Reconciling Ministries Network

New Year's Revolutions

by Leland Spencer

A few years ago, I had a conversation with a great friend. I love talking with this friend because he always challenges me, yet he does so in a polite, civilized, respectful manner, and he actually does it for the sake of dialogue, not for the opportunity to prove me wrong or something like that. He really values what I have to say in response to his challenges, and that’s why he does it; it’s definitely refreshing to talk with him. We were talking about faith this particular day, and he said something I’ll never forget: “The problem with Christianity is that it has lost its revolutionary feel.”  The problem with Christianity is that it has lost its revolutionary feel.

My friends, Jesus was a revolutionary. The early Christian movement was revolutionary. Throughout history, Christianity has often been revolutionary. Can we say the same about the body of Christ today? Can we say the same about our own faith and the way we live it out, individually and collectively? Am I revolutionary? Are you revolutionary? Is the congregation you attend revolutionary? Is our denomination revolutionary? Is the body of Christ revolutionary in this twenty-first century? Is my friend right; has the church lost its revolutionary feel? I’m challenged by these questions, in part because, at least in some cases, I see such a striking difference between what the answers are and what the answers ought to be. We’re called to be revolutionary.

I've never been good at keeping New Year's resolutions, so instead of a New Year's resolution, how can we work on having a New Year's revolution?

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Leland G. Spencer IV, a lifelong United Methodist, is a PhD student in the department of speech communication at the University of Georgia, where he researches religious rhetoric as it intersects with gender and sexuality. Leland holds an M.A. in Communication from the University of Cincinnati (2009). While in Cincinnati, Leland served as the worship intern at the Wesley Foundation. Leland served as a part-time local pastor at Mapleton United Methodist Church in the East Ohio Conference from 2005 until 2007 when Leland withdrew from the candidacy process because of the United Methodist Church's exclusive position about the ordination of LGBT persons.

Sly and Simple

By Peter L. DeGroote

“…for the children of this world exhibit better sense in dealing with their own kind than do the children of the light.”  Luke 16:8b

“…Jesus would advise them: Be as sly as snakes and as simple as doves.” Matthew 10:16

Both are from that collection of Jesus’ comments that are usually overlooked. The biblical text demonstrates that even the early church had interpretive difficulties. Two recent events have me looking at them in a new way.

First: The ELCA (Lutherans) recently decided to ordain openly gay people. In the background is a story about church trials. UMs know that church trials are very expensive, $100,000 being the minimum cost in most of our conferences. (They require hotels for all concerned, lawyers, witnesses, etc.). Organized differently, Lutheran trials are conducted on a national scale but just as expensive. It seems that a large number of clergy (up to the high 80s) “came out” in one way or another. A barrage of church trials would have been necessary at a cost that threatened to consume a great deal of the national income. Ordination seemed a better way to go. This was in the context of multi-year process which also involved all of the normal tools of teaching, preaching, meditation, and prayer—but the cost was a new element that the unconvinced could not ignore.

Second: The Roman Catholic Church was a strong opponent of gay rights legislation when it was first introduced in the New York State legislature. In response, supporters prepared legislation that would have eliminated the statute of limitations for sexual crimes, a shield behind which the Roman Catholic Church protects itself from further financial losses arising from priestly sexual abuse. A compromise was reached. (This is not to be confused with the recent marriage equality legislation.)

Many prefer to avoid this kind of strategy as tasteless “hardball” politics that has no place in the spiritual life of the church. Instead, we are urged to seek a “come, let us reason together” or a “preaching, teaching, praying approach,” believing that others will come to see our point of view or that the spirit will somehow join our efforts to transform those with whom we disagree. Jesus seems to be telling us that there will be times when we need to “exhibit better sense” than relying on a simple trust in the lessons of reconciliation, compassion, and forgiveness.

