"The Appalling Silence of the Good"

That's a phrase the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to describe the lack of support white ministers gave to the 1960's civil rights movement from the pulpit of their churches. In an op-ed piece in the Washington Blade, Robert Bernstein finds a similarity between that and the public silence of clergy today regarding GLBT rights.

.....precisely the same kinds of pressures — perceived danger to their jobs and pensions, aversion to confrontation, fear of congregational wrath — are today squelching what would otherwise amount to massive clerical support of gay equality and gay marriage.

Rt. Rev. Rusty Smith of D.C., a former Catholic priest, now a bishop of the Evangelical Anglican Church of America, says “mainstream denominations are full of ministers who know that gay inequality isn’t right but don’t speak their secrets out loud. The fear factor is just horrible among clergy.”

Harry Knox, who heads HRC’s Religion and Faith Program, denounces clerics who “have made an idol of their pension. They say, ‘I’ve got to take care of my family.’ I tell them, ‘Well, I’ve got to take care of my family, too, and what you’re saying to me is that yours matters more than mine.’”

Dennis Hahle is a retired Evangelical Lutheran minister now living in Littleton, North Carolina with his wife Jeannie. They have a gay son and say they know numerous colleagues similarly situated but only privately supportive. And their own local church’s atmosphere is so repressive that Jeannie says, “It feels as though we’re in the closet ourselves, because we can’t really share in our congregation the way we’d want to.”

Supporting GLBT equality doesn't do a lot of good unless you actually SUPPORT it. Preachers need to listen to their conscience and address the ongoing discrimination from their pulpit. If they don't take on the role of moral leadership, who will? We know there are plenty of loud voices on the other side shouting hate and bigotry from their pulpits, so it is especially critical that the message of love and justice also be heard.

Click here to read the rest of the article from the Washington Blade.