Articles
of Faith: Religious right’s moral failures a result of repressive
religion
by Rev. Steven Baines
As
someone who was raised and ordained as a Southern Baptist, I was saddened,
but not shocked, at news of the recent arrest of Rev.
Lonnie Latham (pictured),
a minister from Tulsa, Okla., and executive committee member of the virulently
anti-gay Southern Baptist Convention. Rev. Latham was reportedly arrested
for propositioning a male undercover police officer in front of a motel
known as a high-traffic area for gay hustlers. Unfortunately, Rev. Latham’s
story is one repeated by those in the darkest corners of the closet who
are trapped by the damaging teachings of misguided religious leaders.
The fall of this religious right figure is part of an inevitable cycle
of scandal, as the self-appointed guardians of “traditional values,” their
moral ships sinking from under them, find themselves in the lifeboat with
the rest of us sinners. The moral hypocrisy of many right-wing religious
leaders comes from their fundamental misunderstanding of religion as the
practice of a complicated and esoteric set of rules designed to restrict
human freedom, rather than a way of living which frees individuals to lives
of greater compassion and personal growth.
The incidences of national conservative religious leaders caught in scandal
are many, and run the gamut from the
tragic hypocrisy of the closet to personal ethical lapses
to outright crimes. Here are a few recent high-profile examples:
Ralph Reed (pictured) — Reed, the former executive
director of the Christian Coalition, is embroiled in the Jack Abramoff
lobbying scandal and stands accused of using funds Christian conservatives
had donated to fight the spread of gambling, to actually promote gambling
on Native-American reservations.
Monsignor Eugene Clark (pictured) — Clark used his
pulpit at St. Patrick’s
Cathedral in New York City and program on the Eternal Word Television Network
to blame gay priests for the Catholic sex abuse scandal and once denounced
the United States as “the most immoral country in the Western Hemisphere.” He resigned
in August 2005 after an affair with his married secretary.
William Bennett (pictured) — Bennett is the standard-bearer
of the right-wing “traditional
values” crusade and chief propagator of one of the most damaging
lies being spread about the gay community: the “statistic” invented
by a discredited psychologist that the average age of death of gay men
is 43. In 2003, it was revealed that Bennett had a gambling addiction which
he kept hidden from his family, despite losing a reported $8 million.
John Paulk (pictured)— Paulk is the former chair
of Exodus International who appeared on the cover of Newsweek in 1998
as an “ex-gay,” and founder of Focus on the Family’s
ex-gay program Love Won Out. He was discovered and photographed in September
2000 buying drinks for patrons in a gay bar in Washington, D.C. Although
Paulk left Focus on the Family in 2003 to pursue “other ministry
opportunities,” Love
Won Out continues to hold events across the country.
It is not my intention to cast stones of condemnation at these individuals.
We all have times when we need grace and forgiveness for our ethical failings
or inconsistencies, whether from religious communities or from the community
at large. There is, however, a profound need to understand that when religion
is used to bring repression and darkness rather than liberation and light,
it is toxic to both leaders and followers. It is inevitable that those
who pile so much guilt on the rest of the world will sooner or later be
crushed by it themselves.
The self-loathing that drives some public figures who have made careers
of espousing “moral values” into lives of deception as they
sneak into dive bars, cheap motels or gambling casinos for a night’s
escape from a life of repression is the same fear and shame that causes
them to lash out at LGBT people. The life-altering message that I and so
many other LGBT people of faith have found is that freedom comes not from
lies and denial, but by recognizing our mutual connection to all our neighbors
with honesty and humility in the face of the Creator.
— Based in Washington, D.C., Rev. Steven Baines is an elder in the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a member of the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force National Religious Leadership Roundtable. He serves
as chaplain of Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples.
by Rev. Steven Baines
