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Southern
Baptists Take the Straight and Narrow in Lessons About Gays and Lesbians
By TRACY CONNOR
Thousands of Southern Baptist
churches will break new ground tomorrow by teaching their adult Sunday-school
students that gays can change their sexuality. Gay groups condemned the
lesson's "hate the sin but love the sinner" message, saying sexual
orientation isn't something that can be switched on and off.
Baptist church lessons have touched
on homosexuality in the past, but this is the first time one is being devoted
exclusively to the topic, Southern Baptist Convention officials said.
"It's part of a five-lesson
unit on being a healing person in society," said Charles Willis, a
spokesman for Lifeway Christian Resources, the Nashville based convention's
publishing arm.
"It's designed for Christians
who are confronted by the homosexuality issue." One of the authors, Ross
McLaren, said the lesson calls for gays to be treated with respect, but looks to
the Bible to answer the question of whether homosexuality is an acceptable or
natural lifestyle.
"We believe the Bible teaches
it is not," he said. The lesson - optional for individual churches - also
addresses whether homosexuals "have a way out" and how they can avoid
"falling back" into the gay lifestyle.
"We believe that just as for
any other lifestyle not in keeping with holiness, people can experience
redemption through Jesus Christ and change their lifestyle," McLaren said.
The change could come in two ways,
McLaren said. "Abandon a lifestyle of homosexuality and follow in the
lifestyle God intended, which is heterosexuality, or become non-practicing and
abstain," he said.
Southern Baptist churches around the
country have bought 1.5 million copies of the lesson series - which also
includes classes on poverty, pornography, abortion and injustice.
The Astoria Christian Center in
Queens, a Southern Baptist church, won't be using the lesson tomorrow - but its
pastor said he agrees with the premise and would consider it if a congregant was
interested.
"I think God is powerful,"
the Rev. Larry Holcomb said. "I think God can change people."
At the progressive Metro Baptist
Church in Manhattan, which doesn't use Lifeway's adult lessons, the pastor
disagrees with the theory behind the material.
"There are probably some gay
folks who could change, but there are a lot of folks who can't and won't and
shouldn't," said the Rev. David Waugh, who believes genetics is a factor in
homosexuality.
Gay organizations said the Southern
Baptist Convention was barking up the wrong tree. "It's frankly very
disappointing," said Charles Cox, executive director of the gay Catholic
group Dignity.
"The message is that the
Southern Baptists believe gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people can
change their sexual orientation - and that is just plain wrong." Joan
Garry, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation,
said the lesson promoted a "scientifically bankrupt" theory that
fosters intolerance.
"I think that those who believe
that love needs to be healed have not experienced enough of it in their own
lives," she said.
Bill Turner, co-chairman of the
Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice in Nashville, said the idea of "hate
the sin but love the sinner" is patronizing.
"I know plenty of lesbian and
gay Christians who are quite convinced that they have a perfectly adequate
relationship with God and are still gay," Turner said.
NEW YORK POST,
January 30, 1999
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