Baptist Church Nixes Family Photos Rather Than Include Gays

Posted by Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend at 6:34 AM on March 3, 2008.

This is an interesting article in the Dallas Morning News. Given how dicey it is these days to be an LGBT-welcoming Baptist church, expect continued struggles such as the one Broadway Baptist Church faces. The church according to the article, was known to be inclusive of gays and moderate in its views (including women in leadership roles), but it hit a wall of tolerance when it planned to publish its church directory for its 125th anniversary with photos of members and their families

There was discord and disagreement as to how to treat its gay parishioners and their families, since all people would be identified in the publication. What did church members decide constituted a compromise?

In a 294-182 vote, members approved a recommendation by the church's board of deacons to publish a directory that would include member photos in "candid, small and large group pictures" but not include family portraits.

The 125th anniversary pictorial directories "will identify the people in them by name and every effort will be made to include all members in the directory," the deacon board said in its recommendation.

The board said members recognize that there are differing opinions on what constitutes a family. The proposal, the board said, did not endanger the church's Baptist affiliations.

This is incredibly sad, as it brings to the fore the underlying homophobia and heteronormativity in Broadway Baptist Church. Rather than confront their feelings about what constitutes a family, for some members, the answer is to get rid of the pastor who called for honesty in reconciling their beliefs with LGBT members in their midst.

More after the jump, including what occurred when Barack Obama addressed yet another predominantly black crowd last week and forced them to face their homophobia.

"This has been a difficult decision for our congregation," deacon chair Kathy Madeja said, reading a statement after the vote. "We believe we have approached it in the best way possible. We did not rush to make a decision. We tried not only to listen to each other, but to understand each other's opinions.

...Church members voted after a sermon by Pastor Brett Younger in which he asked parishioners to look people in the eye and question what they see and how they react.

"If we look into the eyes of a gay Christian, we may have to rethink some of our opinions," Mr. Younger said.

...Some church members have sought to fire Mr. Younger. The board unanimously recommended that the congregation undergo "remediation and reconciliation" before voting on his future. Church members have not yet voted on that recommendation.

This kind of dialogue and struggle is going on in many churches as members who are committed to their faith come out of the closet. Those among the faithful who condemn homosexuality are forced to face their friends and neighbors, and it's clear that many would rather shut LGBTs out at worst, or pretend gay families don't matter.

***

Obama challenges predominantly black crowd in Texas on LGBT equality

In a related matter, Barack Obama held a town hall in Beaumont, Texas on Thursday, and again he took time to strategically challenge an enthusiastic crowd (3/4 black, according to Ben Smith of The Politico) to remind them that civil rights issues don's stop at race or gender.

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes - race, gender, etc. - that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.

So he took a different tack:

"Now I'm a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.

"I hear people saying things that I don't think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

One of the strengths of Barack Obama, regardless of what you believe about his commitment to moving our rights forward (and the debacle of the McClurkin incident), is that he alone has walked the line in addressing homophobia in the black community in this election cycle. It's sadly, a role you would not see Hillary Clinton taking any kind of lead on, because of the third rail of discussing race in this country.

Time and again we've discussed here on the Blend of the dilemma of addressing this topic, and how many whites feel that this is a matter that somehow can only be addressed by LGBT blacks, the reason being that whites are too uncomfortable about potential conflict and confrontation or appearing paternalistic on the matter.

I happen to disagree with this thinking, not because the fears of discomfort and racial conflict aren't real, but because we need to all be able to point out bigotry where it exists, regardless of the color of the people hurling the charges. The real problem is not pointing out homophobia, but feeling so disconnected from people who are different socially or culturally to feel able to bridge the gap and make the connection without being hurt. There's no doubt that this is hard work and requires thick skin, but I believe that the end result can make a difference that will benefit us all.

And that's not unlike the hard work the members of Broadway Baptist Church have to do when confronting their fears about "the other" and can no longer hide their heads in the sand about reality. We exist. We aren't monsters. We have families.

Tagged as: religion, obama, gay rights, christianity, homophobia

Pam Spaulding blogs at Pam's House Blend.