Religious Vow Homosexuality Fight
By JANELLE CARTER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group of conservative religious ministers
says it is time for the religious community to play a more active
role in opposing homosexuality.
"We the religious people have to start to act up," Rabbi
Yehuda Levin of New York, a member of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis
of U.S. and Canada, said at a Wednesday news conference sponsored
by the conservative Family Research Council. "I think this is a
new beginning of the family fighting back."
"Our outreach to the gay and lesbian community is not motivated
by hate," said Bishop Harold Calvin Ray of the Redemptive Life
Fellowship in West Palm Beach, Fla. "I would hope the message of
the church would be: `We don't condense and compromise ... in order
to be politically correct."'
"Homosexuality is a sin," said the Rev. Jerome McFarland, a
Baptist minister from Washington, D.C. "It's contrary to the
express will of God."
But even religious leaders are divided on homosexuality. Several
other clerics attended a news conference held by a gay rights
organization.
"God loves and accepts love from all people, regardless of
sexual orientation," said Rabbi Marc Israel, director of
congregational relations for the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism.
Israel called the other ministers an "intolerant, homophobic
chorus."
"This is a very well-orchestrated political campaign against
the gay community," said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of
the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.
Conservative leaders said they were only responding to massive
lobbying efforts by gay activists to influence public policy.
Wednesday's news conferences were the latest in a recent public
dispute over homosexuality. Several religious groups took out
full-page newspaper advertisements last month denouncing
homosexuality.
The Judicial Council of the 9.5 million-member United Methodist
Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination, ruled
at a meeting Tuesday night in Dallas that a minister who performs a
marriage of two people of the same sex can be removed from the
ministry.
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., compared
homosexuality to kleptomania. And Green Bay Packers star Reggie
White, an ordained minister, drew fire from gay activists and
political liberals for calling homosexuality a sin during a broad
attack on homosexuality in a speech to the Wisconsin legislature.
Senate Republican leaders have blocked a vote on confirming
James Hormel, a homosexual, as ambassador to Luxembourg to protest
what some have called Hormel's promotion of a "gay lifestyle."
And last month, the House voted to block federal payments to San
Francisco or any other city that requires city contractors to
provide benefits to same-sex partners.
But last week the House voted to uphold a Clinton administration
order banning discrimination against homosexual federal workers a
major election-year blow to conservatives.
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