Myth 1: We Threaten the Unity of the Church

Myth 1: We Threaten the Unity of the Church
by Ray Bagnuolo, Gay and Minister of the Word and Sacrament

The PC(USA) will not split over the inclusion of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) persons in the community of called individuals serving as Elders, Deacons, or Ministers of the Word and Sacrament.

Ever since the church’s beginning, LGBT people have served the church in ordained and non-ordained status. Today, along with those who are open about their gender and sexual identity, there are thousands serving in quiet ways; thousands who have never identified themselves as LGBT. These are called individuals who understand, too well, the consequences were they to “come out.” Clearly, their service has not caused the church to split. Quite the opposite, for decades these leaders have made the church a meaningful place for a great many seeking God. They have, in many ways, kept the church together.

We all recognize the importance of being open witnesses. We also acknowledge the important work of our LGBT community serving the church, without the freedom of fullness enjoyed by our heterosexual sisters and brothers. As a result, it is difficult to agree with those who suggest that our community is asking for protection or insulation in this struggle for justice. What is more reliable is the belief that our LGBT community depends on those who are able to insist publicly that this church change. What is clear is that this community depends on leaders to provide a voice for those unable to speak for themselves. Such a charge and call is not negotiable.

The presence or increase of LGBT people in ordained and leadership roles in this church is not a threat to its unity. What is a threat to the unity of this church is the misleading of its members. It is a misleading teaching that insists upon diminished status for the LGBT community, in order that the church remains “whole.” This great error is at the core of the threat to the unity of God’s church, not those of us who are LGBT. It is an error that has taken on a near-mythological status. And, there are other myths.

Another myth, for example, is that “…given enough time, we (LGBT people) will no longer be an ‘issue’ in the church. Given enough time, everyone will be used to the idea of our being around and there will no longer be any conflict. We will, in effect, ‘blend in.’” As is often true, myths are accompanied by a moral, in this case in the form of a caveat: “If the attempt proceeds to move change along ‘ahead of schedule’ it will cause great harm to the church, culminating in certain schism.” The potential danger of such thinking cannot be underestimated. Such a direction is built upon the foundation that marginalization, oppression, and exclusion – however temporary (going on forty years, now) – is a “livable condition” in order to achieve a greater good. And at the root of the problem lurks G-6.0106b, AI, and the discriminatory language of marriage. The resistance to removing such impediments must be to keep LGBT folk from serving this church fully, regardless of all protests to the contrary. What other reasons could there be that justify a diminished status in God’s church for any child of God?

Our LGBT community has been constitutionally relegated to a footnote in the history of PJC’s, assemblies, and annotations in the Book of Order. On one hand the injustice is swept away with the promise of a better future, and on the other, juxtaposed with a demand for willingness to accept continued dehumanization as an reasonable sacrifice for order and a false grasp on unity.

All the while, the power for change is in our hands. We must come together as progressive partners and stem the illness that is consuming the soul of the church. Our LGBT community is not the cause of this sickness; instead, it is we who are called to bring a healing and unity to the PC(USA) that really means something.

I continue to call on all progressive advocacy groups to publicly join together to lead us in change of the PC(USA) and a new realized commitment to justice with a unified and strategic presence at GA218.

Fresh Air and Sunlight

After a week of hectic activity: a time to sit and think about - what else? - the movement of this church toward justice, inclusivity, wholeness, and an efficacy in changing the world with the power of the God, joined together with others in the many ways they know God.

I have to refer to God in that way. In fact, those of us who are advocates for full church inclusion of people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender are sometimes accused of having a "different God" than those who oppose such unity. A different understanding of God, maybe - in some ways, but a different God - no, I don't think so.

And, that is what makes a place like the Presbyterian Church (USA) such an important location for the "new thing" we often say God is doing. It is here, in the gathering of Presbyterians and their long and important history, that real worldwide change for families, equality, justice, and God's love in all its grace and healing power sits ready to embrace our Good Friday world. A world that is broken and breaking apart more each and every day.

I cannot believe that the "new thing" God calls us to is to further divide, marginalize, separate, exclude, and close the doors of God's churches and religions upon members of its own family. I know from my own ongoing experiences the anger that is often directed at our LGBT community. Anger and reasons that may be possible to posit in intellectual and theological arguments, however a debate created upon a fundamental flaw: that we are not as much of God as any member of the church.

