Note to clergy/spiritual leaders: You may sign on to the Spiritual Leaders' Statement below if you are a clergy member or spiritual leader in Delaware. Just download the Sign-On Form, complete it and mail it to the address on the Form:
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Note to lay people: If your clergy member/spiritual leader is not a signatory, please ask her/him to be!
SPIRITUAL LEADERS’ STATEMENT
Love for and respect of one's fellow human beings are perhaps the most prominent and universal core values of the many spiritual and religious traditions that have ever existed. While sometimes differing markedly in many other ways, spiritual and religious persons and groups can at least agree with this tenet: "We have a deep and abiding obligation to love and respect others." Indeed, not treating others respectfully or as we would want to be treated is seen by the various faith traditions as moral failure.
As leaders representing a wide variety of spiritual expression in the State of Delaware, we strongly support the full civil rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual persons and see such support as being very consistent with our shared belief.
Signed,
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JEWISH Rabbi Judah Fish Rabbi Peter H. Grumbacher Rabbi David B. Kaplan Cantor Mark Stanton
CATHOLIC (ROMAN & AMERICAN) The Rev. Msgr. John J. Foster, Jr. The Rev. James E. Richardson
EPISCOPAL The Rt. Rev. Wayne P. Wright The Rev. Canon Mark Harris The Rev. Canon Thomas B. Jensen The Rev. Canon Thomas A. Kerr, Jr. The Rev. Canon Carl N. Kunz, Jr. The Rev. Canon Margaret Sterchi The Rev. Dr. Keith Hudson The Rev. Earl Beshears The Rev. Patricia Bird The Rev. Sarah Brockmann The Rev. Robert Broesler The Rev. Celeste O. Cox The Rev. John J. Desaulniers The Rev. Edward E. Godden The Rev. Frederic Guyott III The Rev. Brad Hinton The Rev. Albert L. Holland The Rev. Louise Howlett The Rev. Peter B. Huiner The Rev. Rita B. Nelson The Rev. Anthony R. Pompa The Rev. Gary L. Rowe The Rev. Robert MacLeod Smith The Rev. Elizabeth H. Turner The Rev. D. Roderick Welles, Jr. The Rev. Max J. Wolf |
LUTHERAN (ELCA) The Rev. Dr. John F. Steinbruck
PRESBYTERIAN, USA The Rev. Dr. K. Edward Brandt The Rev. Dr. P. David Brumbaugh The Rev. Dr. Lyle J. Dykstra The Rev. Dr. David C. Kaminsky The Rev. Laurie H. Brumbaugh The Rev. Randall T. Clayton The Rev. Thomas C. Davis, III The Rev. John W. Dean The Rev. Elisa C. Diller The Rev. Elizabeth I. Doty The Rev. Douglas D. Gerdts The Rev. Ralph R. Johnson, Jr. The Rev. Anne R. Ledbetter The Rev. Brad Martin The Rev. Patricia McClurg The Rev. Barbara Price‑Martin The Rev. Neta Pringle The Rev. Timothy D. Rodden The Rev. Christopher Schooley The Rev. Jennifer P. Warren
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST The Rev. Dorothy Greet The Rev. W. David Weddington
BAPTIST (SOUTHERN & AMER.) The Rev. Dr. David A. Farmer The Rev. Dr. E. Jeffrey Mask The Rev. J. Thomas Ledbetter
METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CHURCHThe Rev. Thomas Bohache |
UNITED METHODIST The Rev. Dr. Jonathan Baker The Rev. Dr. James C. Faltot The Rev. Dr. William M. Fitzhugh The Rev. Jack Abel The Rev. Gregory S. Brown The Rev. H. Sterling Green The Rev. Mary Lou Green The Rev. John F. Holden The Rev. Paul G. Huebner The Rev. Priscilla R. Maxham The Rev. Mark Pruett-Barnett The Rev. Richard C. Stazesky The Rev. Laura Lee C. Wilson The Rev. Naomi G. Winchester
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST The Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O’Neill The Rev. Dr. Richard Speck The Rev. Gregory N. Chute The Rev. Nancy D. Dean The Rev. Keith W. Goheen The Rev. Dale E. Lantz The Rev. Paula A. Maiorano The Rev. Harvey Manchester The Rev. D. Michael Smith
EARTH‑CENTERED Mr. James E. Dickinson Mr. Ivo Dominguez, Jr. Mr. Brian Pysell Ms. Damiara Pysell Ms. Yvette J. Rudnitzky Mr. Michael G. Smith Mr. James C. Welch
89 Signatories28 Signatories Emeriti Updated: July 7, 2008 Created & maintained by Douglas Marshall-Steele
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SIGNATORIES EMERITI (THOSE SIGNATORIES WHO SUBSEQUENTLY LEFT DELAWARE OR ARE DECEASED)
JEWISH: Rabbi Michael Goldberg, Rabbi Moshe V. Goldblum, Rabbi Steven M. Leapman, Rabbi Daniel Satlow, Cantor Michael M. Mandel
EPISCOPAL: The Vy. Rev. Margaret P. Patterson, The Rev. Canon Lloyd S. Casson, The Rev. Dr. John W. Martiner, The Rev. Margaret Kay Ashby, The Rev. Anne B. Bonnyman, The Rev. Douglas Culton, The Rev. Lois T. Keen, The Rev. James Lewis, The Rev. Richard Swartout, The Rev. Roy Tripp, The Rev. Sylvia Vasquez, The Rev. David Ware, The Rev. Paula Lawrence Wehmiller
PRESBYTERIAN, USA: The Rev. David D. Colby, The Rev. Elizabeth G. Dick, The Rev. Kermit D. Johnson, The Rev. Lynn Johnson, The Rev. Clyde H. Knotts, The Rev. Susan K. Olson, The Rev. Elizabeth Vandegrift, The Rev. Jon M. Walton
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: The Rev. Dr. Peter A. Wells
EARTH-CENTERED: Ms. Faith Queman
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And now from the Internet, an open letter to President Bush...
"Why Can't I Own Canadians?"
Dear President Bush:Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. For example, when people try to defend the homosexual lifestyle, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them:
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves - both male and female - provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not to Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Leviticus. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
4. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states that he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
5. A friend of mine feels that, even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Leviticus 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there "degrees" of abomination?
6. Leviticus 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
7. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed - including the hair around their temples - even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?
8. I know from Leviticus 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
9. My uncle has a farm. He violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field - as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them (Leviticus 24:10-16)? Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws (Leviticus 20:14)?
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Nothing new under the sun...
As the Bible is being used today to prove that LGBT persons are not entitled to equality or respect, it is informative to see how the Bible was used 150 years ago:
"Slavery was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts." (Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America)
"There is not one verse in the Bible inhibiting slavery, but many regulating it. It is not then, we conclude, immoral." (Rev. Alexander Campbell)
"The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example." (Baptist minister R. Furman of South Carolina)
"The hope of civilization itself hangs on the defeat of Negro suffrage." (A prominent 19th-century southern Presbyterian pastor)
"The doom of Ham has been branded on the form and features of his African descendants. The hand of fate has united his color and destiny. Man cannot separate what God hath joined." (United States Senator James Henry Hammond)
And in just 1964 the Virginia Supreme Court ruling upholding that state's anti-miscegenation law, said this: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay, and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangements there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
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As George Santayana put it, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
And from Blaise Pascal: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction."
Finally, from Anne Lamott: "You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
© 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Mr. Douglas Marshall-Steele