The Parable of the Widow and the Unjust Judge comes to mind.(Luke 18:1-8) Jesus’ lessons on human relations do not call for nagging. Nevertheless, the parable suggests that when dealing with an official unconcerned with God, people, or justice that it would be better to understand just what that official might respond to. In that world a woman constantly going to a judge’s house to loudly nag in a way that the entire town could see and hear was a way of accomplishing justice. 

Even so, when “exhibiting better sense,” it is important that we not lose our identity; that we not lose the simplicity of honoring and respecting all of God’s creation, even those who are in opposition to us. When using the slyness and energy symbolized by the snake in advancing justice, let’s not get carried away with it, proud of it, or corrupted by it. The purpose of a just society remains fairly simple and clear, and we should remain the same, as simple as doves. 

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Peter is a second career pastor who has served in several churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Prior to his ordination, he was a secondary-school teacher, a university lecturer in Government, an Associate in a government related professional association, CEO of a national financial institution. Peter was involved in Mid-Atlantic Affirmation, served on the National Council of Affirmation, and sat on the Board of the Reconciling Congregations Program, the predecessor name for RMN and has worked with BWARM (Baltimore-Washington Reconciling United Methodists).

The Holiday Season

by Joey Heath

Christmas time is a time of the year a lot of people look forward to. It is a time of decorations and good food. It is a time for not just thinking of yourself but of giving to others. It is a time of joy and good spirits. It is a time for coming together with family and the joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Well that is for a lot of people but not all people. For some the holidays do not evoke these emotions but rather the opposite. They bring sadness and heartache and a reminder that they do not have families to spend the holidays with.

One particular group of people who suffer at the holidays are our LGBT brothers and sisters who by being honest with those they love and sharing who they really are, have been rejected. For many that means they are not able to spend the holidays with their families who have told them they are not welcome. Others are welcome but only if they do not bring the significant person in their life or if they promise to not mention anything about their “lifestyle”. This is tragic. How can anyone kick a member of their own family out and tell them not to come back or ask them to not be themselves?

I bring this up because it is the holiday season and I know many will be hurting. This year I would ask you first to pray for those who are hurting because they have been rejected by those they care about most. Second I would ask if you know someone that is in this situation and will be hurting this year go the extra mile and invite them to your own house for a meal and to share presents. Most of all this would be about offering this person a loving place to go. Think about if you had no place to go for Christmas, what would you want someone to do for you? Do that thing. Remember the smallest gesture can mean the most to people, especially when they are hurting.

Hope everyone this year has a very merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

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Joey Heath is a 26 year old life long United Methodist. He is currently a graduate student at Wesley Theological Seminary completing his Masters in Divinity. Once an ordained pastor, Joey hopes he will be able to bring real change to the UMC on the issues of sexuality and gender identity at the broader church level, but also with individuals, so that one day the church will truly be a place that is inclusive of all people.

Comfort

by Violet Fenn

Advent and Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. My favorite part of the four weeks is the performance of Handel’s Messiah that I attend annually. The Christmas portion begins with an overture and then a beautiful tenor aria that starts with text from the 40th chapter of Isaiah: “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.” This incredible verse speaks volumes and has spoken the loudest to me this year.

In a recent sermon, the senior minister at the church I attend said: “Friends are sometimes God’s apology for your family.” Many people can relate, but to the LGBTQ community it has particular meaning. When our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and other blood relatives hear the news from us that we are lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer, the reaction is not always what we expect. There is often shock, anger and judgment. So when we are rejected by our families, we turn to others in the LGBTQ community who can relate. We can also turn to others who are our allies. Not only can we turn to others, we can turn to God. To some, this seems like a contradictory statement. We who are Reconciling know differently. We can turn to the one who created us exactly like we are.

This Advent, those words from Isaiah have a new meaning for me. I take comfort in knowing that Christ is present but I also take comfort in knowing that God is with me despite the heartache I experienced when much of my family rejected me. We in the Reconciling movement who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer can take comfort knowing that when we are open and accepting of ourselves, God is pleased even though our families may not be.

If this Advent seems to be lonelier without family, we can look to the family we choose: friends. We can also look to God, the friend we all have. Take comfort in that.

