that explores the decisions by the Pittsburgh presbytery and their ramifications for the General Assembly.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS

LIBERAL GROUPS

  • The Covenant Network of Presbyterians was founded in 1997 as a leading voice on behalf of a progressive agenda for the PCUSA, including support for gay ordination.
  • More Light Presbyterians describes itself as “a network of people seeking the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).”
  • That All May Freely Serve is another PCUSA group lobbying for “an inclusive church that honors diversity and welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons as full members.” It says that full membership “includes eligibility for ordination to the offices of elder, deacon, and pastor.”

REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA

The annual General Synod of the Reformed Church in America met in June 2006 and decided to continue a three-year dialogue on homosexuality, initiated in 2005. The RCA has stated since 1978 that homosexuality is a sin, but debates over changing the church’s policies have roiled the denomination. With fewer than 300,000 members, the RCA is small, but its deep roots in American religious history make it a bellwether denomination.

The RCA has repeatedly held that homosexuality is sinful, that gays and lesbians cannot be ordained and that same-sex relationships cannot be blessed. But the denomination has also struggled to balance those strictures with a welcoming stance to homosexuals and the promotion of gay rights in wider society.

The debate has frequently been difficult and divisive. The most recent and high-profile furor came in 2005, when it became known that the Rev. Norman Kansfield, president of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary – the denomination’s main seminary – led a 2004 service in which he married his lesbian daughter, Ann Kansfield, and her partner. In January 2005 the seminary board dismissed Norman Kansfield from his post, and at the June 2005 annual general Synod, two-thirds of the delegates voted to suspend his ministerial credentials and bar him from teaching at RCA institutions. His daughter, who was studying at the seminary and was a few months away from ordination herself, was barred from joining the RCA clergy.

The episode left the RCA “unexpectedly at a crossroads,” as the church’s leader, general secretary Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, put it. As a result, RCA leaders decided to launch a three-year “Dialogue on Homosexuality” that would “immediately begin an honest and intentional denomination-wide dialogue on homosexuality.” A six-member team came up with a proposal, which was approved. The RCA’s proscriptions against gays and lesbians are also presenting obstacles in its ecumenical dialogue with denominations such as the more liberal UCC.

The RCA web site has a backgrounder on the denomination’s history regarding homosexual issues and its current stands. There is also a copy of the RCA’s updated study guide on homosexuality, first issued in 1998.

RESOURCES
• See a July 12, 2005, article in Christian Century, “RCA struggles over gay issues and growth,” posted at FindArticles.com.

UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

At its last quadrennial General Conference, held in Pittsburgh in 2004, leaders of the 8.3 million-member United Methodist Church voted to strengthen the denomination’s stance against gay ordination. The denomination’s Book of Discipline now says that “The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers the practice incompatible with Christian teachings.” The delegates also defeated a motion to leave the ordination of homosexuals up to each local conference, and they struck down an attempt to add this phrase to the Book of Discipline: “As this difficult judgment is made, it is acknowledged that faithful Christians hold differing opinions in this matter.”

Yet those decisions did not close the door on the debate. A significant minority of the conference delegates voted for the more inclusive proposals, and several developments since then have kept the issue on the boil. Among them:

  • In a decision handed down in October 2005, the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church reinstated a Virginia pastor who had refused to allow a gay man to become a member of his congregation. The Rev. Ed Johnson, pastor of South Hill United Methodist Church in South Hill, Va., had been suspended from the pulpit for a year by his fellow ministers until the church’s highest court reinstated Johnson.
  • In April 2003, the Rev. Irene “Beth” Elizabeth Stroud, the associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia, came out to her congregation as an “openly lesbian, fully credentialed, United Methodist pastor.” Stroud was subsequently brought to trial on charges of violating church teachings, and on Dec. 2, 2004, a church court found her guilty of engaging in “practices that are incompatible with Christian teachings.” That 12-1 decision was followed by a 7-6 decision to strip Stroud of her ministerial credentials. Then in April 2005, a church appeals board overturned the court’s ruling 8-1. It reinstated Stroud on due-process grounds, arguing that the church has not clearly defined the terms “practicing homosexual” or “status.” In May 2005 that ruling was appealed, and the case remains in the docket.
  • The Stroud case followed another celebrated trial of a lesbian minister, Karen Dammann, who was acquitted by a church court in March 2004. Dammann was a minister at First United Methodist Church of Ellensburg in Washington State. The jury concluded that while the Book of Discipline says homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching,” it does not explicitly say whether gays or lesbians could be ordained.
  • The next General Conference will run from April 23 to May 2, 2008, in Fort Worth, Texas.

