NGLTF Religious Leadership Rountable

[Ian David]

Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 19:03:44 GMT <02:03:44 PM EST>
From: Task Force Media <[e-mail]>
Subject: Articles of Faith: Reframing Issues of Religion, Public Policy, and the LGBT Community


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NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE /
NATIONAL RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP ROUNDTABLE

MEDIA RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:
Roberta Sklar, Director of Communications
646-358-1465
Richard Lindsay, Religious Roundtable Liason
646-358-1474
[e-mail]
http://ga4.org/ct/7d1zvAF1oQVV/

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February 11, 2005

Articles of Faith: Reframing Issues of Religion, Public Policy,
and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community

"In my efforts to understand the political and religious issues
I want to ask: How do you differentiate between homophobia and
religious beliefs that say that homosexuality is a sin?" The
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force received this question on
religion and homophobia by e-mail. A frequently asked question,
we offer a response from the National Religious Leadership
Roundtable followed by a collection of responses from individual
Roundtable members and supporters.

A Statement from
The National Religious Leadership Roundtable of the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force Religious Leadership Roundtable:

In the case of most people who claim religion as a motivation
for their anti-gay beliefs, their opinion is not based on a
nuanced understanding of their scripture and tradition, but on
teachings perpetuated by churches, families, and religious
leaders. Although their religious instruction may have portrayed
beliefs condemning gay people as immutable theology, there are
scholars in every major religious tradition that have proposed
convincing alternatives to assumed anti-gay readings and
traditions. Faced with the wide array of religious opinion on
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, one can only
refer to continued belief in anti-gay teachings as a choice.

The implications of choosing one set of religious teachings over
another are important when it comes to public policy. For
instance, there was a time when most Christians in America
opposed interracial marriage, and the laws of the state
reflected this belief. The 1964 Virginia Supreme Court ruling
upholding the state's anti-miscegenation law made a direct
appeal to the divine:

"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay, and
red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the
interference with his arrangements there would be no cause for
such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that
he did not intend for the races to mix."

In 1967, the Supreme Court overturned all of the racist marriage
laws in the states. Most Christian organizations that had
resisted interracial marriage in the name of God eventually
changed along with society and the state, and many have
instituted racial justice programs in their denominations.

Faced with the long history of societal, legal, and religious
change in favor of greater freedom and equality, the burden of
proof rests on those who oppose equality for lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender people: Why is this belief so
important?

As weak answers of "protecting traditional marriage," or
"encouraging moral values" fall away, they reveal the face of
homophobia. This is not to suggest that all those who oppose
equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people for
religious reasons are hateful people. But all homophobia sprouts
from the same twisted root of hatred and fear of the different
that underlies all racial, ethnic, religious, sexual, and social
discrimination. When religion is used not to challenge
prejudice, but to uphold it, it becomes a tool of hate.
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Highlights from Responses of Religious Roundtable Members and
Supporters

There is no differentiation between these ideas. Religious
beliefs that say homosexuality is a sin have been influenced by
homophobic attitudes. They are not developed in a vacuum...In
the Christian world, beliefs in the sinfulness of homosexuality
have been influenced by centuries of ignorance about
homosexuality in the Western world generally.
--Francis DeBernardo
New Ways Ministry

If someone can forget the overriding religious principles of
love for all of God's creatures (including homosexuals), and of
the primacy of conscience in moral issues, and the civil issue
of separation of Church and state, in order to deny equal civil
rights to homosexuals -- for jobs, housing, medical care, and
yes even marriage -- but this person has no problem with divorce
or other established civil rights which they might not exercise
because of their personal religious beliefs, then I would say
that person is homophobic.
-- Sam Sinnett
Dignity USA

Homophobia is an irrational fear of gay people. Because religion
itself requires an embrace of the irrational - in the sense of
the mysterious and paradoxical -- it is possible for other
irrational beliefs to become canonized under the umbrella of
religion. Religiously based anti-gay attitudes are therefore
felt to be a matter of faith. The problem is when beliefs become
the basis for harmful actions against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people -- in the form of physical assault, or the
more subtle violence of societal exclusion and legal
discrimination. Religious leaders who care about justice must
help their followers separate the "wonderful irrationality" of
faith from the harmful irrationality of fear and hatred of gay
people.
-- Matt Foreman
Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

There is a difference between heterosexism and homophobia...The
difference is: Are they motivated primarily by a belief that
heterosexuality is superior, or by a real fear of homosexuality
or gay folks? To what degree does the individual go beyond the
teachings of the faith in question both in expression of their
ideas and in further political action?...References to such
things as 'the gay lifestyle' are clearly stereotyping and not
statements of faith.
--Chris Purdom
Interfaith Working Group

I find it impossible to separate any religious belief (from
homophobia) which condemns another for who they are.
--Durga Das
Majaya Kashi Ashram

There are any number of religious teachings about activities
that are considered sinful. Some faith groups teach that
drinking alcoholic beverages is a sin, some believe dancing is a
sin, some believe divorce and remarriage are sinful...In a
pluralistic society grounded in the Constitution and Bill of
Rights, we respect individuals' rights to express their own
religious positions. But theological positions on sin cannot be
the basis for public policies that violate basic constitutional
principles of equality under the law.
--Peter Montgomery
People For the American Way

Although to me homophobia and not homosexuality is a sin, our
nation is predicated upon religious freedom and I respect
people's faith, even when it is vastly different from my own.
BUT no government money, policy, support, or resources, should
ever go to support particular religious beliefs. This undermines
the freedom of religion. Our common covenant in this nation is
the Bill of Rights, not the Bible.
--Meg Riley
Unitarian Universalist

The better name for the systemic problem here is heterosexism.
Homophobia is more personal and can be one form heterosexism
takes...Homophobia is a response that may or may not be linked
to religious views. It is a response that sometimes (all too
often) produces reactions which can fall on a range from simply
unpleasant, to dangerous/deadly, or illegal.
--Emily Erwin Culpepper
Professor, Women's Studies and Religious Studies
Redlands University

I don't differentiate...as Gertrude Stein said: a rose is a rose
is a rose.
--Rea Carey
Deputy Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

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First convened in 1998, the National Religious Leadership
Roundtable of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is an
interfaith collaboration of more than forty denominations and
faith-related organizations. The Roundtable seeks to reframe the
public religious dialogue on issues involving the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community by amplifying the
voices of LGBT-affirming people of faith, countering religious
voices of bigotry and intolerance, and working to advance full
equality for all.

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Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Foundation (the Task Force) was the first national lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights and advocacy
organization and remains the movement's leading voice for
freedom, justice, and equality. We work to build the grassroots
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activists and leaders, working to strengthen the infrastructure
of state and local allies, and organizing broad-based campaigns
to build public support for complete equality for LGBT people.
Our Policy Institute, the community's premiere think tank,
provides research and policy analysis to support the struggle
for complete equality. As part of a broader social justice
movement, we work to create a world that respects and makes
visible the diversity of human expression and identity where all
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Angeles, and Cambridge. The Task Force is a 501(c)(3)
corporation incorporated in Washington, DC. Contributions to the
Task Force are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.


The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc. ("NGLTF, Inc."),
founded in 1974, works to build the grassroots political power
of the LGBT community to win complete equality. We do this
through direct and grassroots lobbying to defeat anti-LGBT
ballot initiatives and legislation and pass pro-LGBT legislation
and other measures. We also analyze and report on the positions
of candidates for public office on issues of importance to the
LGBT community. NGLTF, Inc. is a 501(c)(4) non-profit
corporation incorporated in New York. Contributions to NGLTF,
Inc. are not tax-deductible.

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