TV networks show ‘cowardice, pure and simple’

JOSEPH N. BELL

In my view, one of the best and most provocative regular features

offered up by the Pilot is the commentary by a cross-section of local

religious leaders on some of the pithier moral issues of the day.

Their opinions are mostly straight to the point -- and not always

predictable.

Even though two of their number opted out, I was especially

pleased that the other three tackled the recent refusal of several

major TV networks to run a commercial on behalf of the United Church

of Christ. In case you missed the dispute, the commercial rejected by

ABC, NBC and CBS shows a pair of bouncers in front of an unidentified

church picking and choosing the people they allow to enter, followed

by the tagline: “Jesus didn’t turn people away. Neither do we.” The

reference is primarily aimed at churches that reject gay people

unwilling to accept celibacy as a condition for membership, a

restriction that doesn’t exist at the United Church of Christ.

According to news coverage, CBS said it rejected the commercial

because “it touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other

minority groups by other individuals and organizations.” An NBC

spokesperson said: “We do not accept commercials that deal with

issues of public controversy. The problem with this spot is it says

churches do not accept these people. That’s a controversial topic

that is in the papers every day.” CBS added that another factor was

the backdrop of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage

proposed by “the executive branch.”

Of the three Pilot panelists who responded, two -- Rabbi Mark

Miller and the Zen Rev. Deborah Barrett -- came down foursquare on

behalf of the commercial, while the Rev. Peter Haynes at St. Michael

Episcopal set a cautious toe there after a fair amount of wandering.

All of this has special significance because it is part of a rash

of mainstream churches defrocking gay pastors or breaking apart over

the issue of openly gay clergy.

We’ve heard a great deal about the defection of St. James in

Newport Beach from the national Episcopal Church. Less visible

locally was the recent decision of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of

America to withdraw official recognition of a Lutheran mission that

serves the poor and homeless in San Bernardino because it installed

an associate pastor who is in a lesbian relationship, and the

Methodist Church defrocking a longtime pastor for the same reason.

There is no defense for the networks that refused the United

Church of Christ commercial. It was cowardice, pure and simple. A

number of self-labeled “Christian” congregations accept gay people

only if they deny their own sexuality, while the United Church of

Christ opens its arms to them without any such restrictions. Their ad

simply makes this clear by offering a warm welcome to all people.

That’s about the same level of controversy as one brand of toothpaste

saying it does a better job of cleaning teeth than its competitors.

The ad also surfaces the importance of celibacy in a direct way

I’ve seldom seen in news stories covering the dispute over gay

clergy. Church authorities or members of a congregation who are

quoted pledging their love and desire to include gay people in their

midst are seldom asked if celibacy is a condition of that love --

which is what they mean when they say they love the sinner and hate

the sin. To see how that impacts gay people, we need only to ask our

heterosexual selves how we would feel if we were told we could join

the club if we would deny the sexual instincts with which we quite

likely were born.

The rationale for this attitude toward homosexuals is a handful of

verses in the Bible, written in a quite different society several

thousand years ago -- none of which came out of the personal ministry

of Jesus -- and the dubious biological contention that homosexuality

is an acquired rather than a genetic trait. It should be pointed out

that the Pilot’s religious panelists dealt only with the

appropriateness of the ad and not the issues above. Some day, I’d

like to see them deal with the celibacy requirement for gay people.

And also with the growing demonizing of homosexuality in our

churches, almost to the exclusion of judging gay clergy by normal

standards of performance.

Nary a word did I read or hear from church authorities about the

quality of the spiritual work of the gay pastors being busted.

Lutheran pastor Jenny Mason, for example, was sacked in San

Bernardino because she wasn’t on the roster of recognized pastors.

And she wasn’t on the roster because -- after 10 years of meritorious

service with the poor and homeless -- she was forced to resign when

authorities learned she had a relationship with another woman.

And how many of the congregants at Newport Beach’s St. James did

you hear citing a lack of love or spiritual commitment on the part of

gay bishop the Rev. Gene Robinson, whose appointment helped drive

them out of the national Episcopal Church? The sin of these outcasts,

it seems clear, was being gay. Nothing more.

The Rev. Madison Shockley, director of the Justice and Witness

Ministries of the United Church of Christ, wrote in the Los Angeles

Times: “Right wing fundamentalist Christianity has so dominated the

media that many Americans don’t believe liberal/progressive

Christianity even exists.... This ad is simply our way of saying who

we are and extending an invitation to anyone who has felt unwelcome

in the Christian community.”

And our own regular Forum commentator Barrett wrote: “Are gay

people genuinely welcomed and accepted in our congregation? Do we

view them as afflicted, ill, defective or substandard in some way? Do

we judge their sexual expression as sinful? Are we taking appropriate

action in society to end discrimination based on sexual preference?”

All questions, it seems to me, that might profitably be pondered

in the year ahead. Maybe it’s time for a national new year’s

resolution to accept our gay fellow citizens into the mainstream of

our society, where they belong and where they are allowed to

contribute fully to the well-being of all of us.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.