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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1993)
Religious rights for Native Americans Officials from 16 Protestant and Roman Catho lic agencies are writing senators urging support for amendments to the American Indian Reli gious Freedom Act. The amendments would reverse some elements of Native religion that have been weakened by Supreme Court rulings. The amendment would allow use of peyote in w o rsh ip serv ice, change the process for gaining posses sion o f eagle parts and feathers, give better protection of sacred sites, and guarantee rights of N ative A m erican prisoners to practice their religions. Native Americans would i s o have legal recourse if their rights were violated. Colorado boycotted by churches The executive committee of the Association of Diocesan Liturgy and Music Commissions of the Episcopal Church voted unanimously at its recent meeting to decline an offer to hold its 1995 meeting in Colorado, due to the passage of Amend ment 2. The Rev. James Newman, ADLMC president, noted that passage of the amendment was in conflict with the organization’s theme of “hospitality, welcome, inclusion, and inculturation in the Body of C hrist” Because the Episcopal Church’ s General Convention has stated its oppo sition to legal discrimination against gays and lesbians, and because ADLMC is a Christian organization, “We feel that we cannot in good conscience meet in Colorado at this time,” Newman said. Colorado United Methodists Against Discr imi - nation is circulating petitions asking the United Methodist Church to move its 1996 national gath ering from Denver to an alternate location, in response to the passage of Amendment 2. “We need to bring national pressure on the state of Colorado to overturn this legalized discrimina tion,” the organizations said in a press release. United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns also passed a resolution at its winter national council, calling on the United Methodist Church to move the site of the national meeting, saying that the group “opposes the patronage of any locale that has discrimination ordinances against homosexuals.” The board of directors of the Reconciling Congregation Program of the United Methodist Church added its voice oppos ing the national meeting in Denver saying,“[the national meeting] is the most visible and most official gathering of the United Methodist Church. We dare not meet in a place in which the policy is in such blatant opposition to the protection of basic human rights, a widely-supported United Methodist position.” attack gay and lesbian freedom. Their objective I Bible denounces homosexuality, emphasized that is to mandate control over our privacy. Their ! the passages frequently cited by religious funda agenda is not to ‘save babies,’ but to repress mentalists are anachronistic, or have been invali people, especially women and gays.” dated by modem science. “The survey shows that many leaders in the religious community chal lenge traditional understanding o f this issue,” UFMCC pushing the military says Henderson. Encouraged by President Clinton’s actions to open the military to gays and lesbians, the Univer Quakers support end of sal Fellowship o f Metropolitan Community Churches again asked the Pentagon to allow its military ban ministers to serve as military chaplains. The Defense Department deferred an earlier request The American Friends Service Committee by the UFMCC to be recognized as a religious said it supports President Clinton’s pledge to end body able to endorse chaplains, saying that the discrimination against gays and lesbians in the UFMCC must first present a candidate who is military. “We are a pacifist organization," Kara heterosexual. With the new request, the UFMCC Newell, of the Quaker relief group wrote toClinton, reaffirmed as its candidate Rev. Dusty Pruitt, a “hence our support for your position does not lesbian who successfully sued the Army after she have to do with any desire to make the military was discharged, because of her sexual orienta more attractive to young women and men.” In tion, in 1986. stead, she said, the issue “is a matter of simple justice— that discrimination based on sexual ori entation, like other forms of discrimination, should P-FLAG booklet: be ended everywhere in our society.” Operation Rescue God approves of homosexuality, as well as gay and lesbian marriages and parenting. This is the prevailing belief of 19 distinguished theolo gians and religious leaders of 10 different faiths surveyed nationwide. Their responses, published in a booklet Is Homosexuality a Sin?, were given to a survey conducted by the Federation of Par ents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. “This booklet comes as a relief to many parents who were taught that homosexuality is wrong,” says Mitz Henderson, P-FLAG President. “The en lightened answers from prominent Christian and Jewish leaders will now help families reconcile their love of God, and of their gay or lesbian loved one. It will help reunite families who had become alienated by the gay issue,” Henderson says. Some of the respondents, who believed that the embarrassed Operation Rescue, the notorious anti-abortion group, planned protests around the country on January 8 against gays in the military. The pro tests, originally scheduled for “ 100 cities,” ac cording to Operation Rescue’s chief, Randall Terry, fizzled out, as only a handful of protesters appeared in three or four locations. Robert Bray, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force director of public information said, “If there are any homo sexuals out there, gay men in particular, who still believe abortion is not a gay issue, let this be a wake-up call. Operation Rescue has allied itself with other far-right religious extremist groups to Is Homosexuality a Sin? WHEEL ALIGNMENTS & TIRES W ashington’s Catholic Conference opposes anti- discrimination bill The Washington State Catholic Conference recently announced its opposition to proposed anti-discrimination legislation addressing sexual orientation and familial status. The WSCC was not opposed to civil rights protections for homo sexuals in employment, housing, and public ac commodations, butdid oppose this bill because of the possibility that it might harm society’s prefer ence for the heterosexual family. compiled by Mathew Nelson, an ordained minister o f the United Church o f Christ STEPHEN D. YEW, D.MLD. 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