Subject: Religion

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: Fri, 15 Jan 93 09:36 EST

.H 1 "Religion"

.H 2 "Protestants Consider Acceptance of Lesbigays"
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The Advocate, July. 16, 1991, p. 14.
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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.
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 ...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.
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 ... 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.
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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."
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.H 2 "Reform Judaism Accepts Lesbigays"
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Time, July 7, 1990, p. 62.
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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."
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.H 2 "Lesbigays in the Clergy"
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Newsweek, Feb. 23, 1987, p. 58
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Homosexual clergy: the subject itself is one that churches--Protestant
as well as Catholic--are trying hard to confine to the ecclesiastical
closet.
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 ...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.  
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 ...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.
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.H 2 "History of Judeo-Christian Mores Regarding Homosexuality"
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See Chapter "The 10% Figure" -- The Kinsey Study on the Human Female.