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Adee: Seven more votes until equality
By Michael J. Adee, More Light Presbyterians/365gay.com
04.18.2011 11:00am EDT
The summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania rose 19,340 feet before me.
I had vowed to climb as far as I could and supporters pledged a dollar for every foot of elevation I climbed. Every dollar went to support the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
On the way up I said, “Oh my God” more than once, and meant it every time. Who knew that the journey up the tallest mountain in Africa would be part of the journey toward full participation by LGBT people in the Presbyterian Church (USA)?
Presbyterians are climbing their own mountain and, although not yet at the summit, we can see it from here.
We are seven steps away from that summit.
Across the country, 173 regional presbyteries have been voting on a constitutional amendment to return to qualifications for ordained leadership based upon faith and character, not marital status or sexual orientation. With seven more positive votes, the policy in the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country will change from exclusion to inclusion.
They will join the millions of members in three other mainline Protestant denominations that have eliminated discriminatory policies.
This all started about 40 years ago, not long after Stonewall, in Christian and Jewish groups when gay people stood up and said, “I’m gay and God loves me.” Despite insult and injury, many of us have stayed, struggled, and shared with everyone we could that God’s creative love is the source of life and faith for all of us.
I was baptized and confirmed in the church. I loved going to church as a kid, it was a safe and loving place. When I affirmed being gay, the church was no longer a safe place for me. I left the church so I could be myself.
I know first-hand why some of my LGBT sisters and brothers do not trust the church and want nothing to do with religion. But many do not know that congregations and faith traditions have been changing. Media images of Christianity tend to focus on hate-filled extremists and Evangelicals who think they can pray-away-the gay. Mostly those churches have just prayed us out the doors of their congregations.
But that has not made us any less spiritual and religious. Many of us found or created places of genuine welcome. In 1991, I was loved back to faith by Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, an affirming More Light church in Cincinnati, Ohio. There I joined others in the work to transform the church.
It is no easy task to make one’s way through anti-gay interpretations of Scripture, the judgmental attitudes toward same-gender loving people, or the awkward silence many of us have experienced when we show up at church. But our assuredness in our own value is bearing fruit. The truth is, things are changing for the better. Presbyterians are at the brink of policy change. When it comes, some people will walk into churches for the first time in decades and help the church with the next steps in the journey toward inclusion and acceptance.
I had help in my journey, and I did reach Kilimanjaro’s summit. It was one of the most sacred moments in my life. The Presbyterian Church is nearing the summit of its forty-year uphill journey to acceptance of LGBT persons in the life and ministry of the church.
And yet, in many ways, the journey will have just begun.
Michael J. Adee, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians. He is an openly gay Elder in the Presbyterian Church and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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