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Violet Fenn, a United Methodist for 5 years, is a senior at Northeastern State University in Broken Arrow, OK majoring in English with a minor in Psychology. Violet became involved with RMN in April after attending a Call to Witness training. She is now part of leadership with MOSAIC as well as its TransJustice work group.

A Preface for New Year’s Resolutions

by Peter L. DeGroote

A new year is a time for resolutions. My resolve can be generally summed up in the proposition that something must be done to repair the torn fabric of the United Methodist connection.

We call ourselves a connectional church, a movement of people who embrace each other with honor and respect, compassion and encouragement. The resulting theory is that we are all woven together into a fabric that is wonderful to behold, an exemplar to the world around us. The reality is a shredded picture presenting an image of hypocrisy.

So where is the connectional fabric shredded? In a number of places but in no place greater than when it seeks to deal with gay folks. (Despite the male bias of that word, I am using it here as a shorthand to refer to all LGBTQ persons.)

A few examples, you are welcome to add more:

1. The United Methodist claim is that all persons are of sacred worth but through legislation, policy, and practice gay people become less so.
   
2. We are baptized in the church, encouraged to participate in all things, called upon to give our money, but those of us called to ministry are rejected.
3. We may feel at home in a congregation that embraces us but if we move we can no longer be assured that we will be able to transfer our membership to another UM church because Pastors have been given the right to deny the membership of gay people in a local church.
4. We are expected to support the church’s great programs of social justice and worldwide missions, but in our contributions we are also supporting our own oppression engendered by the claim that our lives and our living are not compatible with Christian teachings. In doing so, we are forced to participate in placing a stigma on ourselves and those we love that is a direct cause of much discrimination and prejudice that gay people experience within the larger society.
5. The church claims to support the civil rights of all people but opposes the civil right of marriage for gay people, seeking to project a theological argument into a civil issue.
6. Even in those states where civil marriage of gay people is legal, the church prohibits the conduct of marriage services by our clergy or in our buildings, denying the pastoral discretion that church law is supposed to allow.
7. Despite 40 years of petitioning and arguing at all levels of the church about its views on gay people, the General Conference has been unwilling to acknowledge that we are a church divided on this issue. It is fair to say that this denial goes a little further than hypocrisy.

So, if I resolve to do something about the shredding of UM connection, what do I do? In many ways I keep on doing what I have been doing, and that is probably what many others will do as well. However, I will explore new methods, be a little bolder, and urge others to join in that effort.

How long will I keep doing it? After 30 years I have seen a lot of changes in practice and procedure on a local level but nothing at the disciplinary or policy levels. In fact, on those levels some things have gotten worse. I do get tired from beating my head against the wall. I notice that most young folks wonder why I bother and some of the old-timers I have known are long gone elsewhere.

What’s the alternative? Going elsewhere is fairly easy. There are many places to go. I’m not ready for that yet, but I understand those who have already gone and will not twist arms in an effort to make anyone stay. But, if some of those bricks don’t begin to move soon, I too will be gone. I have to decide which bricks.

Lessons for United Methodists from Mayor-elect Annise Parker and Strom Thurmond

by Rev. Gil Caldwell

I am asked so frequently, "Gil, why are you such an active advocate for the rights of LGBT persons and same-gender couples in the church and state?" that I will repeat here my response. "I am a 76 year old man. I was born in North Carolina and grew up in Texas. I have seen and experienced first-hand the foolish, irrational, unreasonable and the spiritually-demonic reality of separation, segregation and punishment of persons solely because of their race. I cannot be silent now as I observe the same thing happening to persons and couples because of their sexual orientation. Yogi Berra once said, 'Its déjà-vu all over again' and at this moment that is exactly how I feel."

On Saturday, December 12, 2009, the voters of Houston elected Annise Parker as their Mayor. The media described her election as "The first election of a Mayor in a major city, of someone who is openly gay.” Almost four years earlier on November 8, 2005, the voters of Texas, "overwhelmingly approved a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage." Mayor-elect Parker was worthy of being elected Mayor of Houston, but because Houston is in Texas she cannot marry her partner of many years because they share the same gender. Their children are unable to say their parents are married, because they are not legally allowed to be married in Texas.

