In light of recent suicides
of LGBT youth and attacks on LGBT people, especially the death of Texas
resident Asher Brown, Integrity Austin calls on Episcopalians in the
Diocese of Texas to read and join the following statement opposing violence,
sponsored by the National Council of Churches.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefforts Schori said as she signed the
statement, “The Episcopal Church abhors the persecution of any group of human
beings and seeks the just and dignified treatment of all.”
Please consider signing on as a clergyperson, layperson, or having a discussion with your vestry to endorse the statement as a parish, below.
CLERGY
AGAINST BULLYING (CAB)
FAITH
COALITION CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
AND TIME OF HEALING
IN WAKE OF GAY TEEN SUICIDES AND ANTI-GAY
VIOLENCE
Released: 13 October 2010
Today, as leaders of Christian communions and
national networks, we speak with heavy hearts because of the bullying, suicides
and hate crimes that have shocked this country and called all faith communities
into accountability for our words or our silence. We speak with hopeful hearts,
believing that change and healing are possible, and call on our colleagues in
the Church Universal to join us in working to end the violence and hatred
against our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters.
In the past seven weeks, six young and
promising teenagers took their own lives. Some were just entering high school;
one had just enrolled in college. Five were boys; one, a girl becoming a young
woman. These are only the deaths for which there has been a public accounting.
New reports of other suicides continue to haunt us daily from around the
country.
They were of varying faiths and races and came
from different regions of the nation.
The one thing these young men and women had in
common was that they were perceived to be gay or lesbian.
Each in their own way faced bullying and
harassment or struggled with messages of religion and culture that made them
fear the consequences of being who they were.
In the past two weeks, cities like New York
have seen major escalations in anti-gay violence. Two young men attacked patrons
of the Stonewall Inn, legendary birth place of the LGBT rights movement in the
United States, locking them in the restroom and beating them while hurling
anti-gay epithets. Men on a Chelsea street, saying goodnight after an evening
out, were attacked by a group of teens and young adults, again hurling anti-gay
slogans and hurting one person badly enough to require emergency treatment. And
nine young men in the Bronx went on a two-day rampage beating, burning,
torturing and sodomizing two teenage boys and their gay male adult friend for
allegedly having a sexual relationship. “It’s nothing personal,” one of the now
arrested said. “You just broke the rules.”
What are the “rules” of human engagement and
interaction that we, as people of faith, want to teach our congregants,
children and adults alike, to live by?
Many have responded from within and beyond the
faith community offering comfort and support to the families and friends of
Billy Lucas, Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, Tyler Clementi, Raymond Chase and Aiyisha
Hasan. Our hearts, too, are broken by the too soon losses of these young and
promising lives, and we join our voices to those who have sought to speak words
of comfort and healing.
Many others, however, have responded by adding
insult to injury, citing social myths and long-held prejudices that only fuel
division, hatred and violence – and sometimes even death.
We, as leaders of faith, write today to say we
must hold ourselves accountable, and we must hold our colleagues in the
ministry, accountable for the times, whether by our silence or our
proclamations, our inaction or our action, we have fueled the kinds of beliefs
that make it possible for people to justify violence in the name of faith.
Condemning and judging people because of their sexual orientation or gender
identity can have deadly consequences, both for the victims of hate crimes and
those who commit them.
There is no excuse for inspiring or condoning
violence against any of our human family. We may not all agree on what the
Bible says or doesn’t say about sexuality, including homosexuality, but this we
do agree on: The Bible says, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in
God and God in them.” Abiding in love – together – is the rule we must all
preach, teach, and seek to live by.
People of faith must realize that if teens feel
they will be judged by their church, rejected by their families and bullied by
their peers, they may have nowhere to turn.
Too many things go unspoken in our communities.
It’s time to talk openly and honestly about the diversity of God’s creation and
the gift of various sexual orientations and gender identities – and to do that
in a way that makes it safe for people to disagree and still abide in love.
It’s time to talk openly and honestly about the
use and misuse of power and authority by those we entrust with our spiritual
well-being. It’s time to make it safe for our clergy colleagues who are
struggling to live what they preach, to get the help and support we all
sometimes need.
The young people who took their lives a few
weeks ago died because the voices of people who believe in the love of God for
all the people of God were faint and few in the face of those who did the
bullying, harassing and condemning. Today we write to say we will never again
be silent about the value of each and every life.
