Exodus: Live Out Loud

South African Church Must Apologize to Former Music Teacher

From IOL:

It is expected that music teacher, Johan Strydom, will on Thursday receive a formal apology from the Dutch Reformed Church in Moreleta Park for terminating his contract because he was a practising homosexual.

The Pretoria High Court last month ordered that the church had to unconditionally apologise to Strydom and pay him about R87 000 in damages and loss of pay.

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Church: A Safe Place for All?

Exodus Church Network Director Jeff Buchanan featured in Ministry Today:

If we're honest, the issue of homosexuality intimidates most church leaders. It makes us feel helpless. When someone pulls us aside and confides in us that he or she struggles with same-sex attractions, we diligently put on our "leader face" while we shrivel on the inside, feeling absolutely incompetent to address the situation.

Nothing could be further from the truth. If you believe God's Word to be true, then you automatically have the needed tools for effective ministry, since all Scripture is "useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16, NIV). Therefore, we are equipped as the church to minister to anyone who walks through our doors—homosexual or not.

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Survey Shows Churches Split on Homosexuality

From OneNewsNow:

A new survey finds that Americans are split almost evenly over perceptions of homosexual behavior as either sinful or acceptable to God.

LifeWay Research, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, surveyed 1,201 adults in April to determine their attitudes about homosexuality. Forty-eight percent responded that homosexual behavior is sinful, but 45 percent said that it is not -- basically a statistical tie when the margin of error is taken into account.

Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action in Washington, DC, says the U.S. needs a spiritual awakening as it moves in the direction of what he calls "a European-like secularism."

"... [This] is a spiritual problem that requires a spiritual solution," he continues. "But there is a little bit more to it than that because we see the problem in the church, as well as outside the church."

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Pro-Gay Censorship Law Crops Up in Colorado

From WorldNetDaily:

A new Colorado law is helping homosexual activists achieve their goal of forcing Christians to teach biblical condemnation of homosexuality only behind the closed doors of their sanctuaries.

The as-yet untested state law promotes sexual identity "perception" to the level of skin color under state discrimination laws.

Some opponents are calling it a "bona fide censorship law," and top analysts for Focus on the Family, the Christian publishing and broadcast powerhouse, are expressing concern over the "mischief" they expect to follow the signing by As WND reported, Ritter, a Democrat, struck gender-specific restrooms and locker rooms statewide when he signed the plan into law in May.

The law makes it illegal to deny a person access to public accommodations, including restrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity or the "perception" of gender identity.

"Who would have believed that the Colorado state legislature and its governor would have made it fully legal for men to enter and use women's restrooms and locker-room facilities without notice or explanation?" said James Dobson, founder of Focus.

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Megachurches Begin to Respond

From The Christian Post:

Jay Bakker, a big supporter of a pro-gay group, met privately with Joel Osteen of Lakewood Church to talk about faith and sexuality issues and to ultimately gain the support of the megapastor.

Son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay and a group of gays and lesbians attended one of Lakewood Church's Sunday worship services in an effort to change the influential pastor's view on gays and lesbians. At the end, Osteen did not affirm homosexuality.

It was the first of six megachurch stops in a pro-gay campaign called The American Family Outing – a collaboration between Soulforce, COLAGE, National Black Justice Coalition, and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Some 30 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons and supporters took their national campaign to the country's largest church on Mother's Day to create dialogue around LGBT issues with members of the megachurch.

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Gay Activists Visit Mega-Churches

From CitizenLink:

They call it The American Family Outing: Families from across the country travel to six mega-churches to "create meaningful conversations" about faith and homosexuality.

The gay-activist group Soulforce kicked off its six-week initiative with a stop at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church on Mother's Day; the effort wraps up on Father's Day. Osteen declined an invitation to meet with Soulforce.

Jeff Buchanan, director of church equipping at Exodus International, said each church needs to assess whether a meeting would be helpful.

"I would be completely open to having a meaningful conversation, if both parties were humbly submitted in that conversation," he said. "I would not enter into a conversation if I knew there was not a sincere openness to the truth."

