The Same Sex
The following are excerpts from a sermon,
“TUP Same Sex", delivered by the Reverend
Gordon Dragt, Pastor of the Community
Church of Chapel Hill, on September 23, in
response to intimidation of lesbians and gay
men in the current senatorial campaign. Dragt
is also one of the signers of the “Resolution of
Hospitality" issued by the Chapel Hill
Ministerial Alliance against the wave of
bigotry which has accompanied the campaign.
(See inset.)
The once unmentionable has become
lUftavoidable. 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 different; gay men
and women are being slandered, excluded,
isolated, and kept from having recognized
ceremonies to celebrate meaningful and
committed relationships. I don’t know how
believing, feeling reasoning people can avoid
being aware, these days, of the hurt and
loneliness experienced by our homosexual
sisters and brothers. I believe there has never
before been a time when the unmentionable
subject has become so unavoidable!
In Orange and Chatham counties people are
confronted bimonthly with distorted and
bigoted statements in a local aspiring news
commentary: “1 will kill the faggots with
kindness,” wrote the self-righteous editor of
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. ..Ido 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 claims to be a good
Christian...”!
Now I know most people don’t take that
paper too seriously... but the words hurt,
nevertheless! 1 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 to 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 robbed 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
then 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 to our
community 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.”
I he Bible has a whole lot ot things to say
about how we should treat our neighbor, but
none of them is repeated more often and with
more force and clarity than the plea to “Love
your neighbor as yourself.” Just to make sure
that everybody understands, the biblical
authors repeat the love-formula eight times—
and each time it is restated 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
precedence over all other biblical laws and
over all other biblical commandments and
guidelines that arise out of a particular culture
or out of a particular situation.
1 am always amazed at how people
sometimes latch onto certain passages of the
Bible, in order to condemn another person or
another group of people. Often when this is
done, there is very little integrity involved in
taking care to interpret the biblical passages
within the contexts in which they occur. The
Apostle Paul makes this point about misusing
Scripture to condemn: “You, therefore, have
no excuse,” he said,” you who pass judgement
on someone else, for at whatever point you
judge the other, you are condemning yourself,
Resolution of Hospitality and Justice
Toward Our Homosexual Sisters and Brothers
Adopted by the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Ministerial Alliance
October 10, 1984
In the light of increased personal attacks upon members of the local homosexual community
and in some printed media, the following members of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Ministerial
Alliance at its October 10th meeting affirmed:
That gay men and women in our pluralistic society are our neighbors,
2) That love of neighbor is the summary of all that God requires of human beings, and
3) That as religious leaders, we urge understanding and hospitality in our community toward
our homosexual sisters and brothers.
Gordon R. Dragt, The Community Church of Chapel Hill
Robert E. Seymour, Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church
Julia R. Strope, Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church
Richard Edens, United Church of Chapel Hill
J. Paul Byron, St. Thomas More Catholic Church
Robert K. and Margaret D. Fankhauser, Chapel Hill Friends Meeting
Tim Kimrey, Church of Reconciliation
Margaret Via, United Church of Christ Minister
St. Joan of Arc M.C.C.
^Charleston, South Carolina
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Rev. Stan Harris, Pastor (803)723-2847
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because you who pass judgement do the same
things!” Or, to put in different words:
condemnation is a boomerang! Fortunately,
for us, though, so is loving acceptance a
boomerang! Whatever we do to our neighbor,
for good or evil, we do to ourselves!
Psychologist Paul Weinberg says, before
society will be able to recognize gay men and
women as neighbors, it will first need to deal
with its own homophobia, its own fear of
homosexuality. He says the most basic of
these fears is that if society is to accept
homosexuality, more and more people will
choose to become homosexual. But if sexual
orientation is simply a matter of choice, why
are there so many gays in a society that rejects,
and makes fun of, and punishes
homosexuality? Paul Gebhard, Director of
Indiana University's Institute for Sex
Research, states that in his studies he has never
known of anyone who is homosexual by
choice. The only choice, he says, is whether or
not to accept one's sexual orientation.
Now I know gays have hangups — so do
straights! I’m aware that there is promiscuity
among some gays, but I seriously doubt if it is
any more than among straights!
Dehumanization is degrading in any sexual
orientation (that is the message of the Sodom
and Gomorrah story)! But I do believe
straights bear a special responsibility. Just as
blacks used to be labeled shiftless by whites
who made sure there would be no reward for
their diligence; so straights call gays
promiscuous while denying support and
public opportunities for stable, commitment
relationships!
So enough of these fixed certainties and
self-righteous proclamations! “If’, says
William Sloane Coffin of Riverside Church,
“what we think is right and wrong divides still
further the human family, then there must be
something wrong with what we think is right.”
Enough of this cruelty, hatred, insensitivity,
and punitive legislation toward gay people!
This sermon is based largely on the following resources:
1. Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Ramsey Mollenkott, “Is the
Homosexual My Neighbor?’
2. John L. McNeill, "The Church and the Homosexual”
3. Genre Goodman, George Lakey, Judy Lashof, Erika Thorne,"No
Turning Back: Lesbian and Gay Liberation for the ‘80es~
4. “Christianity and Crisis”, 4/4/77, 5/20/77,6/13/77
5. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., “Homosexuality"
6. “The Christian Ministry", March 1979.
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