Religious Left

As part of a mission of working toward full inclusion of LGBT people into communities of faith, the Kansas City Coalition of Welcoming Ministries (KCCWM) convened its first Academy of Welcome on Nov. 10 at First Lutheran Church in Mission Hills, Kan. KCCWM is a network of inter-faith welcoming organizations. Keynote speaker Dr. Robert Minor, a professor in the religious studies department at the University of Kansas, addressed the question, “Why welcome?” He said that many churches have had a reluctance to adopt formal welcoming statements, even though doing so can be an element of spiritual growth. Congregations’ fears stemming from homophobia and an altered reputation often send some looking for a verse to conceal their personal prejudices. Their concerns, he said, include: “Will we be considered to be a ‘gay church?’ How will outsiders treat us? Will members leave? And if they leave, will they take their money with them?” After all, many churchgoers like tradition, he said – and bi...

Clay Aiken is caught up in another gay controversy after parishioners at a church where he is set to perform a Christmas concert demanded assurances the singer isn't a homosexual. Aiken's sexuality hit the headlines last year when a former Green Beret soldier revealed he had spent a night of passion with the crooner, but Aiken refused to discuss the issue when it came up in interviews. And now, elders at a Wichita, Kansas church want to make sure the singer is heterosexual before green-lighting plans for him to perform for their congregation on November 26th. Posson also incorrectly declared the Green Beret, who claimed to have spent the night with Aiken in a hotel, later recanted his story, explaining he was encouraged to "scandalise the singer" by so-called Aiken haters. In fact, the soldier, John Paulus, has never gone back on his story - and passed a lie detector test when he took his story to the Enquirer.

Now Craig has come under fire from an entirely new quarter: the church of right-fringe anti-gay Rev. Fred Phelps. In a press release dated Aug. 28, Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kansas, exhorted followers to "Thank God for revealing a bit of truth about Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho; and, by a logical extension, about the United States Congress." Said the church’s press release, "Sen. Craig used his powerful office--(on loan from God, temporarily)--to oppose [Westboro Baptist Church], to speak against WBC, and to vote against WBC’s Constitutional rights of free religious exercise and freedom of speech." http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=glbt&sc2=news&sc3=&id=22898 .