April 6, 2008
The Last Wish of Martin Luther King
The New York Times.  By Taylor Branch

  • What Dr. King prescribed in his last Sunday sermon begins with the story of Lazarus and Dives, from the
    16th chapter of Luke. Told entirely from the mouth of Jesus, it is a story starring Abraham the patriarch of
    Judaism, set in the afterlife. There’s nothing else like it in the Bible.

  • Dr. King loved this parable as the text for a fabled 1949 sermon by Vernon Johns, his predecessor at the
    Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. Lazarus was a lame beggar who once pleaded unnoticed
    outside the sumptuous gates of a rich man called Dives. They both died, and Dives looked from torment to
    see Lazarus the beggar secure in the bosom of Abraham. The remainder of the parable is an argument
    between Abraham and Dives, calling back and forth from heaven to hell.

  • Dives first asked Abraham to “send Lazarus” with water to cool his burning lips. But Abraham said there was
    a “great chasm” fixed between them, which could never be crossed. In his sermon, Dr. Johns drew a
    connection between the chasm and segregation.

  • But according to Dr. Johns, Dives wasn’t in hell because he was rich. He wasn’t anywhere near as rich as
    Abraham, one of the wealthiest men in antiquity, who was there in heaven. Nor was Dives in hell because
    he had failed to send alms to Lazarus. He was there because he never recognized Lazarus as a
    fellow human being. Even faced with everlasting verdict, he spoke only with Abraham and looked
    past the beggar, treating him still as a servant in the third person — “send Lazarus.”

        -------------------------------------

  • Dr. King said the movement would liberate not only segregated black people but also the white South.
    Surely this is true. You never heard of the Sun Belt when the South was segregated. The movement spread
    prosperity in a region previously unfit even for professional sports teams. My mayor in Atlanta during the
    civil rights era, Ivan Allen Jr., said that as soon as the civil rights bill was signed in 1964, we built a baseball
    stadium on land we didn’t own, with money we didn’t have, for a team we hadn’t found, and quickly lured the
    Milwaukee Braves. Miami organized a football team called the Dolphins.

  • The movement also de-stigmatized white Southern politics, creating two-party competition. It opened doors
    for the disabled, and began to lift fear from homosexuals before the modern notion of “gay” was in use.


March 13, 2008
Episcopal Church Votes to Oust Bishop Who Seceded
The New York Times.  By Neela Banerjee
  • The Episcopal Church moved to remove the bishop of the San Joaquin Diocese in California on
    Wednesday, in reaction to the diocese’s unprecedented decision late last year to secede from the church
    over theological issues.  The bishop, John-David Schofield, is the first bishop to face such action as a result
    of the disputes over the church’s stance on homosexuality.

February 14, 2008
2 Sue to Void Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
The New York Times.  By Dan Frosch
  • A lesbian couple are seeking to overturn Colorado’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, in what is
    thought to be the first challenge to the 2006 ballot initiative that established it.

February 12, 2007
Some Tormented by Homosexuality Look to a Controversial Therapy
The New York Times.  By Michael Luo

February 9, 2007
Georgia:  Lutherans Remove Gay Pastor
The New York Times.  By Reuters
  • A disciplinary panel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted to remove a gay pastor from the
    ministry because he is in a relationship with another man, but said it did so reluctantly under a policy that
    needs revising.

February 9, 2007
Italy:  Cabinet Approves Rights for Gay and Unwed Couples
The New York Times.  By Ian Fisher
  • Italy's fragile government approved a draft bill legally recognizing unmarried couples, including gay ones,
    over the opposition of the Vatican . . . . The compromise bill . . . would guarantee registered couples such
    rights as inheriting property and receiving a deceased partner’s pension. The bill will face debate in
    Parliament, which must approve it.

February 9, 2007
Columbia:  Court Grants Rights to Gay Couples
The New York Times.  By Reuters
  • The Constitutional Court granted gay couples living together for more than two years the same inheritance
    guarantees as heterosexuals in common law marriages. The ruling was considered the biggest advance
    ever for homosexuals in this conservative Roman Catholic country. A bill that would grant social security
    guarantees to gay couples is pending in Congress.

February 7, 2007
Ousted Pastor 'Completely Heterosexual'
The New York Times.  By Neela Banerjess
  • . . . the Rev. Ted Haggard now feels that after three weeks of intensive counseling, he is “completely
    heterosexual,” says an overseer of the megachurch Mr. Haggard once led.

