Dear friends,
Good morning. “Never judge a book by its cover” is an early 20th Century proverb according to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. I thought of it as I listened to Reverend William R. Stayton at a recent Rainbow Room meeting. The Rainbow Room is sponsored by Bucks County Planned Parenthood and is the county’s only center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning youth and allies…ages 14 to 21, its brochure explains.
Mighty Betsy is an active member of Planned Parenthood. She took me to this meeting during Peace Week in Bucks county. Stayton’s topic was “Separation of Church and Hate,” an obvious play on words. Stayton got my attention because he’s an ordained Baptist minister. I may be wrong but I don’t associate the acceptance of homosexuality with Baptists.
Personally, I believe that homosexuality is not a conscious choice of life style. More and more in the medical community feel that the gay gene occurs before birth. The religious right disagrees, of course. I think that tennis star, Martina Navratilova, was absolutely right when she acknowledged her homosexuality with this observation: “Why would anyone in her [his] right mind willingly choose to be gay?”
Stayton is also a certified sex therapist and board member of the Center for Sexuality and Religion. He teaches this subject at Weidner University. Stayton’s mission was to explore why and how the Bible has been used as a tool of oppression against gay and lesbian people. How to respond to those who oppose homosexuality on religious grounds was the key point.
Held at the Lenape Middle School in Doylestown, I think that I was the only journalist at the session. I haven’t seen any coverage of the meeting, which attracted More than 100. That’s too bad.
“I have a love affair with the Bible,” Strayton began, “but I’m grieving that the Bible is used to hurt and alienate people.” He reminded his audience that there are 31,173 verses within the Bible’s 66 books, but only 5 verses devoted to homosexuality.
“There are four ways to approach the Bible,” Strayton continued. “The first is that the Bible is evil, harmful, and causes wars. People use it to spread hate. The second is that the Bible has great historical and literary value. The third is from the view of the literalist who says that the Bible is the word of God, directly from God, and every word is true.”
Here’s his fourth approach. “I’m a contextualist,” Stayton smiled, coining a new word. “A contextualist says, we need to understand what the [Bible] writer was saying and to whom? What was the historical context? What relevance does it have today?”
He recited examples from Paul’s letters, which have been used to justify male domination over women, spousal abuse and slavery. Stayton identified the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as the underpinnings for homosexual hatred. He told the audience that the Bible was written by many sources, sometimes conflicting: scribes, individuals, and committees, often influenced by the political climate of the day.
Stayton believes that the reason why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed was because its citizens were not hospitable to the two strangers who appeared in the story of Lot…not because the cities’ men were homosexual. “Hospitality was one of the greatest values in ancient Hebrew times,” Stayton emphasized. “Failure to be hospitable was judged to be a great sin. It was Josephus, the first Century revisionist, who first linked Sodom and Gomorrah to homosexuality.”
“There are several excellent responses to those who oppose homosexuality,” he added. “Jesus is the trump card…Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. I can fit the glass slipper [into other examples] too,” Stayton said. Look at the [Bible] stories of Ruth and Naomi; Jesus and John. Were these same sex relationships?” Who really knows?
There were several clerics who attended the session. Most of them agreed with Stayton, although I don’t know from what religious flavors they came. You could see heads nod as Stayton charmed his way through that meeting. I can understand why his college classes are oversubscribed.
By the way,
you can reach him at
Liberal Christian denominations, like Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Unitarians, Quakers and some among the Mennonite community, accept gays in the clergy. So do several forms of Judaism. Like the U. S. military, Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians are continuing their “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. But, just as the military abandoned segregation in the 1950’s, it’s beginning to rethink its “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule.
It will be interesting to see if Reverend Stayton attracts more converts.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith
PS. Planned Parenthood’s Rainbow Room is presenting comedian
Michele Balan, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, and the Rainbow Room Youth on
Sunday, April 22 at the New Hope-Solebury High School at