The Royal Lambda Council of Churches today implored GLBT and affirming clergy in hostile homophobic nations to stand openly and assertively against the forces of HATE INC.
The Council, on the heels of publishing the JAMESTOWN MANIFESTO last weekend, was clear about whom they were speaking, and more which nations needed to mobilise against an onslaught of international strategic proportions.
The Executive Director of the Royal Lambda Council, the Rev'd Dr. Ellen J. Doherty-Wilson named the Evangelical Protestant Right Wing Theocrats, the Roman Catholic Church and its Eastern Catholic Uniate Churches, and the Constantinopolitan Eastern Orthodox Churches.
The national lists included the United States of America, nations in both Western and Eastern Europe, and Asia. Special attention was given to subsaharan Africa and the Middle East where Islamic Shari'a law includes a genocidal holocaust for the GLBT citizens of their nation and in diaspora.
The statement read in part:
" The Royal Lambda Council of Churches strongly suggests that the time has long past for GLBT and affirming clergy to "turn the other cheek" while the most powerful Christian voices are advocating a "scorched earth" attack on the human and civil rights of GLBT persons worldwide. Moreover, these theocratic pronouncements both incite murderous violence worldwide and give sustenance to Islamic theocracies who proscribe scriptural conviction and summary execution.
GLBT and Affirming Clergy should no longer harbour the belief that the Marriage Equality issue is a patriarchal and heterosexist defence of the culture of "marriage". To disabuse oneself of this canard is to observe HATE INC. worldwide opposing any form of civil contract, whether it is called civil marriage, civil union, or registered domestic partnership. These " Harbingers of Hate" want to remove all "pretenses of legal connexion" between same-sex couples. They seek not only a return to " the reality of legal estrangement" for same-sex couples, but more, to treat them legally as single persons engaged in the felony of recriminalised "sodomy." The cultural term "sodomy" perpetuates the lie inherent in the story of Sodom, and perpetually condemns the GLBT community to scriptural proscription.
"This commitment begins," the communique continues, " with the belief that HATE INC believes it has captured and controls the "moral high ground". These Christian right wing activists assert that we GLBT persons have no moral standing for our subjective political position. Moreover, these homophobic hierarchs contend that we are devoid of any spiritual or moral guidance because we have no theistic basis for our beliefs. Throughout the world, while we witness yet another nation, Portugal, adding its name to the rolls of nations with full GLBT equality, or other nations providing federal partnership rights, the international HATE INC CRUSADE marches on, with victories in the United States....removing regional rights hard won in either courts or legislatures. In Australia, these Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant forces are united in fighting civil union statutes."
The statement ends with this admonition:
" In these hostile homophobic nations, especially in the United States of America or the Commonwealth of Australia, the issue is silence and lack of one leader to guide their efforts. Let us be clear. The mainline international Churches use intimidation and removal of retirement and other safety nets to silence internal opposition. Men or women in middle or advanced age can ill afford to not consider these outcomes. Beyond this, we note that HATE INC is both organised and united in their efforts. GLBT and affirming clergy fight both internal opponents as well as the external enemy. The separation of Church and State is no barrier to HATE INC, only to those with everything to lose if they succeed in removing our rights worldwide. The presence of secular homophobic activists does not hinder the hateful acts of the Catholic, Mormon and Right Wing Protestant Christians. However, the presence of virulent opponents of religion itself within the GLBT communities cower the clergy to complacence, compromise and capitulation."
The Royal Lambda Council of Churches issued this communique on the eve of Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2009. The newly-elected Parliament has changed the date to the third Friday in October, beginning on October 18, 2010.
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