  • Dr. Jack Drescher, a New York psychiatrist who is an expert on issues of gender and sexuality, said that
    while it was people’s prerogative to identify their sexual orientation as they wanted, the notion of being able
    to change that orientation was “not consistent with clinical presentations, but totally consistent with
    theological belief.”

    “Some people in the community that Mr. Haggard comes from believe homosexuality is a form of behavior, a
    sinful form of behavior based on certain things in the Bible, and they don’t believe you can create a healthy
    identity based on sinful behavior,” Dr. Drescher said. “So they define it as a behavior that can be changed,
    and there is this thinking that if you control those behaviors enough, heterosexual attractions will follow.”

February 3, 2007
Court Bars Government Benefit for Same-Sex Domestic Partners
The New York Times.  By Susan Saulny
  • Same-sex domestic partners are not entitled to health benefits from public universities or local and state
    governments under the State Constitution’s two-year-old marriage amendment, the Michigan Court of
    Appeals said in a ruling released Friday.

  • Deborah A. Labelle, a lawyer for the A.C.L.U. of Michigan, said in a statement, “After today’s decision, many
    men and women in Michigan with children now stand to lose their benefits.”

January 2, 2007
Second Thoughts on Gays in the Military
The New York Times.  Op-Ed Contributor.  By John M. Shalikashvili, a retired army general, formerly chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 to 1997.
  • Last year I held a number of meetings with gay soldiers and marines, including some with combat
    experience in Iraq, and an openly gay senior sailor who was serving effectively as a member of a nuclear
    submarine crew. These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed, and that gays
    and lesbians can be accepted by their peers.

  • This perception is supported by a new Zogby poll of more than 500 service members returning from
    Afghanistan and Iraq, three quarters of whom said they were comfortable interacting with gay people. And
    24 foreign nations, including Israel, Britain and other allies in the fight against terrorism, let gays
    serve openly, with none reporting morale or recruitment problems.

  • I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not
    undermine the efficacy of the armed forces.

December 25, 2006
At Axis of Episcopal Split, an Anti-Gay Nigerian
The New York Times
  • [Archbishop Peter J. Akinola, the conservative leader of Nigeria’s Anglican Church,] supports a bill in
    Nigeria's legislature that would make homosexual sex and any public expression of homosexual identity
    a crime punishable by five years in prison.

  • The bill ostensibly aims to ban gay marriage, but it includes measures so extreme that the State Department
    warned that they would violate basic human rights. Strictly interpreted, the bill would ban two gay people
    from going out to dinner or seeing a movie together.

  • It could also lead to the arrest and imprisonment of members of organizations providing all manner of
    services, particularly those helping people with AIDS.

  • “They are very loose, those provisions,” said Dorothy Aken ’Ova of the International Center for Sexual and
    Reproductive Rights, a charity that works with rape victims, AIDS patients and gay rights groups. “It could
    target just about anyone, based on any form of perception from anybody.”

December 18th (2006) issue of TIME Magazine
  carried an article by James C. Dobson to which this article is a reponse
Two Mommies or Two Daddies Will Do Fine, Thanks
An advocate for gay families says James Dobson misuses science to discredit same-sex parenting
By JENNIFER CHRISLER.  Posted (on the web) Dec. 14, 2006, TIME in partnership with CNN
  • Within his commentary, Dobson directly attributes some of the points of his argument to prominent
    psychologist and social researcher Dr. Carol Gilligan. However, when asked about his use of her research,
    Dr. Gilligan stated emphatically that its inclusion constitutes "a complete distortion of my work" and
    went on to say that there is nothing in her research that would support Dobson's stated conclusions.

  • It is true that there is 30 years of research about families headed by lesbian and gay parents. However,
    Dobson claims that the resulting data shows that "children do best on every measure of well-being when
    raised by their married mother and father." To say that Dobson is misinformed here would be
    inaccurate. He is simply lying.

   
     

    Pruett wrote the following letter:

    13 December 2006

    Dr. Dobson,

    I was startled and disappointed to see my work referenced in the current Time Magazine
    piece in which you opined that social science, such as mine, supports your convictions
    opposing lesbian and gay parenthood. I write now to insist that you not quote from my
    research in your media campaigns, personal or corporate, without previously securing my
    permission.