To that end, we pledge to urge our churches,
our individual parishes or offices, our schools and religious establishments to
create safe space for each and every child of God, without regard to sexual
orientation or gender identity. And we ask you to join us in that pledge.
Today, we personally pledge to be LGBT and
straight people of faith standing together for the shared values of decency and
civility, compassion and care in all interactions. We ask you, our colleagues,
to join us in this pledge.
We want our children and the children of the
communities we serve to grow up knowing that God loves all of us and that
without exception, bullying and harassment, making fun of someone for perceived
differences, and taunting and harming others is wrong. The Golden Rule is still
the rule we want to live by.
We pray today that you will join us in being
the faces of a faith that preaches and demonstrates God’s universal acceptance
and offers to one and all safe space to live, to learn, and to love and be
loved.
In faith and solidarity,
HEADS OF COMMUNIONS
The Rev. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the National Council of
Churches
The Rev. Geoffrey Black, United Church of Christ General Minister and President
Elder Cynthia J. Bolbach, Moderator, 219th General Assembly, Presbyterian
Church (USA)
The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The
Episcopal Church
The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk, 219th General Assembly, Presbyterian
Church (USA)
The Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, Moderator, 218th General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary, Reformed Church in
America
The Rev. Peter Morales, President, Unitarian Universalist Association
Bishop Yvette Flunder, Presiding Bishop of The Fellowship
The Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson, Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches
Bishop Tonyia M. Rawls, Vice President of the National Board and Regional
Prelate, Unity Fellowship Church
Archbishop Carl Bean, Founder and Presiding Prelate, Unity Fellowship Church
Movement
Carol Blythe, Alliance of Baptists President
Paula Clayton Dempsey, Minister for Partnership Relations, Alliance of Baptists
NATIONAL FAITH STAFF OF LGBT
ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS
The Rev. Harry Knox, Director of Religion and Faith Program, Human Rights
Campaign Foundation
The Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Director of Institute for Welcoming Resources,
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
Dr. Sylvia Rhue, Director of Religious Affairs, National Black Justice
Coalition
Ann Craig, Director of Religion, Faith and Values, Gay & Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD)
NATIONAL STAFF OF FAITH BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
The Rev. Michael Schuenemeyer, Executive Director of UCAN, Inc., United Church
of Christ
The Rev. Robert Chase, Founding Director, Intersections International
Macky Alston, Director, Auburn Media, Auburn Theological Seminary
The Rev. Mark Hostetter, Chair of the Board, Auburn Seminary
Sung Park, Program Director, Believe Out Loud
The Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance
The Reverend Debra W. Haffner, Executive Director, Religious Institute
Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, Executive Coordinator, National Coalition of
American Nuns (NCAN)
The Rev. Neal Christie, Assistant General Secretary of the United Methodist
Board of Church & Society
The Rev. Cynthia Abrams , Program Director, General Board of Church and
Society, United Methodist Church ,
Linda Bales Todd, Director, General Board of Church and Society of the United
Methodist Church
The Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, Executive Director, Soulforce, Inc.
NATIONAL STAFF OF LGBT
DENONMINATIONAL GROUPS
Emily Eastwood, Executive Director, Lutherans Concerned/North America
Lisa Larges, Minister Coordinator, That All May Freely Serve, Presbyterian
Dr. Michael Adee, Executive Director, More Light Presbyterians
Troy Plummer, Reconciling Ministries Network, United Methodist
Marilyn Paarlberg, National Coordinator, Room for All, Reformed Church in
America
Rev. Thomas C. Goodhart, Co-president, Room for All, Reformed Church in America
Phil Attey, Acting Executive Director – Catholics for Equality
George W. Cole, Senior Vice President, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons
David Melson, President, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons
Dr. Joseph Palacios, Board Member, Catholics for Equaltiy
Phil Attey, Executive Director, Catholics for Equality
Yolanda Elliott, President, Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International
Pastor Dave Ferguson, Church Relations Director, Adventist Kinship
International
Rev. Marvin M. Ellison, Ph.D., Co-Convener, Religious Coalition Against
Discrimination, Maine
Anne Underwood, Catholics for Equality
Max Niedzwiecki, Ph.D., Executive Director, Integrity USA
THEOLOGICANS AND ACADEMIC
LEADERS
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University.
Mary E. Hunt & Diana Neu, Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual
(WATER)