The late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is the father of Essie Mae Washington who was born from his relationship with Carrie Butler, a servant in the home of his parents who was black. Thurmond, although over time altered his racist views, is remembered as the Senator who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Before that, Thurmond had been the presidential candidate of the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party in 1948.

What commonality can we draw from the stories of Strom Thurmond and Annise Parker? Thurmond could demean blacks and vote against legislation that would grant them civil rights because blacks as a group were anonymous and without personhood or personality. But Carrie Butler, with whom he fathered a child, was not anonymous. She was a person; with a personality and humanity known by the Thurmond household as well as by Strom Thurmond. Thus, Thurmond would support Essie Mae Washington financially and otherwise until his death.

There can be no question that some of the voters in Houston who voted for Annise Parker as their Mayor voted earlier against same sex marriage. In 2005 voters denied the rights of same sex couples who represented "them": an unknown segment of humanity undeserving of the same rights heterosexual couples deserve. But, in December 2009 Annise Parker was supported by persons who believed that her experience, gifts, commitment and other personal attributes made her worthy of being Mayor. The contradiction between the vote of Texans in 2005 and the vote of persons in Houston in December 2009, when considered, provides a "learning opportunity" for our denomination.

There is a proposal that a special session of a United Methodist General Conference be held to discuss internal structural and financial issues. I suggest that the Council of Bishops and others who will be developing the agenda add an item on how The United Methodist Church in the USA can be in effective ministry to LGBT persons considering the existence of legal same sex unions, marriages, and the election of public officials who are gay. If we cannot be in full ministry to same sex couples, what does that say about the quality of our ministry to other couples?  And, with our present language and legislation about homosexuality why would any elected official who is gay respect United Methodist ministry?

Many of us believe there is wisdom in applying the Quadrilateral: Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason to our practice of ministry in The United Methodist Church. Some would say our legislation and words about same-gender loving couples are unreasonable, even irrational. We are living in a time when attitudes and actions toward LGBT persons and same-gender couples are changing all around us. We have all heard the phrase, "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste". The history, heritage and hope of the United Methodist Church is too valuable to squander as we fail to use our minds, maybe even lose our minds in our un-reasoned attitudes/actions toward same gender loving persons. If we continue to misuse our minds on one issue can our insights on Scripture, Tradition and Experience be trusted?

The Night That Changed My Life

by Joey Heath

Recently in my Hebrew Bible class, or Old Testament as it is called by many in other places, we discussed the Psalms and spoke specifically about the power of lament, which make up about a third of the Psalms. Despite this fact we rarely hear this side in our churches, the angry screaming “why?” at God. I thought I would share a time of prayer when I was lamenting to God because in that moment of being most real with God, God was more real to me then I have ever experienced.

I remember that night like it was yesterday. It was a random night during the week when nothing was going on and so I was over at my campus ministry house in the prayer closet. This space is what would have been a walk in closet when the house was a living space but was now used as a private prayer space off of a room we called the prayer room. This particular night was not really that different from most nights. As I had been doing daily for around two years, I was praying that God would remove my homosexuality from me. I was praying that God would forgive me for having felt attracted to guys that day. I was praying that God would forgive me for having the desire to see what it would be like to just kiss a guy. As usual I was crying and that night my prayer turned into lament.

After two years of daily commitment to study and prayer I felt no closer to my goal. In fact the pressure to keep up the facade was beginning to get to me. I was tired of not being honest with those I cared most about. I was tired of being depressed. I was tired of crying. Most of all I was tired of feeling like this struggle had taken over my spiritual life and even though I was doing my best to follow what I thought to be God's will for my life, I felt more distant from God than I had since I began my relationship with God. I guess in that time of prayer I reached a breaking point.

