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(Dallas, Texas) The anniversary of the Sept. 11
attacks should include the memory of statements that blamed gays and lesbians
for bringing God's wrath on the nation, a council of gay-friendly Christians
said Monday.
Those targeted by such comments
are "equally victims, 365 days a year of the kinds of
teachings the Christian extremists espouse," said the
Rev. Mel White, who spoke at a Dallas news conference in front
of a colorful collection of 30 religious stoles representing
defrocked or closeted gay clergy.
White, a former ghost writer
for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders,
said repeatedly: "It's over, it's over."
"We will not anymore stand
silently by while they blame us for the ills of this nation,
when we are at the very heart of what this nation
represents," he said, amid "Amens" from
supporters, including several wearing religious robes and
clerical collars.
Although Falwell wasn't named,
in 2001 he partly blamed the terror attacks on groups that
"tried to secularize America," singling out pagans,
abortionists, feminists, gays and the American Civil Liberties
Union.
"God continues to lift the
curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably
what we deserve," Falwell said after the attacks in an
appearance on "The 700 Club", Pat Robertson's
religious TV program. He later apologized.
When reached by phone on
Monday, a spokeswoman for Falwell had no immediate comment.
Since 2001, religious groups
and political leaders have continued attacking gays, according
to the group of about 30 faith leaders who called the news
conference during a three-day summit in Dallas.
The participants, who said they
were meeting in the tradition of the historic church councils,
want to spread a message of peace, said Bishop Yvette Flunder,
a United Church of Christ minister from San Francisco.
Sponsors included The Fellowship, Dignity USA, the Institute
for Welcoming Resources and the Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches.
The Dallas council announced no
concrete plan of action but said it is "dedicated to
reclaiming their faith based on the gospel of inclusion,
justice and love."
"Certain religious groups
have aggressively sought to define their agenda in the
public's mind, through publicity and lobbying, as the
Christian agenda," said the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, a lead
organizer and UCC minister. "On the contrary, there is a
growing movement of Christian clergy who reject this agenda,
for whom bigotry and exclusion have no place in the
church."
White, founder of the gay
rights group Soulforce, joked in response to a question that
even Southern Baptist churches have gay members.
"If all the gay organists
quit playing on Sunday morning," he said, "there
would be silence in Christendom."
©365Gay.com 2006
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