Arguments and practices that use rational methods for their development do not make the supposition upon which they are applied - true or false. Arguments, papers, and debates that look good and sound good -- don't necessarily make them true -- just crafted properly. All arguments that are based on the premise that people who identify themselves differently in terms of gender are excluded in their fullness as members of the church - are simply all wrong.

This is very important to remember, for me - maybe for you, especially when the voices are sometimes as strong as they are and we are blamed for unrelated and unfounded fears across a broad spectrum.

That said, I do get the fear of others and believe we need to work together to help assuage that sickness, the root cause of all the problems we face. Instead of working together to address the fear of this world and what it is doing to the world, we end up in arguments trying to explain why we are not the root of the problem. In the meantime, the forces of this sickness grow and multiply while we miss the opportunity to end the pandemic that pushes God away.

The beginning for the "new thing of God" my just be to demonstrate to one another and the world that we are willing to do more than others and enter into a "free setting" that opens the ordination process to all. An open process, without the presence of amendments or definitive guidance or other limitations on those who are members of our excluded community. Our requirements and standards are just fine. The elimination of G-6.0106b is not going to suddenly do away with years of seminary, examinations, and process. Those ultimately called will be ready, as they are now - and the "now" will include our entire family.

It may be that more important than the ordination standards being "open," this process will draw us more closely together as a church, not push us further apart. There is no way to resolve our fears and differences without bringing them with us into a time of trust and risk, in the same way Jesus did when he set his face to Jerusalem. This will be good for us, but that is not the main reason to trust. This type of ministry and witness can chase the fear away around the globe. We are not fighting one another, my friends; we are fighting the fear that surrounds us. Fear is the illness we need to work together to cure.

I think that the LGBT Community is here, in this church, to unify it with all our brothers and sisters into a new and fresh face of God in this world. The first thing we need to do is to open the windows and let the fresh air and the sunlight in!

These thoughts on Friday, April 4, 2008 - on a day remembering The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace,
Ray

Moving Beyond The Theological Task Force Report: A Call for Progressive Advocates to Unify for GA 218."

Please take some time to review this call for the progressive advocates for the LGBT/Queer community to come together for GA 218. We are in an exceptional position to enter a time of justice and begin the process for healing throughout the denomination.

You can find the document: "Moving Beyond The Theological Task Force Report: A Call for Progressive Advocates to Unify for GA 218" here as a pdf document, or view it an other resources at raybagnuolo.net.

Please choose to do something and make the difference at this GA. Let us hear from you, as well.

Peace,
Ray

We need to change the Constitution, not create ways around it.

Dear Friends,

The recent decisions by the GAPJC clarify in bold terms the reasons why no true progress will be made in our denomination for the full inclusion of LGBT folk until G-6.0106b is gone. None of this is surprising.

Maintaining an amendment in our Book of Order that is violent, exclusive, marginalizing, and deeply-flawed – not to mention in opposition to the movement of the Spirit – is unconscionable. Every Christian who has ever understood the risk involved in being a Christian understands that there is no "safe" way to litigate around G-6.0106b. We simply cannot pass new legislation to interpret what should be removed. If the risk in being just is a risk to the unity of the church, then the unity we have achieved is flawed and needs to be changed.

This has been a long and tedious process; LGBT folks and their allies have given their heart and their trust to the multiple processes that have promised hope and justice in our time. We have trusted in groups that were promised to be safe for discussions, only to have them used against us. We have agreed to moratoriums, only to have them violated. We have stood together at Presbytery meetings and General Assemblies to hear ourselves talked about as if we were some errant act of God's creation: not only second class in our citizenship but second class in creation. We have watched friends' lives deeply and unfairly altered by the full weight of the imbalance of power in this church. We have watched fear used to cower the voices that otherwise would speak for themselves.

And through it all, like Lisa [Larges] and Paul [Capetz] and faithful others, we have persisted. We have remained in the church to try and change it with loving-kindness and the encouragement we share for each other, bonded in the love of God we know so well.

With the many overtures and concurrences coming together in a most amazing way, this General Assembly has a different kind of promise. The overtures to restore the language of the Heidelberg Catechism, to remove G-6.0106b from the Book of Order, to the change the language in the Directory for Worship – all these broaden the call we share: to once and for all, reform this Constitution of ours to reflect all of us.