Suddenly my mood changed from sorrow to anger. I found myself saying to God “Why am I still this way? Why haven't I seen even the least bit of change? Why do you seem so distant while I am doing my best to be obedient?” Finally the real break came. I cried out “I can’t do this anymore! I can’t continue on like this so if you want me to change and you want me to not be gay then you are going to have to take it away yourself. If it is truly your will then you do it because I can't!”

In that moment my crying suddenly stopped and I sat back in silence. I just sat there for a moment and that is when God spoke to me in a way I will never forget but will probably never be able to describe. It wasn't an audible voice but it was not a thought coming from me either. It was something else coming from somewhere else, it was God. God said “that's ok Joey I love you anyway”. With this message from God a peace suddenly rested on me that I can only describe as the peace of God. It was like suddenly God had swooped me up in God's loving arms and held me. In this peace I knew that God was telling me it was ok for me to stop fighting, that God truly loved me, and that I am a beloved created child of God. In that moment all the sorrow, distress, and despair seemed to melt away, replaced only with God's comfort.

That moment has become a defining moment in my life. It was one of the clearest experiences of the presence of God I have had. While I live with the presence of God daily this was a special moment when God reached down and touched me in a moment when I truly needed it. What is even more interesting is that it came out of a lamenting experience, a moment when my emotions were raw and I was completely honest with God. I guess what I am trying get at is that God was present with me in my time of lamenting and honored that place of honesty it took me too. So why do we not preach this from our pulpits? Why do we say to question God or question the will of God is heresy? Why do we tell people that church is not the place to yell “why?” to God?  It is in those moments of honesty that it is sometimes easiest to meet with God because we are most vulnerable. So why is it so uncomfortable to question God?

The Inconvenience of Advent

by Adrienne Trevathan

A couple months ago, I went to a hymn festival at Northwestern.  It was a chilly night, and as I stood on the steps outside the chapel waiting for a friend, I was thinking about how good it would feel to be mesmerized by beautiful music, surrounded by stained glass windows and friends.

After about 10 minutes of waiting for my friend, I anxiously checked the time.  Who wants to show up late for a concert?  I didn’t want to make an appearance.  A few seconds later, I saw a man approaching from the left in my peripheral vision.  I turned my head and saw an elderly man wearing a faded suit.  To my surprise, the man suddenly dropped to his knees and began to crawl, with great struggle.  I stood in shock for what felt like an hour as I watched this elderly man climb the first step up toward the chapel, his whole body shaking with effort.  After I got over my initial shock, I asked him if he wanted help.  He gently said, “Yes, please,” so I put one hand in his and the other on his arm and helped pull him up to the top of the stairs.  He slowly stood up, still shaking, balanced himself, and said, “Thank you.”  “Are you okay?”  I asked.  “Yes,” he replied.  He entered the chapel and I stayed outside.

I didn’t really know anything about him.  Why was he by himself?  Was he homeless?  Was he just determined to go sing hymns?  What I can’t figure out is that he could have walked on the grass next to the steps; there was only a small incline, and he wouldn’t have had to get on his knees.  Maybe he didn’t think about walking on the ground instead, or maybe he didn’t notice.

The hymn festival was beautiful.  It was the sort of occasion that I really enjoy: a group of performers entertaining me and offering me an emotional, intellectual experience that I could appreciate.  After all, I do have seminary training.  I know why those hymns were written.  I know their context; I can tell when something is off key.  “I had a right” to be there, to be enamored with it all.  And yet, although I tried to focus, I still had the image of this man in my mind.  I could see him in my mind’s eye with every minor chord I heard.  I was uncomfortable.  There was irresolution.

For weeks, I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around Advent.  I know and have used the language we've adopted to talk about it, at least in United Methodist Speak: “Already, not yet,” “Bringing in the kingdom” and “active waiting,” to name a few.  These are all ways we try to understand the season.  They are also ways we explain the struggle for full inclusion.  But for me, none of these explanations have been honest enough.

