Statement On the Death of The Rev. Dr. James Kennedy

Public Statement
For Immediate Release: September 5, 2007

Remarks by
Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson
MCC Moderator

September 5, 2007

The passing of any life is worthy of reflection. So it is with The Rev. Dr. D. James Kennedy, a leading opponent of legal equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, who died peacefully today with his wife and daughter at his side.

One of the founders of the "Religious Right" movement in the United States, Rev. Kennedy served as senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for 48 years, and was founder of the recently closed Center for Reclaiming America, a Christian supremacist institute that offered leadership training to members of the U.S. Congress, promoted creationism and a narrow view of religious liberty and opposed choice and equal civil rights for LGBT people.

I am grateful he had a peaceful death, and I join my voice with those who will be offering condolences to his family, his friends and his more than 10,000 congregants. I call upon the friends and members of Metropolitan Community Churches across the globe to pray that each one might find some peace of heart in their time of grief and loss.

I also call on people of conscience and goodwill everywhere to remember that peace of heart and peace among peoples were two things Rev. Kennedy regularly, and sadly, denied to many of our fellow citizens and global neighbors. As an originating author of the Land Letter to President Bush in October of 2002, Rev. Kennedy helped craft the rationale behind the invasion of Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Americans alike have endured anything but peace as a result.

As a leading proponent of the so-called "ex-gay" movement and an outspoken critic of legislation that would outlaw discrimination, Rev. Kennedy's weekly television and radio broadcasts, spread a message of animosity to more than three million households in the United States and to people in 165 nations. "Christians did not start the culture war," he said, "but...we are going to fight it. That is a fact, and the Bible assures us of victory."

This particular fight for "victory" will be a sad legacy of Rev. Kennedy's ministry. His work demonized countless thousands of our brothers and sisters who believe in the separation of church and state, the value of cultivating and celebrating diversity, the right of public schools to present curriculum that is scientifically sustainable, the equality of women, and the human rights of God's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children.

"God forbid that we who were born into the blessings of a Christian America should let our patrimony slip through our fingers and leave to our children the bleached bones of a godless, secular society," he wrote. Gay people, he said, were orchestrating "the most dangerous attack on marriage the world has ever seen."

Many will hail James Kennedy as a visionary for his use of mass media in spreading his message, but any fair analysis of his legacy must also consider his vision of radical separation based on gender, sexual orientation, creed and custom in light of the Gospel and Jesus' own practices of radical inclusion.

Though it is tempting in death to remember only the good things people have done, it is a dangerous temptation. As The Rev. Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor-elect of Sunshine Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church in Fort Lauderdale, the closest MCC congregation to Dr. Kennedy's Coral Ridge church -- and perhaps among those who suffered most directly from his anti-gay pronouncements -- reflected, "That Dr. Kennedy was a strong leader cannot be questioned; yet we must also recognize that his vitriolic rhetoric against same-gender loving people caused needless suffering in our society. While we wish comfort to those who mourn, we also wish for a day when religion doesn't promote division, hatred and prejudice."

In short, we wish and work for peace.

May this moment serve as our common call to prayer that the Holy Spirit will raise up a new generation of spiritual leaders -- leaders who will repudiate the needless scapegoating that only divides us from one another. Let us pray that we, as a community of faith, may have the integrity necessary to avoid demonizing those with whom we disagree, preferring instead, as Jesus before us, to sit at table together, where understanding takes place.

The world is changing. Pray that the Church Universal will be in the vanguard of that movement for change and for peace.

/signed/

+Nancy

The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches
www.MCCchurch.org


NOTE: This statement prepared in conjunction with the Moderator's Global Justice Team of Metropolitan Community Churches, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Chair, and Rev. Durrell Watkins, Senior Pastor-elect of Sunshine Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church.

MCC Comments On Canadian General Synod

Remarks by
Rev. Nancy L. Wilson
Office of the Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches

July 16, 2007

On Sunday, June 24, 2007, the Anglican Church of Canada, acting as an independent province of the worldwide Anglican Communion, attempted to straddle an impossible fence: the divide between acceptance and action.

In consecutive votes that both affirmed the compatibility of same-sex blessings with "core doctrine" and denied priests and parishes the freedom to offer such blessings, the House of Bishops sent a clear message not about LGBT relationships but about their own unwillingness to fully honor their call as both prophets and pastors.

Whether we see marriage equality as the "civil rights battle" of our time or only a piece of a much more encompassing struggle for human equality, the Church Universal has a responsibility to lead the way in dismantling social prejudice, not upholding it. Many believe the Anglican Bishops who countermanded the supportive majority votes in both the lay and clergy houses, did so out of the fear of losing communion with churches in Latin America and Africa.

I am reminded of St. John's counsel: Perfect love casts out all fear. We cannot save our relationships with one another by acting on our fears of loss. Only by calling one another to accountability for the love we share in Christ, will our ties and affinities be strengthened.

As the leader of a worldwide communion that serves people of diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, I am compelled to address the racism that allows us to pit the Northern Hemisphere against the Southern, people of European descent against those of African or Latin descent, as justification for inequality, hatred, or violence. There are many, many people of African, Latin and European descent, to name a few, whose voices are represented by Metropolitan Community Churches, and who believe passionately in human equality within the Church and beyond its borders. There are many, many people of diverse heritages who have made tremendous sacrifices and taken great personal and professional risks to call for and ensure human solidarity and equality.

As denominational leaders, our common responsibility is to provide pastoral care for the people we serve as well as to lead our communities with prophetic vision and courage. While no one of us fulfills that call perfectly, love is our common calling. In service to that call, I ask that believers of all Christian traditions join in praying for courage for all people in leadership, that we might bridge the gap between acceptance and action in pursuit of the day when all our lives, and our many families, and our diverse ways of loving are acknowledged as equally holy and equally blessed in the eyes of God.

/signed/

+Nancy

Rev. Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches


This statement prepared in conjunction with MCC's Global Justice Team, Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Chair.