Articles of Faith
|
Articles
of Faith |
by Rev. Steven Baines
As
someone who was raised and ordained as a Southern Baptist I was saddened,
but not shocked, at news of the recent arrest of Rev. Lonnie Latham, a
minister from Tulsa, Okla., and an executive committee member of the virulently
anti-gay Southern Baptist Convention. Rev. Latham was reportedly arrested
for propositioning a male undercover police oficer in front of a motel
known as a high-traffic area for gay hustlers. Unfortunately, Rev. Latham's
story is one repeated by those in the darkest corners of the closet who
are trapped by the damaging teachings of misguided religious leaders.
The fall of this religious-right figure
is part of an inevitable cycle of scandal, as the self-appointed guardians
of "traditional values," their moral ships sinking under them,
find themselves in the lifeboat with the rest of us sinners. The moral
hypocrisy of many right-wing religious leaders comes from their fundamental
misunderstanding of religion as the practice of a complicated and esoteric
set of rules designed to restrict human freedom, rather than a way of
living which frees individuals to lives of greater compassion and personal
growth.
The incidences of national conservative
religious leaders caught in scandal are many, and run the gamut from the
tragic hypocrisy of the closet to personal ethical lapses to outright
crimes. Here are a few recent high-profile examples:
Ralph Reed, the former executive director
of the Christian Coalition, is embroiled in the Jack Abramoff lobbying
scandal and stands accused of using funds Christian conservatives had
donated to fight the spread of gambling, to actually promote gambling
on Native-American reservations.
Monsignor Eugene Clark used his pulpit at
St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and his program on the Eternal
Word Television Network to blame gay priests for the Catholic child sex
abuse scandal and once denounced the United States as "the most immoral
country in the Western Hemisphere." He resigned in August 2005
after an affair with his married secretary was exposed.
William Bennett is the standard-bearer of
the right-wing "traditional values" crusade and chief propagator
of one of the most damaging lies being spread about the gay community:
the "statistic" invented by a discredited psychologist that
the average age of death of gay men is 43. In 2003, it was revealed that
Bennett had a gambling addiction he kept hidden from his family, despite
losing a reported $8 million.
John Paulk is the former chair of
Exodus International who appeared on the cover of Newsweek in 1998 as
an "ex-gay" and founder of Focus on the Family's ex-gay program
Love Won Out. He was discovered and photographed in September 2000 buying
drinks for patrons in a gay bar in Washington, D.C. Although Paulk left
Focus on the Family in 2003 to pursue "other ministry opportunities,"
Love Won Out continues to hold events across the country.
It is not my intention to cast stones of
condemnation at these individuals. We all have times when we need grace
and forgiveness for our ethical failings or inconsistencies, whether from
religious communities or from the community at large. There is, however,
a profound need to understand that, when religion is used to bring repression
and darkness rather than liberation and light, it is toxic to both leaders
and followers. It is inevitable that those who pile so much guilt on the
rest of the world will sooner or later be crushed by it themselves.
It is self-loathing that drives some public
figures with careers espousing "moral values" into lives of
deception as they sneak into dive bars, cheap motels or gambling casinos
for a night’s escape from a life of repression. It is the same fear
and shame that causes them to lash out at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) people. The life-altering message that I and so many other LGBT
people of faith have found is that freedom comes not from lies and denial,
but by recognizing our mutual connection to all our neighbors with honesty
and humility in the face of the Creator.
Based in Washington, D.C., Rev. Steven Baines is an elder in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force National Religious Leadership Roundtable. He serves as chaplain of Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples.