Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism by R.W. Holmen (Pilgrim Press)
In the last 40 years there has been a revolutionary evolution in mainline or ecumenical American Protestantism with regard to the full inclusion of LGBTQ Christians by opening up their pulpits to queer noncelibate clergy. Within 50 years, the U.S. has moved from homosexuals (the correct term at the time) being considered sinful by the church �" indeed, homosexuality and Christianity were seen as incompatible �" to openly gay and partnered Episcopal (Gene Robinson) and Lutheran (Guy Erwin) bishops. This elongated Damascus road conversion has occurred across entire denominations, particularly United Church of Christ (UCC, the forerunner, since they were the first Protestants to ordain an openly gay man, William Johnson, in 1972), Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists. Here to chronicle this volcanic historic change from rejection towards welcome is R.W. Holmen, a straight Lutheran lawyer and grass roots advocate, in his massive, comprehensive, probably definitive-for-this-generation review. Holmen has exhaustively researched and reported a complicated, magisterial story very effectively using national constitutional deliberations and archives, advocacy group reminiscences, and first-person narratives.
Comments from fellow straight allies to the effect we wish we knew more stories of some of our lesbian and gay pioneers who have brought us to this time and place, gave genesis to this book. This well-documented reference history also acts as an apologia to the many gays and lesbians who have left or rejected Christianity for being judgmental and exclusionary, or "experiencing the church as a source of pain rather than healing." Holmen even makes the startling claim (and backs it up with persuasive evidence) that progressive religious activism actually predated and encouraged Stonewall and its aftermath. In his argument, he refers principally to San Francisco's Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH)'s infamous 1964 New Year's Eve benefit ball arrest of six people, and protest by local clergy, which led to both public and religious awareness of the police abuse of the gay community. By the end of the 1960s, all these denominations compassionately rejected criminal penalties for gay behavior and favored nondiscriminatory governmental policies, but all followed with "yes, but" statements, reiterating the traditional view that homosexuality contradicted the moral law of God as revealed in the Bible. This question of sin, according to Holmen, is the ultimate issue the church would wrestle with for 40 years.
Holmen also chronicles the founding of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in 1968, one of the first churches composed mostly of LGBTQ people, which subtly challenged the slow movement of the above denominations, and showed them the promised land that full acceptance of gay/lesbian people was possible. In the 1970s there was the coming out publically of both clergy and congregants, which was met with mixed reactions. By the 1980s, a reactionary period with evangelical gatekeeper organizations in each denomination pushing against the modest gains accomplished, the realization grew that total inclusion would take awhile. Holmen dutifully records the 1990s ecclesiastical court litigations of both LGBTQ clergy and their straight supporters, as well as the fight over marriage equality and the tense general conventions struggles and nail-biting votes of the 2000s that led to policy revisions towards acceptance without preconditions in all roles, including ordination. Holmen observes that escalating participation by women at the local and national levels led to increasing acceptance of openly LGBTQ clergy.
During this four-decade struggle, the San Francisco Bay Area is well represented. Marin's Ministry of Light founder Janie Spahr is a Presbyterian lesbian minister (ordained in 1974, before the 1978 definitive guidance against LGBTQ clergy) whose call to be a co-pastor at a church in Rochester, NY in 1992 was ultimately rejected, though her ordination was not revoked. Her 2010 trial for officiating at the temporary legal-in-California weddings of 16 LGBTQ couples, then censure (the least of all possible penalties), with questioning the church policy that compelled their decision, is dramatically portrayed. Equally extraordinary is her presbytery's decision, based on her "faithful compassion," to defy for the first time ever the highest Presbyterian court, and not only refuse to censure her but vote to support her. The brave Lutheran congregations, St. Francis Lutheran, who called and ordained a lesbian couple, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart, and First United Lutheran, who called and ordained a gay man, Jeff Johnson, all in 1990, but were expelled from the ELCA in 1996 for their disobedience, is vividly recalled, as is their joyous Rite of Reception welcoming them back to the ELCA roster in 2010.
Holmen alludes in one sentence to the milestone books Is the Homosexual My Neighbor and The Church and the Homosexual, which were among Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality and others that challenged the "orthodox" theology of homosexuality as sin. Their importance cannot be overstated, and the impact these books made deserves more recognition because they gave intellectual cover to straight allies, especially in reinterpreting Scriptural clobber texts and reading those passages in a new light, uncovering the real issues as Biblical authority and homophobia.
But throughout this book, we re-experience many of the moving personal stories of these courageous witnesses (gay and straight) who once were derided as divisive heretics. Their testimony is the story of the church's growing realization that all people are children of God, meaning full participation and hospitality in every aspect of church ministry. We can thank Holmen's authoritative account of how five Protestant denominations grappled to realize the wideness of God's mercy in all its agonies and triumphs. The journey continues, as these denominations wrangle over adopting same-sex marriage rites. But this is still a time to celebrate, or as Holman concludes, "Presuming to speak for these churches, I can say that we have relearned the meaning of gospel, we have been healed of a grace-killing sickness of the soul, and we have once again encountered Christ on the road to Damascus. We have all been given the gift of extravagant welcome."