RESOURCES
• See a May 5, 2004, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about the 2004 General Conference’s decisions on homosexuality.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS

  • The leading group of Methodists opposed to gay ordination (and related issues) is known as The Confessing Movement within the United Methodist Church. The Confessing Movement was founded in 1994 and is based in Indianapolis.
  • Good News, a magazine launched in 1967, represents the vanguard of Methodism’s conservative counteroffensive. It remains a major player in the efforts to limit expanded roles and rights for homosexuals in the UMC.

LIBERAL GROUPS

  • The Reconciling Ministries Network describes itself as “a national grassroots organization that exists to enable full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life of the United Methodist Church, both in policy and practice.” The RMN posts a list, organized by state, of its more than 275 member congregations and communities.
  • Affirmation is an unofficial Methodist network that advocates for the full inclusion of LGBT Methodists in church life.

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has officially welcomed gay and lesbian members since 1991 but does not ordain practicing homosexuals or bless same-sex partnerships. Faced with sharp disagreements over positions on these issues, the ELCA in 2001 started a formal process to try to reach a consensus on the entire range of sexuality issues. At the 2001 Churchwide Assembly (held every two years) ELCA leaders commissioned a task force to engage in a lengthy process called “Journey Together Faithfully.” The process has two main parts. The first focused on gay ordination and blessing of same-sex couples and was presented at the Churchwide Assembly in August 2005. The second was to lead to a broader statement on ELCA views on human sexuality. That statement is scheduled to be presented at the Churchwide Assembly in summer 2009.

The 2005 votes on homosexuality did not resolve the disputes, and observers expect the arguments to dominate the deliberations of the 2007 assembly. Here’s what happened: In January 2005 the 13-member task force recommended affirming a statement by the ELCA bishops that disapproved of same-sex unions but allowed local pastors discretion in dealing with individual cases. The recommendations would also have allowed the ordination of gays and lesbians in “lifelong, committed and faithful” relationships, with the approval of their bishop, local elected church leaders and the ELCA’s Conference of Bishops. A two-thirds majority was required for the proposals to pass the Churchwide Assembly. The delegates voted 670-323 to maintain the prohibition on same-sex blessings and voted 503-490 against allowing gay clergy. Comments afterward showed that both sides were dissatisfied with the votes.

Two smaller and more conservative Lutheran denominations, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, do not ordain practicing homosexuals or bless same-sex couples.

RESOURCES

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS

LIBERAL GROUPS
• Good Soil is a joint effort by six organizations dedicated to seeing homosexuals ordained as ELCA clergy. Partners include The Extraordinary Candidacy Project, Lutheran Lesbian & Gay Ministries, Lutherans Concerned/North America and the Wingspan Ministry of St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church.

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

The leadership of the 1.3 million-member United Church of Christ has been foremost among denominations seeking the full inclusion of homosexuals. In the 1970s the UCC allowed the ordination of the first openly gay man and the first openly lesbian woman, and in 2005 the UCC endorsed civil unions for same-sex couples. Ordination of practicing homosexuals was officially accepted in 1980, and the blessing of same-sex couples is allowed.

But the issue still roils the UCC. Because the UCC believes in local autonomy, some regions and congregations bar gay clergy and gay couples. Some congregations are threatening to leave over the denomination’s official tolerance of homosexuality, while some liberal members want the UCC to be more active in promoting gay rights as a denomination-wide standard.

The UCC’s next General Synod meeting will be in June 2007.

RESOURCES

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

  • On Nov. 29, 2005, the Vatican released a long-awaited document that surprised many by declaring that the church “cannot admit to the seminary and the sacred orders those who practice homosexuality, present deeply-rooted homosexual tendencies or support so-called gay culture.” It was the second condition that seemed to bar even chaste, celibate men who identify as homosexual from becoming priests.
  • The Vatican’s policy, approved by Pope Benedict XVI, is creating difficulties for bishops and seminaries since many gay men have sought ordination or are studying for the priesthood. Estimates of the number of homosexuals in the priesthood range from 10 percent to more than one-third.
  • This Nov. 22, 2005, ReligionLink edition, “Homosexuals and the Catholic priesthood,” explores the issue and provides resources and experts.

JUDAISM

Reform Judaism, which is the most liberal wing of the Jewish community, has allowed the ordination of homosexual rabbis since 1990. With 1.5 million adherents, Reform Judaism vies with Conservative Judaism as the largest stream of American Judaism, and it is the most visible U.S. religious community to accept gay rabbis. The Shamash.org newsgroup maintains a site with a chronology of Reform Judaism’s record on homosexuality, traced through policy developments by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is the rabbinic organization of the Reform movement. The CCAR web site has a list of relevant resources, including its 1990 statement endorsing nondiscrimination against gays and lesbians who seek ordination.

Orthodox Judaism, which is smaller but influential, rules out any such possibility.

Conservative Judaism, through a Dec. 6, 2006, vote by its highest legal body, decided to allow the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and to allow rabbis to conduct commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples. That’s a significant shift for the centrist branch of Judaism – and a controversial decision. Since the vote, the nation’s two conservative Jewish seminaries – the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles – have announced that they have begun accepting openly gay and lesbian candidates. (See a March 27, 2007, New York Times story.)

