11
“The Same Sex (Homosexuality)”
(A sermon delivered at The Community
Church of Chapel Hill, by Gordon R. Dragt,
Sep, 23, 1984; reprinted with permission)
Aside from their extraordinary contri
butions to human progress and happiness,
what did the following people have in
common: Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, Christopher Marlowe, King
James I of England for whom the King James
Version of the Bible is named. Sir Francis
Bacon, Thomas Gray, Frederick the Great of
Germany, Margaret Fuller, Mary Emma
Wooley, Tchaikovsky, Nijinksy, Proust, A.
E, Housman, T.E. Lawrence, Walt Whitman,
Edith Hamilton, Henry Jamaes, W.H. Auden,
Willa Gather, and Bill Tilden?
If you identified all of these persons
who contributed to the positive good of
the world as homosexuals, then you were
right! And why do I bring up this subject
in church...on Sunday...in a sermon?
I bring it up because I believe the
Once unmentionable has become unavoidable.
There are ministers in our nation's
churches and on our nation's radios and
televisions claiming, as coming from God,
the judgment that gay women and men are
not only different, but sinfully differ
ent; gay men and women are slandered,
excluded, isolated, and kept from having
recognized ceremonies to celebrate mean
ingful and commitment relationships. I
don't know how believing, feeling, reason
ing people can avoid being aware, these
days, of the hurt and loneliness experi
enced by our homosexual sisters and
brothers. I believe there has never
before been a time when the unmentionable
subject has become so unavoidable.
But I also bring up the subject for
another reason—one that is much closer to
Our own backyard. There is no North
Carolinian and no one living in Chapel
Hill~Carrboro who can avoid it. Every
Newspaper in North Carolina carried the
story about the involvement of homosexual
Persons in the Hunt campaign. And every
body who listened to the second Helms-Hunt
debate heard Helms cast an accusatory
finger at Hunt. The most appalling thing
sbout that, it seems to me, is that
instead of affirming and applauding the
inclusion into the political process of
this once excluded segment of our state's
diverse and pluralistic citizenry, many
Reporters treated it as something the Hunt
Campaign should hide, or definitely play
^own, or even something for which the
Campaign should feel ashamed!
And then in Orange and Chatham counties
People are confronted bi-monthly with
these sorts of distorted and biggoted
statements in a local aspiring news com—
^lentary: "I will kill the faggots with
kindness," wrote the self—ri^teous editor
cf the paper. In another issue he wrote:
They objected to my calling them a fag.
I told them that in the real world that is
what they are called,-along with many
other terms like pervert, deviate, pansy,
queer, and a bull dyke for the ladies...I
just simply think," he wrote," being a
homo is a sin...I do not want to see those
people in jobs where they may prey on
little children or others. I do object to
seeing our governor accept money from
these people when he calims to be a good
Christian.,.!"
Now I know most people don't take that
paper too seriously...but the words hurt,
nevertheless! I bring up the subject
today because I believe it is time for us
to stand up and to publicly say: "It may
be legal, but it is WRONG TO BEAR FALSE
WITNESS LIKE THAT AGAINST ANY PERSON AND
ANY GROUP OF PEOPLE! I believe it is time
for us to stand up and publicly affirm the
gay women and men in this community as our
neighbors, and as our sisters- and
brothers!
It seems that all through history, some
group or another has been singled out as
unworthy to be our neighbor. We look down
upon them as less than fully human, and
they are robgbed of their respect and the
opportunities the rest of us enjoy. We
ostracize them, we assault their dignity,
we tear down their pride. And because we
keep them at an arm's distance, and don't
really listen to them, we never have to
get to know who they really are as people
and as human beings, who are contributing
citizens of our commuity and our society.
If the homosexual is my neighbor, the
Bible commands that I shall not bear false
witness against that person. And if I am
not to bear false witness against gays,
then, it seems to me, I must do my best to
find out the truth about homosexuality,
and I must do my best to understand what
the gay person is really like, so that I
will not be guilty of Imagining that he or
she intends evil toward me or my children.
It seems to me, if we claim to have any
sense of religious conviction at all, then
there is no way we are given permission to
violate the commandment: "You shall not
bear false witness against your
neighbor."
The Bible has a whole lot of things to
say about how we should treat our neigh
bor, but none of them is repeated more
often and with more force and clarity than
the plea to "Love your neighbor as your
self." Just to make sure that everybody
understands, the biblical authors repeat
the love-formula ei^t times—and each
time it is re-stated it is accompanied by
the explanation that love of neighbor is
THE summary of all that God requires of us
human beings! Love of neighbor—that's
it! Everything else is extra! It is THE
universal requirement of God! Love of
neighbor takes precedent over all other ..
(see SERMON on page 12)