On Tuesday, Texans will vote on a constitutional amendment that would outlaw gay marriage. This week, coincidentally, the United Methodists met in Houston and voted to defrock a lesbian minister from Pennsylvania. The Methodists also decided not to suspend a Virginia pastor who refused to let an openly gay man join his church.
The confluence of politics and faith on matters dealing with homosexuality is no surprise. Figuring out what God thinks about homosexuality remains a thorny task for many denominations. And how the government treats gays and lesbians remains a prime political issue.
Two years ago, the church elected its first openly gay bishop. At the same time it agreed to let bishops create local blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The votes, however, have deeply divided the church, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and have put it at odds with many Anglicans in Europe, Africa and elsewhere.
Last year, its ad campaign showing acceptance of same-sex couples was rejected by several TV networks as "too controversial." A new set of ads began airing last month.
This week, the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, the world's largest predominantly gay and lesbian church, voted to ask the United Church of Christ to allow it to join the denomination.
This is the world's largest predominantly gay and lesbian denomination, and as such, approves of gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages.
In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI - issued a paper describing homosexuality as "a troubling moral and social phenomenon" and homosexual acts as "intrinsically disordered."
"There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family," it said. In places where same-sex unions have gained civil recognition, "one must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws," the document added.
The church position is less clear regarding gay clergy. Except for the relatively few priests who converted from other denominations or belong to the Catholic Eastern Rite, Catholic priests of whatever sexual orientation are supposed to be celibate. Whether gay, celibate men who were once not celibate should be priests is a matter of current controversy.
The convention is the largest non-Catholic faith group in America. Individual Baptist churches are autonomous; the membership is fractured on some issues, with the largest Texas Baptist convention largely estranged from the national body. But there is no serious disagreement about homosexuality.
The official SBC Web site says "a homosexual person simply does not exist." Nobody, according to the Southern Baptists, is homosexual by nature.
Modern culture's acceptance of homosexuality is of great concern, the Web site says: "Those who take seriously the authority of God's Word should be aware that perhaps no subject poses a greater threat to the place of Scripture in our world today."
The Web site of the more moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas says "the homosexual lifestyle is not normal or acceptable in God's sight and is indeed called sin."
Both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas oppose same-sex unions, religious or civil, and neither accepts openly gay clergy.
Conservative Baptists have attacked their more moderate brethren for supporting interfaith organizations that are less hard-line on homosexuality.
The denomination Web site says, "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in the United Methodist Church." And "ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches."
Twice in the past decade, the Presbyterian Church voted not to allow the ordination of openly gay clergy. Such ordinations were approved by church leadership, but then rejected by the majority of the presbyteries, the local administrative bodies of the church. The issue is to come up again at the denomination's 2006 General Assembly.
Virtually all major, traditionally African-American denominations oppose openly gay clergy and same-sex blessing ceremonies. Those include the National Baptist Convention (claiming about 5 million members), African Methodist Episcopal Church (2.5 million members) and African Episcopal Zion Church 1.4 million members).
This faith encompasses a wide spectrum of beliefs about homosexuality. The sacred texts most widely accepted by Hindus do not address the issue.
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