If current events provide any clue, questions about gay rights and same-sex marriage could one day divide the Seventh-day Adventist church in North America, much as older, more established denominations are being divided.
In November, conservative Lutherans broke away from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America over these issues. The U.S. Episcopal Church has also experienced a series of fissures in its foundation since the consecration of the openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003.
The divide will undoubtedly deepen since in December the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles elected its first the first openly gay bishop, the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool. According to the Los Angeles Times, Glasspool has been in a committed lesbian relationship for the past 21 years.
The SDA church has only experienced minor tremors on this issue so far. Prior to the passing of California's Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage unconstitutional in the Golden State, 1,328 Prop 8 opponents signed an on-line petition which said that the proposition "breaches the spirit of religious liberty, separation of church and state, and non-establishment of religion that Adventists have long cherished. By supporting this Proposition to define marriage from a religious perspective the Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council is in danger of imposing their particular religious, theological convictions upon the general public. Adventists in the United States have historically defended the concerns of minority groups (even when they have disagreed with them on specific positions and practices) and have strongly objected to the use of religious arguments and means for establishing even what they consider to be public good."
Most of those who signed the petition identified themselves as Adventists.
A thousand or more SDAs openly opposing Prop 8 isn't exactly ordaining gay pastors or performing gay marriages, but it certainly speaks to what may be a growing reality in our denomination. Some of us do, in fact, see gay rights as a civil rights issue. And this may mean that our day of publicly wrestling with the questions of gay rights and gay marriage may be coming -- and perhaps more quickly than we might think.
Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International, a group of current and former Adventists who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, intersex or transgendered, has been around since 1976 and claims a membership of about 1,550. Again, not an earth-shattering number but maybe the numbers don't say as much as the changes in American culture and politics do.
It's no longer verboten for a politician to be pro-gay rights. Gays serve in Congress and in state legislatures. Even Bible-belt Alabama has an openly gay member in the state house, Rep. Patricia Todd.
Television shows routinely have gay characters. Two openly gay comedians host talk shows -- Ellen Degeneres and Wanda Sykes. American Idol star Adam Lambert tongue-kisses his male keyboard player and simulates receiving oral sex from a male dancer during the American Music Awards and wasn't blacklisted.
Gays are still very much a minority in America, but they are also more familiar to us than ever. Many of us have family members and friends who are gay. It should no longer be a surprise that some of us Adventists have known gay people who were regulars at church.
A kid that I attended church school with in Chicago had a twin sister who was as pretty as could be. Even as early as first or second grade, he often acted like a girl as much as she did. Poor kid tried to man up many times -- often because we were calling him a sissy or by his sister's name -- but he had a hard time supressing his tendencies.
Years later, I heard that he was living life as an openly gay man. No surprise there.
I don't know if he was born gay or chose to be -- and quite frankly, I don't see what difference it makes in either case. What I know now is that our ridicule didn't change who he was any more than gay-bashing sermons and judgmental reactions to gay Adventists will change who they are.
The "God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" argument is intellectually and theologically weak. If God created everyone, then of course God created Adam and Steve -- and gay or straight, they are His children.
Scientifically, we now know that hormones and anatomy don't always match up. It's time for us to accept that sexual identity is too complicated for us to judge and solve. God alone has the credentials for that.
Gradually, more of us Adventists seem willing to confront these complexities. Eventually, the questions that may divide us may be these: What kind of church do we want to be? A church that welcomes all people, regardless of sexual orientation, into full fellowship? Or one that discriminates based on sexual orientation, much as churches routinely did (and some reportedly still do) based on race?
If we chose option A, the theological and cultural challenges will be tough. But we must start somewhere.
The Lutherans and Episcopalians probably never anticipated that sexual orientation could split their denominations. I wonder if we SDAs can learn from their experiences and avoid their drama.
