The Growing Power of Clergy as a Voice for LGBT Rights

categories: Gay Marriage, Gay Rights and Religion, Marriage Equality, Religion and LGBT Rights

Published July 29, 2009 @ 05:50AM PT

Clergy

Not to focus too much on US News & World Report this week, but their religion and politics writer Dan Gilgoff has another piece on the issue of LGBT rights, this time in the form on a mini-interview with the Human Rights Campaign's Joe Solmonese. The focus is on the role of religion in promoting LGBT rights, and Gilgoff concludes that clergy are becoming a new lobbying force on behalf of equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender folks.

It might be worth taking issue with that word "new," since there have been progressive religious folks at the forefront of the battle for LGBT equality, particularly marriage equality, since well before Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage. Last year in fact, religious organizations sprung up in California and Florida to fight anti-LGBT amendments (in California it was Prop 8, in Florida it was Amendment 2).

But Gilgoff is right in asserting that clergy have become a blessing (haha, pun intended) in the fight for equal rights. Why? Because it's important not to let radical right clergy (from Pat Robertson to Maggie Gallagher to the Catholic Church in Maine) be the only ones talking about religion. And that's essentially what Solmonese told US News & World Report. Here's the synopsis:

During an interview with Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese today, I asked whether the group's stepped-up faith outreach was a reaction to having ceded religious terrain to gay rights opponents for a long time. "It is," he said, and went on to explain how clergy have become a "powerful front-line lobbying force" for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community:

"LGBT people, many of us are people of faith, and there are religious leaders in this country who support LGBT equality, and it has taken us too long to empower those voices and ensure those people are out there fighting on the front lines on our behalf. Our Clergy Call for Justice brought 300 clergy, more than five from each of the 50 states, and we worked with them to walk the halls of Congress and lobby on behalf of LGBT issues in full religious vestments.

With all eyes on Maine now and their ballot measure seeking to "veto" the rights of gays and lesbians to get married, the voice of clergy has been imperative. Here's how Rabbi Hillel Katzir in Maine expressed his support - and in fact, the religious justication for - same-sex marriage:

Gay men and lesbians, like the rest of us, are created in the image of God, and God said it’s not good for any human being to be alone. In that case, I look at this issue and I think, “Who am I, who are we as a human society, to tell people that they have to live alone or live a lie?” As a Rabbi, as a person of faith, I believe it is a God-given right for each one of us to make family with whomever we choose.

That's pretty powerful stuff, and a way of weaving a religious narrative that doesn't focus on repression or fundamentalist doctrine, but rather respect, acceptance, and the chance for every person to love whomever they choose in this world.

In other words, it's a sample of how religion can be an authentic voice for the struggle of civil rights for gays and lesbians.

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Comments (12)

I m proud to be an Episcopalian. Our church is weathering attacks and threats from around the world-wide Anglican Communion simply because we agree with Rabbi Katzir.

Many of the attacks come from bishops in Africa who are "competing" with Islam and believe a gay-friendly ECUSA threatens their evangelism efforts. Bishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria is so determined to oppress gays amd lesbians that he has advocated Draconian legal punishments in Nigerian civil law. Interestingly he and others show remarkable tolerance of polygamous would-be Moslem converts. But I digress.

At our recent general convention it was voted to (essentially) discard the moratorium on gay and lesbian ordinations and consecrations that had been adopted a few years ago in an attempt to placate some and continue a dialogue within the communion we seemed to be the only ones really interested in pursuing.

Those Episcopalians who have chosen to leave and start their own churches and dioceses began by rejecting female clergy and then a prayer book revision. Gays and lesbians are only the excuse for walking out in a huff in the name of inerrancy of certain Biblical passages and in contradiction of our three-legged stool of scripture, tradition, and reason. Sadly, they do not appear to realize what their ever-narrowing view of theological purity will yield if taken to its logical outcome: a host of single-member churches.

Posted by Jenifer Lewis on 07/29/2009 @ 07:10AM PT
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Well said Jenifer Lewis. But this is my question... Take a simple look back at history. All the oppression that was started by religious motivation, then how clergy soon changed their minds and fought for those they once discarded... Once we finally beat out this oppression against LGBT what will be left for these hateful, ignorant, and arrogant radical zealots to discard and oppress?

They already did oppression based on race, oppression based on religion (slaughtering witches, non christians and mormons), oppression based on ethnicity (Japanese housing camps of WWII), oppression based on gender, and now we are try to destroy the last wall of oppression that is based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They have basically oppressed everything that makes people human, minus the religion part. What I worry is that after they lose this fight they will continue the war of lies against those with disabilities or mental illnesses.

I say this because of their tone that they use against gay people. Most things that these zealots spew against gay people also condemn those with disabilities and those who are mentally ill. They constantly equate homosexuality to a mental impairment, or a form of psychosis. However as I quickly remind people who say such things in my vicinity

"What seems more insane to you, two people of the same gender having love for each other and wanting to build a family together like everyone else, or a person so full of malice and arrogance, that goes to a church where they voluntarily have spasms and speak in nonsense only to fit in and continue the long lines of hatred for those who are different?"

I worry that we might win this fight, but as long as religion exist and is not monitored, we will never win this war. So I repeat my question after they lose this fight for oppression against us, who will they come after next?

Posted by Chris Marshall on 07/29/2009 @ 07:53AM PT
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I posed that same question to myself yesterday Chris and I realized, in so doing, I was generalizing Christianity too much and assuming that the persecution will be by religious people (with history being an indicator).

While 76% of Americans identify as Christian, only 43% of Americans are against same sex marriage (2009 ABC Poll). While the vast majority of those that oppose same sex marriage identify as Christian, it's not exclusive to religion. In fact, I recently had conversations with an outspoken atheist who is against same sex marriage (with ridiculous arguments about men being sexual agressors and the government subsidizing the disgusting/perverse).

I have two theories about who is "next" in the assault against a group of people. The first suspect group for me will be the atheists - the second, the Christians.

We've already been guilty of stereotyping Christians in the past, myself included, thanks to historical indications of a brutal and violent oppressive people; however, not all Christiandom shares the same conversion/dominating ideology.

No matter which group is next, hopefully we will all be standing with those being persecuted rather than assisting in their persecution (maybe LGBT people/organizations can learn lessons that other groups *cough SCLC cough* have not).

Posted by Jay Says on 07/29/2009 @ 09:22AM PT
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Well mr. marshall...I can understand your reluctance to trust anyone who has a religious faith as my own experiances with christianity havent been all that good BUT I worry that we'll go too far in the opposite extreme and blame all religion for our woes instead of holding the fundementals responsable for misusing it...Kind of like blaming the gun rather than the person who used it to kill someone.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/30/2009 @ 12:56AM PT
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"a person so full of malice and arrogance, that goes to a church where they voluntarily have spasms and speak in nonsense only to fit in and continue the long lines of hatred for those who are different"

Oh, some are Pentecostals and some are not. Heaping contempt on a person's personal religious practices does not help one's argument no matter how much one distains, say, snake-handling. It's not their personal beliefs and practices I take issue with, but the way they impose those beliefs on others.

From my POV, it's more a matter of, "How do you reconcile belonging to a church that worships the Prince of Peace with acting in hateful ways that fly in the face of everything Jesus (whom you profess to be your Lord and Savior) taught during his time on earth?"

Posted by Jenifer Lewis on 07/29/2009 @ 09:00AM PT
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Indeed miss lewis.

Ironicly, I used to be a pentecostal before I became a wiccan.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/30/2009 @ 12:59AM PT
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Michael, was the post to which I was replying deleted?

Posted by Jenifer Lewis on 07/30/2009 @ 07:09AM PT
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I think it is an incredibly clever way of splitting the religious opposition to gays.

Posted by Carol Pawlowski on 07/29/2009 @ 12:18PM PT
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It's good that the Clergy are getting powerful to spread their correct view of LGBT rights so that there is room in the Clergy for tolerance. With more Clergy which support the very important right of same-sex marriage, more people will support LGBT rights from the perspective of religious people. Although intolerant conservatives in Maine are campaigning to take away same-sex marriage, there will be the clergy with their superior message of tolerance.

Posted by Edwin Bonilla on 07/29/2009 @ 12:57PM PT
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Yep...I totaly agree with the rabbi in the above article.

In fact, I became ordained in part because of this fight for equality and that it pissed me off that there was clergy against same sex marriage.

Posted by Thomas McHugh on 07/30/2009 @ 01:01AM PT
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I have lived sixty years and in those years have come to this understanding [after experiencing so much bigotry from various religions]-- We are always going to be different from one another because God likes variation and expresses Itself in that way and at the same time we are All -[ like it or not ]connected - and One in the love of God!!!So we really do need as '' a people'' to learn to'' live and let live'' and try to understand that fundamentally -we all are wanting the same things and that we are all variations on a single theme-- how foolish it is to think that one is some how better or right just because one thinks differently than another or loves another who is of the same sex-please grow up -and realize that love is love by any other name-- So what if you think differently -- That doesn't make you better or right -- It is not who do you love ?-- It is how do you love? or Are you loving????

Posted by charles dougherty on 08/07/2009 @ 07:32AM PT
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The sad fact is that the church hierarchy, NOT the majority of the people, has been been at the forefront of every horrid debacle of terror and hate action toward all that they have attacked. Then they had the gall to terrorize the people into submission. Would that they had learned their lesson, they are STILL doing it today!

The biggest concern of the anti-gay groups is that their numbers are dwindling from old age and the knowledge that their subjugated victims are "catching on" to their ploys and mind games. The fact that clergypersons are also waking up to their (the religious rights' and evangelicals) falsehoods is scaring the whoopie cushions out from under them and they no longer have a viable voice for the world (sorry, I just had to use the whoopie cushion example... a divine light went on!).

The day will indeed arrive (and fassst, I might add) when all this silliness will be over and all of Christ's children will be treated equally.

All my best, and blessings!

Dakotahgeo, Pastor/Chaplain

Posted by George M Melby, Pastor/Chap... on 09/07/2009 @ 11:48AM PT
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Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.