"NewsWrap"
for the week ending February 24, 2007
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #987, distributed 2-26-07)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Lucia Chappelle, Graham Underhill,
and Rex Wockner with Bill Kelley]
Reported this week by Sheri Lunn and Charls Hall
Leaders of the 77 million-member global Anglican Communion have demanded
that its member Episcopal Church USA specifically ban official prayers for same
gender couples and the consecration of openly queer bishops.
A statement ending a tense six-day conference in Tanzania, which saw some
bishops refusing to take communion with Presiding Episcopal Bishop Katharine
Jefferts Schori, said those actions were necessary to undo the damage that North
Americans have caused in other Anglican regions, or provinces. It said that
earlier pledges by Episcopalians for a moratorium on lesbigay union blessings
and consecrations have been so ambiguous that they have failed to fully mend
"broken relationships" in the Communion.
The Episcopal Church USA must clarify its position by September 30th or, the
statement said, its relations with other Anglicans will remain "damaged at
best... This has consequences for the full participation of the church in the
life of the communion."
The meeting in Tanzania was the latest of several attempts to avoid a
formal Anglican split over deep differences of Biblical interpretation. The
long-simmering debate erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first
openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Anglican traditionalists
believe the elevation of Robinson, and blessing same-gender relationships, are
violations of Scripture, but supporters say that Biblical teachings on justice and
inclusion should take precedence. They’ve accused theological conservatives
of demanding a conformity among Anglicans that never before existed.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the
Communion, doesn’t have direct authority to resolve the divisions. He said the
statements contained in the document released this week "will certainly fall very
short of resolving all the disputes, but will provide a way of moving forward
with dignity."
Jefferts Schori, who supported the elevation of Bishop Robinson and supports
the blessing of same-gender relationships, said she hoped the dialogue among
Anglicans would continue. "Each party in this conflict is asked to consider
the good faith of the other," she said. "Both parties hold positions that can
be defended by appeal to our Anglican sources of authority -- Scripture,
tradition and reason." But she cautioned that a "single-minded" focus from either
side will ultimately hurt the communion.
Other Episcopal leaders though none speaking in an official capaciity --
have told reporters that if they had to choose between support for their LGBT
parishioners and continued membership in the Communion they would choose the
former.
A relatively-small number of conservative U.S. parishes, however, have left
the Episcopal Church to affiliate with outspoken anti-gay Nigerian Archbishop
Peter Akinola, who has set up an informal network for traditionalist U.S.
parishes as a rival to the Episcopal Church. Anglican leaders at the meeting in
Tanzania called for a pastoral council to oversee dioceses and parishes that
feel they can’t accept Jefferts Schori's leadership. That may include the crea
tion of an official alternative body to stop U.S. parishes from affiliating
with overseas Anglicans -- a violation of Communion tradition.
The Anglican Communion is the world's third-largest Christian body behind the
Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. Conflicts over lesbigay
issues have also challenged several other Christian denominations around the
world.
The center-left coalition government of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi
has collapsed, and likely with it, proposed legislation to legally recognize
same-gender couples. Prodi resigned this week after left-wing members of his
nine-party coalition voted against an important government foreign policy
position.
Prodi’s Cabinet, which has only been in place since May 2006, earlier this
month agreed to introduce legislation that would have granted legal recognition
to gay and lesbian couples. That’s something Prodi had promised during his
election campaign, but it took months for his Cabinet to settle on the specifics
of the measure. While short of marriage, the proposal would have allowed
same-gender couples to formally register their relationships, and gain property,
pension, health insurance, hospital visitation, and inheritance rights.
Vatican-supported opposition parties in the Italian parliament were expected to
fight against the measure, and Prodi’s government held only a one-seat majority
there. With the collapse of the coalition government, it’s doubtful that the
legislation will move forward at all.
Prodi’s government lost a Senate motion backing the continued deployment of
troops in Afghanistan by two votes. Italy has 2,000 soldiers there as part of
a multi-national force. While it wasn’t specifically a matter of "no
confidence," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema had earlier said that the government
should resign if it didn’t win the foreign policy vote.