I just found a letter earlier today that I wrote since I've been in seminary.  I have no idea how long ago I wrote it.  I don’t really remember what was going on, but as I read the words, I know it’s a prayer.  Without quoting it entirely, here is the struggle at the heart of the prayer: “I wait for you all day long…but my heart is overwhelmed by sorrow when I least expect it…I find disappointment, embarrassment and guilt that only I am somehow supposed to understand.  I am empty, unsatisfied by the hope that people tell me I should have.  You inconvenience me with your presence when I least expect it.”

I wish I could remember the circumstances behind that prayer, but it doesn’t really matter.  “You inconvenience me with your presence when I least expect it.”  As I read this, I finally realized what Advent is to me: annoying.  It annoys me to have to wait for the kin(g)dom.  It annoys me to know the celebration at the other end of the church year and not see any more change in the world than the previous year.

Advent is foolishness and ridiculousness.  Here we are proclaiming a kingdom while the world is crawling on its knees.  Would the the reign of God come if we were not so in love with our own ideas of what a kin(g)dom is?  Would the reign of God come if we could ever learn to let go of our notion of control long enough to let the Holy Spirit inconvenience us?  Would the reign of God come if we learned not to be shocked by the suffering of the world?

For better or for worse, we have a God who climbs up the stairs with us.

Once More Into the Battle!

Reported by Peter L. DeGroote

Dean Snyder, Senior Pastor at Foundry UMC in Washington, DC has been a supporter of reconciling ministries since before there was any organized reconciling effort. During his State of the Church sermon this year he included a statement of three personal goals, one of which is focused on changing the UMC Book of Discipline. Below is that portion of the sermon with only minor editing, reproduced with his permission. You can see the entire sermon at:  http://www.foundryumc.org/sermons/11_15_09.htm.

From Dean Snyder's Sermon:

The claim that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” was put into the UMC Book of Discipline in 1972, the year I graduated from seminary and served my first full-time appointment. It happened on my watch and I intend to do everything possible to fix it on my watch.

The way ahead is not clear. We have worked so hard for so long to change the United Methodist Church and the progress doesn’t feel anywhere commensurate with the effort.

I’ll be honest. I can’t see the way anymore. I can’t see how we will get to where we need to go.

I can’t see it but I do believe this: if we continue to work, if we continue to educate, to legislate, to agitate, to protest, to dialogue, to love… a breakthrough will come. I think it is going to be a breakthrough that will surprise us and I am believing it will happen during the next five years. 

I don’t know what it will be but I believe it will happen.

Did you know that Rosa Parks was not the first African-American to get arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in the South to a white person?  Irene Morgan was arrested in 1946; Sarah Louise Keys in 1955. Nine months before Rosa Parks 15-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to move from her seat on the same Montgomery, Alabama bus system.

Rosa Parks was not the first, but, for reasons no one completely understands, when she did it there was a breakthrough. No one could have known it in advance.

In 1964 African-American Methodists had been working for 24 years to end the central jurisdiction—the structure of segregation in the Methodist Church. They had educated, they had dialogued, they had organized, they had legislated, they had protested. Then during the 1964 annual conference Methodists were voting on a resolution to merge with the Evangelical United Brethren Church. A young reserve delegate from west Texas got up to the microphone and offered an amendment to the merger resolution saying that the Methodist Church should not take the structures of segregation into the merged church, and the resolution won. It was a breakthrough. No one would have ever predicted it would happen. By the way, the young reserve delegate who made that resolution was William Astor Kirk, our own Bill Kirk.

(Many did not know this about Bill. In attendance at the 11:00am service, the congregation rose as one in a long and grateful ovation.)

There is a story in the book of Judges in which God sent the Israelites into battle against the Benjaminites. The Israelites lost; twenty-two thousand Israelites died in that battle—in a battle God sent them into. The Israelites mourned and wept that night.  

The next day God sent the Israelites to fight against the Benjaminites again. The Israelites wept before the Lord and they inquired of the Lord, “Must we go up against the Benjaminites again?” The Lord told them to go into battle again. They lost again. 18,000 Israelites died.

