Welcoming and Affirming Statement
of
Leland Bryant Ross
I'm a single, celibate, straight, 46-year-old male. I was raised a
Baptist (to age 14), alienated from Christianity from age 16 to 35, and baptized in 1991 at Fremont Baptist Church (Seattle), of which I remain a member. I have been one of three "Fakdelegitoj" (specialized resource persons) on Baptist Christianity in the Delegate Network of the World Esperanto Association (UEA); I maintain an Esperanto-language Baptist webpage at
and I am working on various Baptist-related translations, including an authorized Esperanto translation of Harvey Cox's Many Mansions.
I have never been particularly homophobic, and have never understood or
shared the deep aversion, fear and loathing so many people (including
especially many straight male Christians) apparently feel towards gays. The Levitical holiness regulations that apparently undergird Christian homophobia seem to me to have no more to do with the gospel than have the dietary laws, perhaps even less. I have had, until quite recently, relatively few acquaintances I knew to be gay, but it has always seemed to me that those I have known are as morally, ethically, sinfully human as anybody else, and to exclude them from full membership rights in the visible body of Christ is stupid and evil—even more so than excluding them from full citizenship rights in the body politic.
Fremont Baptist Church is in a general way an open and welcoming congregation, but we have as far as I know no gays or lesbians—none who are "out" anyhow—in regular attendance, and some of the members undoubtedly would find such folks—especially if they arrived in committed, stable couples, perhaps with kids—a challenge to deepseated psychological and theological prejudices. (According to our then pastor, responses to the questionnaire appended below as "B: Biennnial Issues Questionnaire" on the sinfulness [if any] of homosexuality were split about 50-50.)
When I wrote my original Welcoming and Affirming Statement Fremont Baptist was being served by an interim pastor, Rev. David Silke, who supported the Northwest Network for the Preservation of Baptist Principles, a group opposed to the exclusion of the AWAB churches from our Region. Now we have a new pastor, Rev. Jay Zaremba, who is perhaps slightly less "that way" ("welcoming but not affirming", I guess it's called), but I still think we will probably remain in fellowship with the AWAB churches, regardless of the actions of our Region, though I doubt if we'll be joining AWAB anytime soon (and pushing for such affiliation is not a priority for me).
Once this controversy burst on the regional scene, I intentionally attended MCC Seattle at least once a month for more than a year, and greatly enjoyed my experiences there; particularly in the matter of the Lord's Supper, I think they have much to teach us. If forced to leave Fremont Baptist over this issue as a conscientious objector, I think my inclination would be to transfer my membership to MCC, even though I am incorrigibly Baptist (I was a Baptist even when I wasn't a Christian!), and even though I am heterosexually oriented, rather than to University or Seattle First Baptist.
I have attended services at a couple of AWAB churches—University Baptist in Seattle, which was the church I grew up in to age 13 (my father was the ABC campus minister at the University of Washington; he died when I was 14), and First Baptist of Berkeley. When I attended a service at the latter church a couple years ago, I was appalled to learn that they had been disfellowshipped by ABC of the West. When our Region (ABC/NW) recently threatened to disfellowship the local AWAB churches, I decided that as a matter of conscience I would be forced to transfer my membership either to UBC or MCC if the dismissal motions passed, unless of course Fremont Baptist itself withdrew in solidarity with the excluded churches, which I didn't consider likely. In the event, the dismissal motions were defeated by the two-thirds rule, but the motion passed in their stead, while merely an "Informational Directive" to the Region board, is almost as bad, and led me to compose the appended manifesto ("A: Leland's AWAB Manifesto"), which is more sarcastic and less irenic in tone than I wish it were.
Let me preface it by noting that I am an amateur parodic hymnist, not an
accomplished exegete, but I believe in soul competence, and try to exercise mine by measuring theologies, theodicies and hermeneutics against the "gold standard" of the Great Commandment. It seems to me that for the homophobic wing of the Church, Christianity is in large measure some sort of misogynistic fertility cult, almost Mormon in flavor. It's not that for me. Christian homophobia (and misogyny) makes me want to yell with Jesus, "Damn you Pharisees ... damn you lawyers!" as in Luke 11:37ff.
(signed) Leland Bryant Ross / Liland Brajant Ros'
Appendices:
The "Resolution" and "Informational Directive" adopted by a vote of 175 to 88 at the ABC/NW 1998 Biennial was the last straw; now I have to join AWAB.
As near as I can tell, these documents boil down to this:
"ABC/NW to the Christian Lesbigay Community, greetings; the grace
and forgiveness of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
"We oppose any violence, threatened or perpetrated, against you,
basing our position on texts in which God orders us to stone the
males among you to death; your blood is upon you.
"We are willing to minister to you, but God forbid(s) we should
accept your ministries. Unless and until, of course, you
‘adopt
a position on human sexuality’ that is consistent with
Christian
teaching."
Well, we all know how much effort Jesus put into preaching his message
of devaluation and condemnation to classes of people singled out for
denigration and demonization by the leaders of the Church. We remember,
of course, his parable of the Dirty No-good Samaritan, and how our Lord
snatched his feet away from the sinful woman who brazenly assaulted him
with her hair in the home of Simon the Pharisee of blessed memory. And
we can't forget the vision God vouchsafed Peter to remind him not to
fraternize with shellfish-eaters.