There can be no interpretation of G-6.0106b, the Heidelberg's redacted language, or the Directory for Worship's definition of marriage. All these need to be made clear for all to hear and see, ringing loudly, so all may hear the peal of welcome. We need to change the Constitution, not create ways around it.

If we rely on any task forces or measures to get around what needs to be removed and changed, we will continue to experience the decisions, divisiveness, and the dehumanization that is evidenced in the recent rulings by the GAPJC.

I fully support MLP and others who unflinchingly continue to call for such changes. May they reflect the deep truth that lies in all our hearts, and may we join in that chorus faithfully and with courage.

I look forward to working together with everyone who has hope for this church, on both sides of the aisles and in-between.

There is an inclusive church beyond these changes, with room everyone, and I believe it is up to us to change it.

Peace,

Ray Bagnuolo
Openly Gay Interim Minister, Palisades Presbyterian Church
Palisades, NY

Living Together WIthout G-6.0106b - Response

Regarding Mr. Talylor’s Letter: A response to letters by Bagnuolo and Cullen October 1, 2007
I want to thank Mr. Taylor for his comments of 10/1 regarding my letter of late September, suggesting that we could expand the ways in which we worship and live together into a time when G-6.0106b is removed from our Constitution.

I accept Mr. Taylor’s position but do reject the suggestion that the faithful men and women I know who are working for a welcoming and inclusive PC(USA) are trying to “have our way.” We are doing our best to find ways together beyond this continuing circular saga that has plagued our church for decades. Further, I would say that were those who oppose the removal of G-6.0106b being excluded as a result of their opposition – that most of us who were gay would step up, doing our best to open the doors to welcome those sisters and brothers of ours being excluded. It has to be that way or all of this is as hollow as many suggest.

And, I do understand the suspicion Mr. Taylor referred to. Many in this struggle have long-existed in a place of mistrust, and, it is easy, very easy to lift up fears and objections that have become institutionalized in the PC(USA).

I don’t know how we can resolve those lingering sentiments, let alone identify them all. I do believe that we do not have to split and that neither of us needs to “get our way.” We need to come together and acknowledge what has long been true: the PC(USA) will continue to be a place where we have shared and will continue to share differences – and remain faithful.

Each of us can make our own historical arguments to support what once was and has since changed. It is time for us to put this next unnecessary and divisive argument about the inclusion of LGBT folk in the full work and worship of the church behind us. It is time to move on, while witnessing to the world a Christianity that embraces hospitality, if not always one another.

For me, if we are unable to do such things, then our role in this world as called Christians is greatly reduced. We cannot be satisfied, in my mind, with leaving this world the same as we found it or in more fragmented condition than when we first arrived. We are stuck here in this rut, too dangerously close to a grave. We have too much work to do together to let this continue to take our time, energy, and good will away from those in such need.

Lastly, just let me say that my “intentions” are as stated: to find ways to move beyond G-6.0106b without G-6.0106b. The suggestion that we are promoting a “promiscuous agenda” is the sort of rhetoric that has propelled us into our struggle, fueled by fear and inaccuracy. We need more language of the heart and less intentional darts to derail conversation.

The only agenda I have any support for is one that helps us come together in a loving, Christian way that leads us all closer to the God that has called us together in the PC(USA). All of us…together.

Thanks to Mr. Taylor and Mr. Collins and others who have commented.

Peace,
Ray BagnuoloMinister of the Word and Sacrament, Palisades Presbyterian Church, Palisades, NY’

Finding ways to be together without G-6.0106b

Sent to http://www.layman.org/ in response to: There is one thing worse than a lie: a half truth

Posted by The Layman on September 27, 2007

I want to thank The Rev. Dr. Allen Kemp for his writing, comments at presbytery, and faithfulness. Whatever disagreements I may have with others who see G-6.0106b as an important checkpoint for church leaders, I have always felt that such individuals come to their beliefs and responses with the same conviction and call that I feel in my own being. It is what makes this such a difficult process, seeking a welcoming place in the full work and worship of our church for people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, along with all our sisters and brothers. The use of these words, alone, evokes such a response that it is often near to impossible to enter into a safe and Christian space, where we can each hear each other and listen to how God speaks to us in our own hearts. Dr. Kemp and others, while maintaining their positions, have always been able to do that. I appreciate their witness and practices in this and many other ways.