The President of Italy is in talks with political parties to form a new
government, which could be announced at any time.
The Republic of Ireland’s Parliament this week overwhelmingly defeated a
bill, modeled after Britain's civil partnerships law, that would have given gay
and lesbian couples all of the rights of marriage.
The government of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, which opposed the bill, is
said to be preparing its own legislation, to be introduced later this year. It’s
expected to provide limited recognition of same-gender relationships in
property and inheritance rights, but deny lesbigay couples other rights of
marriage, including adoption rights.
Justice Minister Michael McDowell said that the bill defeated this week would
have been unconstitutional because it equated civil partnerships with
marriage. The Irish constitution requires the government to "defend the institution
of marriage," although it doesn’t specify how.
Ireland's High Court in December rejected legal recognition of the marriage
of a lesbian couple who wed in Canada, ruling that there is no provision for
same-gender marriage in the Irish constitution. The couple, Dr. Katherine
Zappone and Dr. Ann Louise Gilligan, filed a formal appeal of that ruling this week
with the Supreme Court.
Northern Ireland, as part of the U.K., has had same-gender civil partnerships
since December 2005.
France granted limited legal recognition in 1999 to same-gender couples,
known as Pacts of Civil Solidarity, or PACS, but they fall far short of
marriage, and there are no adoption rights.
The country’s highest court this week said that French law prohibits
co-parent adoptions by same-gender couples, rejecting the request of a woman to adopt
the biological child of her lesbian partner. The ruling capped a long legal
battle for Carla Boni, who sought to adopt the son, conceived through
artificial insemination, of her partner Marie-Laure Picard. The court said that the
only way Boni could adopt the child would be for birth mother Picard to renounce
her own parental rights, which would not be in the best interest of the child.
"How can we say that it is not in the interest of the child to recognize the
two parents, whoever they may be," Boni told LCI television. "This is a
political decision that is not in the interest of the child."
But two lesbians from Texas have become the first foreign couple to take
advantage of a new law in the Mexican state of Coahuila that recognizes
same-gender couples.
Maria Carreon Lara and Amparo Maldonado, from Midland, Texas, registered
their "civil solidarity union" in Ciudad Acuna this week. The Coahuila state law
allows non-residents to register their relationships. Mexico City will also
begin recognizing same-gender unions under a similar law that takes effect in
mid-March.
And in the U.S., the first same-gender couples got hitched this week under
New Jersey’s civil unions law, which grants most state benefits of marriage,
except the name, to lesbian and gay couples.
While activists continue to push for full marriage equality, several towns
opened their doors at midnight on February 22nd to couples who wanted to be
among the first to apply for a civil union license.
There are no residency requirements, so couples from neighboring states are
also expected to register their civil unions in New Jersey. It’s highly
unlikely, however, that a civil union will carry any legal weight in a couple’s home
state if it doesn’t recognize same-gender relationships.
And finally, yet another disgraced U.S. religious homophobe was in the news
this week. But the lawyer for former Southern Baptist church leader The
Reverend Lonnie W. Latham came up with a novel legal defense following the
minister’s arrest for soliciting sex from an undercover policeman. He argued this
week that his client had a constitutional right to do that.
While all parties agree that there was no offer of money, authorities say
Latham asked the undercover cop in early January to come up to his Oklahoma City
hotel room for oral sex.
Latham had vocally supported his denomination’s resolution calling on gay men
and lesbians to reject their "sinful, destructive lifestyle." He’s since
resigned as pastor of the South Tulsa Baptist Church, and stepped down from the
Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, where he was one of
four members from the state of Oklahoma.
His attorney, Mack Martin, filed a motion this week to have the misdemeanor
lewdness charge thrown out, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003
under "Lawrence v. Texas" that it was not illegal for consenting adults to
engage in private homosexual acts. He told reporters that "…my clieent's being
prosecuted basically for having offered to engage in such an act, which basically
makes it a crime to ask someone to do something that's legal."
Judge Roma M. McElwee said she would issue a verdict in early March. If
convicted, Latham faces up to a year in jail and a 2500-dollar fine.
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