The Committee on Conservative Jewish Law and Standards – a group of 25 scholars that interprets religious law – adopted three statements, somewhat contradictory, involving gay ordination. Four of the committee’s members quit in protest. Individual Conservative congregations now will decide whether to hire openly gay rabbis and cantors, and individual seminaries whether to ordain them.

Two of the three answers the committee gave to the question of what Jewish law allows regarding homosexual sex uphold the traditional position: Homosexual relations are not permitted. A third answer permits same-sex unions and the ordination of gays and lesbians, while saying that sodomy is not permitted.

Read a Dec. 6, 2006, account of the action from The Associated Press, published in The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Dec. 7, 2006, stories from The Washington Post and The New York Times. Read background material on the decision from the Web site of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

RESOURCES

National sources

Many organizations and individuals address the role of gays, lesbians and the transgendered in society and include considerations of how religion affects the debate. Most of these focus more on same-sex marriage and civil rights than on issues of ordination within religious groups. For national and regional groups involved in these issues and more background, see ReligionLink’s “Guide to Covering Same-sex Marriage Debates” (2006) and “Same-sex Marriage in Limbo” (2004).

LEADING ACTIVISTS

INDIVIDUALS

  • Nancy Ammerman is a professor of the sociology of religion at Boston University and a leading expert on congregational dynamics, especially in mainline Protestantism. Contact 617-353-3066, nta@bu.edu.
  • Bishop Steven Charleston is president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. He said he believes that sexual orientation should not be a deterrent to ordination. Contact 617-682-1511, scharleston@eds.edu.
  • Frederick J. Gaiser teaches Old Testament at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn. He wrote a May 2, 2006, article “Open-door policy: Homosexuality and the message of Isaiah,” in Christian Century. Contact 651-641-3210, fgaiser@luthersem.edu.
  • James Davison Hunter is a professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and a frequent writer and commentator on the “culture wars” dividing America, especially as regards homosexuality. Contact 434-924-6524, jdhunter@virginia.edu.
  • Ian Markham is a professor of theology and ethics and dean of Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. He is an expert on mainline Christianity and has a new book, with the Rev. Martyn Percy of Oxford, called Why Liberal Churches Are Growing (Continuum, 2006). Contact 860-509-9553, markham@hartsem.edu.
  • The Rev. Luke Mbefo, C.S.Sp., is a Catholic priest and a native of Nigeria who teaches theology at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Mbefo wrote an article in the March 8, 2006, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette titled “Why African Anglicans would oppose ordination of homosexuals.” That was in response to an essay, “A Gospel of Intolerance,” on behalf of gay clergy written by Episcopal Bishop John Bryson Chane of Washington. Contact 412-396-6530, mbefo@duq.edu.
  • Richard J. Mouw is a well-known writer and commentator on evangelical Christianity and is president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., a leading evangelical institution. In November 2003 Mouw engaged in a widely followed debate with Barbara G. Wheeler, president of Auburn Theological seminary in New York, about the issue of gay ordination. The exchange, titled “Strangers: A Dialogue About the Church,” took place at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. In his address, Mouw spoke against ordaining active homosexuals, but also about the dynamics of the debate and its negative impact on the churches. Contact 626-584-5201, rjmouw@fuller.edu.
  • Thomas Ogletree is a United Methodist minister and a professor of theological ethics at Yale Divinity School who believes the debate over homosexuality indicates that the church will eventually change its position. Contact 203-432-5337, thomas.ogletree@yale.edu.
  • The Rev. Jack B. Rogers is a lifelong evangelical and former leader of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who in March 2006 published a book describing how he has changed his position from opposing gay ordination to supporting it. Rogers makes the case in Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006). Rogers is an emeritus professor of theology at the Southern California campus of the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Contact through Westminster John Knox publicist Gavin Stephens at 502-569-5713, gstephens@wjkbooks.com.
  • Bishop James Stanton of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas has been active nationally and internationally in the Anglican debate over the role of gays in the church. He was involved in the founding of the American Anglican Council, which works to oppose the ordination of sexually active homosexuals. The Dallas Diocese is an affiliate of the AAC. Read Stanton’s response to the Windsor Report. Contact 214-826-8310, jmsdallas@episcopal-dallas.org.
  • Barbara G. Wheeler is the longtime president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, a leading Presbyterian seminary. In November 2003, Wheeler engaged in a widely followed debate on gay ordination with Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., a leading evangelical institution. The exchange, titled “Strangers: A Dialogue About the Church,” took place at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. In her address, Wheeler spoke in favor of ordaining active homosexuals, but also about the dynamics of the debate and its negative impact on the churches. Contact through her assistant, Mercedes Rivera, at 212-662-4315, mvr@auburnsem.org.

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