I am not writing to fight, to divide, or to persuade anyone to change their minds about gay people. We've all tried that. I have sat with Biblical scholars, each taking a position on verses from Scripture, giving clear and impassioned interpretations of those verses, with those who agree supporting their respective speakers. In the end, both sides walk away feeling good about what they have done and nothing changes. We return to our own sides of the PC(USA), faithful witnesses and still apart. General Assembly committees often reflect this dynamic.

Yet, I see us in our presbyteries and at General Assemblies. We worship together, debate, seek justice, truth -- all of us together -- and the ceilings of the churches and civic centers don't fall down upon us. Somehow, we manage to walk and work together, even though our theological positions may be very far apart. Maybe there is something in that practice that we can use to figure out how to be faithful and together even in our greatest of differences.

Most everyone knows someone who is lesbian or gay. I am an ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament serving the Palisades Presbyterian Church in New York. I am a man who is openly gay and was ordained as such. I also teach high school in the public school system in Westchester County, New York. In both roles, I have heard from people who have experienced the pain and suffering of discovering that a member of their family was different. I have counseled young people tossed out of their homes when they came out to their parents or guardians: seeking acceptance only to be rejected. Somehow, that has always struck me as the sin, not that they might have been created as a person who was gay, nurture and nature arguments aside for now -- but rejected.

There are many more stories; many of you have your own. Whenever I work with someone or hear about someone who has been marginalized or tossed out - I think that we, our church and other churches, have failed to grow enough in God's love and hospitality to possibly err on the side of compassion and love in taking the risk of opening our doors to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community as full members. Instead, we draw lines of separation because of different sorts of fear. We become more entrenched in our own beliefs, maybe so much so that we forget the risks Jesus took to save us all.

There must be a way that we can find space in our understandings of God and Scripture that makes it possible for us to make the PC(USA) an example of God's love, not based on certainty but on trust that God would prefer we take the chance, rather than shut the door on one another. God has to be bigger than our arguments. Has to be...if we could just rely on that bit of faith.

Look, there will always be congregations that will have their own methods of worship and interpretation of Scritures. If a person who was gay showed up at the door of a church who loved but could not welcome a gay person, they could simply say to them: "We have a sister church where you will be more welcome than here..." or something to that effect. And, in the other way, someone who seeks a more literal interpretation and traditional worship service could be directed to sister church - so that none were lost or rejected. There must be a way we can work together so that none are lost.

Yes, I absolutely believe G-6.0106b needs to go because it divides us. I am pleased that our presbytery voted to send an overture to do that to General Assembly and I am deeply aware of how this hurt some of our members. Someone always seems to be hurt in this ongoing difficulty we share. Maybe we can heal with each other and limit such unnecessary pain and fear.

And, I disagree that the removal of G-6.0106b will open our church to all forms of sexual impropriety. G-6.0106a is fully able to maintain required guidelines for appropriate behavior, along with the other requirements of the Book of Order and protocols required of candidates in being cleared to seek a call, and they are considerable. Ask anyone who has gone through them.

What G-6.0106b does is eliminate is LGBT folk from serving since it calls for requirements in "marriage," a sacred commitment not yet availble to gay people. We end up using the this to exclude people from our church: good people, friends, family, faithful called people. That can't be the best way to be faithful for any of us. Yet, some of us are so sure we are right that we are ready to split the church. In a world already dividing up into smaller, more ragged, violent, and isolated peices - how could this ever be God's call to any of us.

I will not debate or argue here. Neither of those will achieve anything near consideration of a sacred trust and a way of being together that really takes a risk based on all we hold true. Our world needs this church: all of this church and all of its members. Our diminished numbers have more to do with ways we exclude people than ways in which we include them. At least I think so.
I, and others I know, will be happy to meet in forums or person to help work at being church together. I do not see us as liberals, conservatives, or other political groups. I see us as members of God's family, sharing the same Baptism, with differences that do not need to divide us. We can work this out. We can pray and practice this out faithfully. I have to believe that, and I hope some of you will, as well. Then, once we work it out, we can teach the rest of the world how we did it. That's witnessing that would humble us all in the power of the Holy Spirit it might just unleash.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

In prayers, always, and in peace,Ray Bagnuolo, Minister of the Word and Sacrament
Palisades Presbyterian Church, Palisades, NY
bagnuolo@gmail.com