    You cherry-picked a phrase to shore up highly (in my view) discriminatory
    purposes. This practice is condemned in real science, common though it may be in
    pseudo-science circles. There is nothing in my longitudinal research or any of my
    writings to support such conclusions. On page 134 of the book you cite in your piece,
    I wrote, “What we do know is that there is no reason for concern about the development
    or psychological competence of children living with gay fathers. It is love that binds
    relationships, not sex.”

    Kyle Pruett, M.D.
    Yale School of Medicine


December 18th (2006) issue of TIME Magazine
Two Mommies Is One Too Many:  
Mary Cheney is starting a family. Let's hope she doesn't start a trend
By JAMES C. DOBSON writing in a "Viewpoint" editorial.  Posted Dec. 12, 2006, TIME in partnership with CNN
  • With all due respect to Cheney and her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-
    science evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when raised by their
    married mother and father. That is not to say Cheney and Poe will not love their child. But love alone is not
    enough to guarantee healthy growth and development.

December 17, 2006
Episcopalians Are Reaching Point of Revolt
The New York Times
  • Several American churches say they intend to form a new branch that would rival or even supplant the
    Episcopal Church.
  • In a twist, these wealthy American congregations are essentially putting themselves up for adoption by
    Anglican archbishops in poorer dioceses in Africa, Asia and Latin America who share conservative
    theological views about homosexuality and the interpretation of Scripture with the breakaway Americans.
  • In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of
    Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his
    country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature
    or eat together in a restaurant.

December 16, 2006
In New Jersey, Gay Couples Ponder Nuances of Measure to Allow Civil Unions
The New York Times
  • The 2000 Census found about 16,000 same-sex couples living together in New Jersey, though the Urban
    Institute, a research organization, says the true count is as much as 50 percent higher; nearly one-third of
    them are raising children.

December 15, 2006
Legislators Vote for Gay Unions in N.J.
The New York Times
  • Assemblyman Ronald S. Dancer, a Republican from Ocean County, said that the bill was an affront to the
    Bible, and that “this is one time that I cannot compromise my personal beliefs and faiths.”

December 13, 2006
Pastors' Disclosures May Stir Empathy, Some Evangelicals Say
The New York Times
  • On Sunday, the pastor of a suburban Denver church, the Rev. Paul Barnes, resigned after admitting to
    having had sex with men. Mr. Barnes said he had often cried himself to sleep, begging God to end his
    attraction to men.
  • Mr. Barnes’s departure came just a few weeks after that of the Rev. Ted Haggard, who had been president
    of the National Association of Evangelicals and senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A
    male prostitute said Mr. Haggard had had a relationship with him for three years.
  • “I honestly don’t think there is significant rethinking on evangelical positions on homosexuality, but I think
    there may be greater compassion,” said the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of
    Evangelicals and senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minn.

December 12, 2006  
Pastor Quits After Revealing Same-Sex Relations
The New York Times
  • The resignation of the pastor, the Rev. Paul Barnes, from the pulpit of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel
    megachurch in Englewood came by way of a tearful, 32-minute videotaped address to his congregation.
  • Mr. Barnes said in his address that he had struggled with his attraction to men since he was 5, The Post
    said. The only time Mr. Barnes said he had talked to his father about sex, his father told him what he would
    do if a gay man, for which he used a derogatory term, walked up to him.  Mr. Barnes recalled thinking, “ ‘Is
    that how you’d feel about me?’ It was like a knife in my heart, and it made me feel even more closed,” The
    Post said.

December 12, 2005
Gay and Evangelical, Seeking Paths of Acceptance
The New York Times
  • To many people, Mr. Lee is a walking contradiction, and most evangelicals and gay people alike consider
    Christians like him horribly deluded about their faith. “I’ve gotten hate mail from both sides,” said Mr. Lee,
    who runs gaychristian.net, a Web site with 4,700 registered users that mostly attracts gay evangelicals.
  • Gay evangelicals seem to have few paths carved out for them: they can leave religion behind; they can turn
    to theologically liberal congregations that often differ from the tradition they grew up in; or they can enter
    programs to try to change their behavior, even their orientation, through prayer and support.
  • But as gay men and lesbians grapple with their sexuality and an evangelical upbringing they cherish, some
    have come to accept both.


                                                                                                                   Go to Top of Page

Go to

Articles from The New York Times
on
Gay and Religious Concerns

-Most Recent Article Is Listed First-
(Articles go back to December 12, 2006)
This is an Other Sheep
website
This is an
Other Sheep
website
Counter
Visits to this web page since Dec. 2006
 
News News News News
___________________
_____________________________________________________________________________