The Israelites wept and mourned and asked the Lord not to send them into battle again. The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands (Judges 20: 19-48).”

Sometimes God sends us into battles we will lose. Sometimes we lose the battle again and again. There are casualties. We weep and mourn and ask God to not send us into battle anymore. I don’t know why God sends us into battles we will lose.

But then God says, “Go up one more time, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

There will be a breakthrough. I know we are tired. We are grieved, but tomorrow God will give them into our hands.

It is because of this kind of commitment that I am both glad and proud to regard Rev. Dean Snyder as a leader, a co-worker, and a friend.

Other Sheep Kenya Holds PFLAG Seminar in Nairobi

by John Makokha

Other Sheep Kenya in collaboration with Riruta United Women Empowerment Programme NGO held a seminar on human sexuality and homophobia in Nairobi on 21st November, 2009. The 15 participants were drawn from the Catholic Church, United Methodist Church, Anglican, Metropolitan Community Church, Friends Church, Kenyatta University, Teachers, High School Students, Women Community leaders, Reconciling Ministries Network and Changing Attitude.

Rev. Michael Kimindu, Other Sheep East Africa Coordinator said that homophobia and transphobia has to be addressed at all levels of the society. He gave an example of the government of Uganda that had come up with a Bill to criminalize homosexuality with life sentences and death penalties. “Other Sheep has done a lot of mobilization against this Anti-homosexuality Bill 2009 by appealing to the whole world community to reject it”.

He said that the Kenyan Committee of Experts on the drafting of the new constitution has lacked courage to recognize and protect the rights of LGBTI in the draft. He described the committee’s decision as “homophobic and transphobia”.

He blamed the church for all the problems we are having of oppression, discrimination, power hungry, racism, tribalism, nepotism, gossip, and hypocrisy. “Go to the church and you will get all these menu”.

Rev. John Makokha said that the mission of Other Sheep Kenya is an ecumenical organization that works for tolerance and inclusion of LGBTI in their respective faith based institutions, society and family. “Discrimination based on homophobia and transphobia is sin, and if Jesus was to come back today, he would go to the gay bashes”.

He said we cannot have an HIV-Free generation if there is discrimination against sexual minorities on the basis of their sexual orientation. Research has shown that stigma, discrimination and criminalization faced by homosexuals are major barriers for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. “We have to promote HIV/AIDS programs for men who have sex with men, and women who have sex with women for us to succeed in the Total War against Aids (TOWA) in Kenya.”

Anne Baraza, CEO of Riruta United Women Empowerment Programme NGO and Advisory Counselor of Other Sheep said that serious education and counseling for Parents, Friends of Lesbian and Gay persons and even transgender and intersex persons was important in Africa. “We need to double our work in this area.” She said that her programs will mainly target women since they are the ones who give birth to both heterosexual and homosexual babies. History has shown that women can change the world view of the society.

She said that there are a lot of LGBTI suffering from stigma and discrimination in our society due to ignorance on matters of human sexuality. This has made some to turn to drug abuse since nobody is concerned about them. “Let us listen to the concerns of LGBTI with open ears and open minds with the heart of God”.

A Catholic Priest appreciated the trainings that Other Sheep was doing using interesting Biblical and theological interpretation. He gave a wakeup call to psychological counselors in Africa to tell people the truth about issues of homosexuality without sounding homophobic in order to please their religious institutions and the society.

Another Catholic priest said that sexual orientation is about nature and not nurture. This is about human nature that has existed throughout the history of mankind. “This is the education that should go to our people in Africa”.

A high school teacher and a mother of four teenage sons said that the biggest worry about homosexuality in Africa is lack of procreation. According to African traditions men marry women so that they can carry the name of the family through child bearing. “People who have no children do not have a good standing in the family and society. They are treated as social outcasts and even when they die, they are not given a decent burial”.

The organization of this seminar was made possible with the grant from Uhai-Eashri (East Africa Sexual Rights Initiative).