One of the goals of the initiative, according to Soulforce, is to enlist churches in the battle to end "the physical and spiritual violence perpetuated by some religious voices against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) people and their families."

Buchanan said he is concerned by the stereotype that all churches are party to that violence.

He recommended churches — and all Christians — embrace the issue "with compassion, not compromise."

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Methodists Reject Changes to Gay Stance--Oppose Homophobia

From The Christian Post:

After a lengthy debate, United Methodists voted Wednesday to reject changes to its constitution that would have liberalized the church's stance on homosexuality.

Delegates to the 2008 General Conference, the denomination's highest governing body, voted against a proposed "majority report" which would have acknowledged that members of the United Methodist Church "deeply disagree with one another" on the issue of homosexuality.

Such an acknowledgment would have been a "mature way forward" and "an honest, yet humble approach to how we are to view one another," said Frederick Brewington, a layman in the New York Annual (regional) Conference, according to the United Methodist News Service.

"We can make the determination to move forward, and stop the hurt," he told delegates during a long and emotional debate, urging change to the church's policy to end more than 35 years of struggle over the issue.

The petition for changes would have also deleted the current statement in UMC's Book of Discipline that describes homosexual practice as "incompatible with Christian teaching" and bans noncelibate gay pastors.

However, the Rev. Eddie Fox argued that any United Methodist statement on human sexuality needs to be "clear, concise and faithful to biblical teaching."

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Hundreds Protest Methodist Conference

From Dallas Morning News:

About 300 people took the floor of the United Methodist Church's General Conference Thursday morning, protesting the denomination's persistence in saying the practice of homosexuality is "incompatible" with Christian teaching.

Legislative action at the Fort Worth Convention Center was stopped for 15 minutes to allow the demonstration, which included singing of the spiritual "Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)?"

The action went peacefully. At the General Conference eight years ago in Cleveland, about 200 gay-rights supporters were arrested.

Still, progressives were clearly disappointed that efforts to change the church's stance on homosexuality failed Wednesday in voting by General Conference delegates.

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Gay-Identified Bishop Refuses to "Lend Credibility" to Symposium

From Warren Throckmorton:

Today, the Washington Blade reported that Bishop Gene Robinson backed out of his scheduled presentation at the American Psychiatric Association conference. He was scheduled to present about “A Pastoral Approach for Gay & Lesbian People Troubled by Homosexuality.”

Bishop Robinson provided the following explanation:

“Conservatives, particularly Focus on the Family, were going to use this event to draw credibility to the so-called reparative therapy movement,” Robinson told the Blade. “It became clear to me in the last couple of weeks that just my showing up and letting this event happen … lends credibility to that so-called therapy.”

This is quite troubling and not at all accurate. Since no one on the panel planned to speak about reparative therapy, it is clear to me that the Bishop was misinformed. The symposium was approved by the APA in October of 2007 and nothing has changed in the descriptions, personnel or intent of the symposium since then. The meeting is not going to endorse reparative approaches, or advocate for any change in APA policy.

UMC Hopes for Unity at Conference

From Dallas Morning News:

For more than 30 years, the United Methodist Church has been trying to show that a denomination divided against itself on homosexuality can still stand.

The latest test begins today in Fort Worth.

Nearly 1,000 lay and clergy delegates – mainly from the U.S., but with a strong African contingent – will gather at the Convention Center for a General Conference, a term that covers the denomination's top legislative body and the body's quadrennial meeting.

This epic exercise in church democracy lasts nine days, during which about 1,600 proposed resolutions and changes to church law and policy – everything from revising the denomination's hymnal to boycotting companies with questionable labor practices – will at least get looked at by a committee.

And there will almost certainly be another round of heated debate and contentious votes over whether the UMC should change its official position that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and withdraw its ban on noncelibate gay pastors.

Recent General Conferences have seen protests by gay-rights supporters. Eight years ago in Cleveland, some 200 demonstrators, including two bishops, were arrested for disrupting proceedings.

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