From ecl@mtgzy.att.com Fri Jan 15 09:38:36 1993 Return-Path: Received: from rpi.edu by mail1.its.rpi.edu (4.1/SMHUB40); id AA28320; Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:38:34 EST for buckmr Received: from att.att.com (att-out.att.com) by rpi.edu (4.1/SMHUB41); id AA21118; Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:38:19 EST for buckmr@rpi.edu Message-Id: <9301151438.AA21118@rpi.edu> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:36 EST From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) To: buckmr@rpi.edu Subject: Religion Status: U .H 1 "Religion" .H 2 "Protestants Consider Acceptance of Lesbigays" .BL .LI .I The Advocate, July. 16, 1991, p. 14. .R .P The Episcopal church will consider ordination of gays and lesbians at its annual convention in Phoenix July 10, and both the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and the United Methodist Church are studying similar proposals. But vigorous opposition from conservatives has left the denominations unwilling to change stands against homosexuality and same-sex unions. .P ...the release last February [1991] of the Presbyterian report on human sexuality raised the volume of the debate to a new level. The study rocked the denomination by outlining a concept called justice-love, a teaching that sexual relationships could be sanctioned outside of marriage..."Where there is justice-love, sexual expression has ethical integrity," the report said. "That moral principle applies to single as well as to married persons, to gay, lesbian, and bisexual persons as well as to heterosexual persons." ... [the assembly] committee recommended the report be set aside, a stance that the convention approved 534-31. .P ... the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church - USA voted June 10 [1991] to reject a report that would have allowed the church to sanction same-sex relationships and ordain openly gay or lesbian clergy members. .P Protestant leaders, meanwhile, are dogged by a crisis of their own -- sharp declines in church attendance and membership. "It worries church officials that there would be a mass exodus" if pro-gay reforms are made [Rev. Daniel] Smith said. "With that goes a tremendous amount of money."... "Rev. Smith [was] a member of the 17-member task force that produced the Presbyterian report on sexuality." .LE .H 2 "Reform Judaism Accepts Lesbigays" .BL .LI .I Time, July 7, 1990, p. 62. .R .sp Breaking with millenniums of tradition, Reform Judaism last week became the first major U.S. religious body to adopt a national policy that sanctions homosexual behavior. "All Jews are religiously equal regardless of their sexual orientation," reads a new statement approved by Reform rabbis. While heterosexual marriage was declared to be the "ideal," same-sex relationships were deemed acceptable for those with no "conscious choice" but to be homosexual. The statement also welcomes "all rabbis regardless of sexual orientation," asking gay clergy for "discretion," not celibacy. Local synagogues were urged not to probe the sexuality of rabbinical candidates. Samuel Karff, the Reform rabbis' president, explained that his denomination weighs "not only the sacred text of Torah but also the knowledge of our own time and experience." .LE .H 2 "Lesbigays in the Clergy" .BL .LI .I Newsweek, Feb. 23, 1987, p. 58 .R .P Homosexual clergy: the subject itself is one that churches--Protestant as well as Catholic--are trying hard to confine to the ecclesiastical closet. .P ...There are no reliable statistics on the number of gay clergy. In one of the very few studies based on hard data -- 1,500 interviews between 1960 and 1985 -- Maryland psychologist Richard Sipe, a former priest, concludes that about 20 percent of the 57,000 U.S. Catholic priests are homosexual and that half of these are sexually active. But since 1978, Sipe believes, the number of gay priests has increased significantly; other therapists think the true figure today may be closer to 40 percent. Estimates for the much smaller Episcopal Church, by contrast, run as high as 50 percent of the clergy in such urban dioceses as San Francisco and New York. .P ...Most parishioners aren't aware of the gays among them. The minority who are homosexually active keep it well hidden and live in fear of being discovered by the laity they serve ... If they are discovered, active homosexual clergy -- Protestant or Catholic -- typically are removed from pastoral responsibilities. .LE .H 2 "History of Judeo-Christian Mores Regarding Homosexuality" .P See Chapter "The 10% Figure" -- The Kinsey Study on the Human Female.