I mean, come on! The willful ignorance and ill will evidenced by
the Resolution's lumping together of "heterosexual infidelity,
homosexuality,
bisexuality and transexuality" is sad. I think
infidelity is
infidelity, fidelity is fidelity, love is love, God is love, and gender
is a relatively insignificant, if not irrelevant, side issue. But even
if it's important and pertinent, the Resolution's attitude and choice of
proof texts is abominable. (Of course I resolutely love my homophobic
Regional brethren, while hating their sin!)
Sorry, ABC/NW, but you've forced my hand — now I have to
join AWAB.
(signed) Leland Bryant Ross / Liland Brajant Ros'
[This questionnaire was circulated to the congregation at Fremont
Baptist the Sunday before the
Biennial; this was my e-mailed response:]
Lee Ann, [our Church Secretary]
Since I was at University Baptist for morning worship today, I didn't
have a chance to fill out my questionnaire on homosexuals and statements
of faith. Please pass this on ASAP to Pastor Paul and Mabel [who were to represent us], and feel
free to share it with anyone else who might be interested. I had a nice
time at UBC, and sat in on a strategy meeting of their Welcoming and
Affirming Committee. Gave copies of my Jonah oratorio to several people.
UBC is still too political for my taste, I felt more at home at MCC.
However, if push comes to shove I think I will be transfering my
membership to UBC.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Questionnaire, 5/10/98=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
At the Regional Convention issues regarding homosexuality and issues
regarding a statement of faith will be dealt with. It would be helpful
to Pastor Paul and Mabel Brockhoff, our delegates, if you would answer
these questions.
- American Baptist Churches should ordain
homosexuals.
Yes __X__ No _____
Provided God has called them and a church has
seconded that call.
- American Baptist Churches of the Pacific N.W. should have a statement
of faith and practice that local congregations subscribe
to.
Yes _____ No __X__
Not a prescriptive, proscriptive, limiting one,
anyhow. Not one that claims to define the
Spirit's liberty.
- The practice of homosexuality should be considered a
sin.
Yes _____ No __X__
Not per se. For those so oriented, it is no
more (nor less) sin than is the practice of
heterosexuality by me and thee.
- Comments:
- Of course none of these can properly be reduced
to a yes-or-no question. But there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1), and let none call unclean that
which God has cleansed (Acts 10:15). Whenever my theology tells me to
call my brother an abomination, the sin is in me and my theology (Rom.
2:1), not in my brother. Whenever my ability to witness to Christ is
obstructed by the need to make amends for my denomination's political
stance, or when I am forced to point seekers elsewhere because I know my
church will not accept them, I know that at least in that
relationship
Christ is elsewhere and not in my church.
- I have no doubt that forty years from now the Baptist
mainstream will
have apologized — including our separated brethren to the South
— for
their present (soon to be past) attitudes and actions, but it will not
do
me or Christ any good for me to knuckle under and join in the majority's
sin now. The sin of Sodom is a predominantly heterosexual, mainstream
sin (Ezekiel 16:49).
/s/ Leland B. Ross
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= End of Questionnaire =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
C: Miscellany
- I am an alcoholic. I drank more or less constantly from age 18
(mid-1972) until I sobered up in AA (age 30, Sept. 1984), with the exception of a year and a half
when I didn't drink (late '77 - early '79). During that dry interlude, at a time in my life when I
considered myself an agnostic, I met a guy named P—, a friend of a
friend, who was a gay Christian. I spent many late nights at a local
burger joint drinking coffee with P— and a few mutual friends, who
were neither gay nor Christian. P— was, as I recall, in a fair
amount of pain over his inability to find acceptance in the churches. He
had tried praying himself straight without success, and at that time
there were precious few Christian churches around that would accord a gay
person "the freedom just to be" (as the song — see item (5)
below — puts it).
*****
- Early in my sobriety (that is, my current sobriety), I was twice
approached by lesbian couples in AA who wanted me to donate sperm so they
could have babies by artificial insemination. In both cases — for
different reasons — I refused their requests, but in both cases
I made it clear that I was honored and flattered that they would
consider me for such a role. (At that point I was no longer an agnostic,
though I had not yet quite found my way to follow Jesus; I called myself
a "Jessican"—a follower of "Jesus' little sister Jessica" — a
way station on the slippery slope [as I perceived it] that landed me a
few years later in Fremont Baptist's baptistery.)
*****
- More than two years ago the Seattle Times published a
letter to the editor of mine in which I stated my beliefs
- (a)
that the churches ought to marry gay couples on an equal footing with
straight couples,
- (b) that gay couples are just
as capable of being good parents as straight couples,
- (c) that the
state ought to get out of the marrying business, but ought to extend to
gay couples whatever special status, services and protections it offers
straight couples (tax filing status, family leave, whatever), and
- (d) that within forty years the Baptist mainstream, North and South,
will have apologized for its current positions, and will see them as as
outmoded as most mainstream Protestants now see opposition to female
pastors, or even the racist attitudes and behaviors of forty years
ago.
If you want, I'll dig out a copy of this letter and send it to
you. Several friends, including a bisexual woman in the Seattle
Esperanto Society whose "significant other" S——, formerly
Steve, is awaiting a sex-change operation, have told me that they found
my letter in the Times very encouraging in their life
situations. I have also had several other letters and short articles
on related topics published, mainly in Dia Regno (the
monthly periodical of KELI, the leading Protestant Esperantist
organization). See also item (6) below.
*****
- My webpage "Leland
the Baptist" mentions AWAB and my support for its position.
*****
- I have translated several songs I learned at MCC into Esperanto, including this one, on the topic of (gender) roles and labels:
- A letter I wrote to the editor of the Seattle Times,
which was
published the last Sunday in June, also gives public evidence of my
position on AWAB-pertinent issues: