Exodus: Live Out Loud

Austrialian Churches Rights in Question

From the Sydney Star Observer:

Christian organisations in all states and territories may have lost the right to discriminate against gay people despite religious exemptions in anti-discrimination laws, legal experts claimed this week following a landmark ruling against the Uniting Church’s Wesley Mission.

Homosexuality as an intolerable sin was not a doctrine of Christianity, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal ruled last month, because there were many dissenting views on the subject among Christian groups generally, and specifically within the Uniting Church.

As long as gay-friendly congregations like Metropolitan Community Church exist, this ruling means Christian organisations don’t have a license to legally discriminate against gays, Brisbane lawyer Stephen Page said.

“Religious exemptions are worded almost identically across all state and territory anti-discrimination laws, so I’d expect other commissions to start citing this case,“ Page told SSO.

“Christian religious schools in the ACT, NSW, Victoria, SA and WA would not be able to use religion as the reason that gay and lesbian students can be prevented from bringing their partners to the school formal.“

The Tribunal rejected the welfare agency’s right to refuse a gay couple seeking to become foster parents as the laws only allowed exemptions for religions, and there was no “religion of Uniting Church”.

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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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Children's Hospital Launches Sex Change Program

From WorldNetDaily:

A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe.

Pediatric endocrinologist Norman Spack, 64, says he started the Gender Management Service Clinic because he found himself encountering 20-somethings who were "transgendered" and in good shape socially, "but they were having trouble getting their physique to conform to their identity.

"I knew the 20-somethings could have better chances of passing if they were treated earlier," he said.

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Psychiatrists: Let's Talk About Homosexuality

From CitizenLink:

Two social conservatives will share the stage with two pro-homosexual speakers in a notable attempt at a “balanced discussion” sponsored by the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

The pro-homosexual speakers — Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly homosexual Episcopalian in New Hampshire, and Dr. David Scasta, past president of the Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists — will seek “common ground and new perspectives” with two conservatives: the Rev. Albert Mohler, president of South Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Focus on the Family board of directors; and Dr. Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of psychology at Grove City College.

“The symposium acknowledges the role of religious belief as a core variable in the development of sexual identity,” Throckmorton told CitizenLink. “To my knowledge, this meeting, distinguished by diversity of religious viewpoints, is unprecedented at APA.”

The symposium is scheduled for 2 to 5 p.m. EDT, on Monday, May 5, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

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