Box Turtle Bulletin

The Problem with Moralizing

I think what — what I’m saying is — and I had not gotten into the equal protection argument, Texas has the right to set moral standards and can set bright line moral standards for its people. And in the setting of those moral standards, I believe that they can say that certain kinds of activity can exist and certain kinds of activity cannot exist.

On March 26, 2003, Charles A. Rosenthal was riding high. As district attorney for Harris County, Texas, he was enjoying the rare distinction of arguing before the Supreme Court of the United States in Lawrence v. Texas, what would become a landmark case declaring sodomy laws to be unconstitutional.

But little did Rosenthal realize that the seeds of his destruction were already growing. Not only would he lose his argument, but he would lose his job and his reputation.

In January 2002, the sheriff’s deputies performed a drug raid in southeast Houston. Sean Ibarra, a neighbor, took photographs.

The deputies came to the home of the Ibarras demanding the film. Eric Ibarra videotaped the confrontation between his brother and the sheriffs. Then the Ibarra brothers were both arrested on charges of resisting arrest.

The brothers were tried and exonerated later that year. But the Ibarras believed that their civil rights were violated and brought the matter to the district attorney, Rosenthal. When Rosenthal did not respond to their satisfaction, in 2004 they sued the Sheriff and District Attorney Rosenthal.

As part of their discovery proceedings, the Ibarras subpoenaed the district attorney’s email. What they found was not particularly relevant to their case… but it was very relevant to Rosenthal’s career. It seems Rosenthal used his office email to send love notes to his secretary and to disseminate racist jokes and pornography.

But the thing that took Rosenthal down was not his adulterous affair. Nor was it his racism.

Rosenthal scorned the judge’s orders and did not turn over all of his email. Instead, he deleted over 2,500 email just days after being ordered to remit it. This got him in a heap of trouble.

Several things could happen now. After the hearing, Judge Hoyt could accept the DA’s answers and simply move on. Or he could find Rosenthal in contempt.

“The question of contempt, civil, or criminal could lead to other things,” said Treece. “(It) could lead to obstruction of justice, which is a significant federal problem. Or even perjury.”

And so Rosenthal has resigned and may find himself sitting in jail.

You see, Rosenthal forgot that those who like to moralize about others too often think that they are better than those whom they distain. They are so fond of pointing out the mote in others’ eyes that they ignore the beam in their own. And that beam can blind them to the danger that is coming.

Broadway Baptist Finds a Happy Compromise

We’ve been following the drama of the membership book at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX.

The moderate church includes a number of gay members and seeks to be open to all who want to worship. But trouble arose when it came time to prepare a directory that included family pictures; two men showed up for their family shot.

Some of the more conservative members didn’t want gay couples listed as “family”. The men offered to have separate pictures taken.

But some of the more liberal members were angry that gay people were being disrespected and treated as second class members. What to do?

Well after several months, meetings, church discussions, “scholarly presentations and an in-depth look at the Scriptures”, and much anguished hand wringing, the church has found a compromise:

In a 294-182 vote, members approved a recommendation by the church’s board of deacons to publish a directory that would include member photos in “candid, small and large group pictures” but not include family portraits.

What an elegant solution. Now each group may seek to define for itself what members comprise their group (that isn’t a family, you know).

But regardless of the ridiculousness of renaming family as “a candid small or large group”, I believe that this process has been good for the church and for Christianity as a whole. As people struggle with the issue of including gay couples in communion, they have to deal with the realities of those people that they know and love. They can no longer pretend that their heterosexism is benign nor that passive anti-gay attitudes harm no one.

Church members voted after a sermon by Pastor Brett Younger in which he asked parishioners to look people in the eye and question what they see and how they react.

“If we look into the eyes of a gay Christian, we may have to rethink some of our opinions,” Mr. Younger said.

Very true, Pastor.

And give my regards to… um, your church.

See also:
Broadway’s Pastor Calls It Quits
Broadway’s Anti-Gays Vote
Broadway Baptist Finds a Happy Compromise
Broadway Baptist Punts on Gay Members’ Photos
More Baptist Controversy

Mental Illness and the I-35 “Miracle”

I’ve already mentioned that a very good childhood friend of mine developed schizophrenia when we were in high school (he wasn’t diagnosed until his mid-twenties however, despite years of counseling). But wait, that’s not all. During a summer session in college, one of my four dorm roommates was particularly interesting. His name was Codé; he was French and rode a Peugeot bicycle around campus. We all thought something didn’t add up to his story though. There were just too many odd twists and inconsistencies. Then after about a month, he disappeared and nobody knew what happened.

Well, toward the end of the term, we finally learned that “Codé” was in a psychiatric hospital on the West Coast. He wasn’t from France, but he was from Versailles, Kentucky (where they pronounce it “ver-SAILS”). And he was bipolar. The moral: when someone is acting very strangely, there’s a good chance we’re dealing with a serious mental illness.

Warren Throckmorton has been digging further into the “Highway to Heaven” story. He talked with three principals in the story: Rev. Joe Oden of the Dallas-area Heartland World Ministries Church, Paul Strand at CBN, and Michael Johnston at Pure Life Ministries. The interesting thing that’s coming out is that they all saw clear signs of mental illness, but they all chose to ignore it. Unless there’s a worse possibility: that they are not trained to recognize it when they encounter someone who’s mentally ill.

The episode with Codé surprised all of us. But then, none of us were studying to be mental health professionals, nor did any of us pretend to participate in the neo-counseling netherworld in which so many ex-gay ministries operate. Heartland World Ministries and Pure Life are being supremely reckless when they take on the task of “counseling” those who they say are suffering from a “pathological” condition while refusing to submit themselves to professional regulation. They get away with it by saying that they’re Christian counselors, not psychologists, psychiatrists or, you know, real counselors. But they’re doing nobody any favors. What’s more, their purposeful lack of professionalism exposes them and their clients to potentially serious consequences. Heartland and Pure Life are lucky things didn’t spin tragically out of control. But the luckiest of all is James Stabile. Damn lucky.

“Highway to Holiness” Becomes Highway To Hell

Remember the street evangelists who sought to make I-35 a Highway to Holiness? Pat Roberson enthusiastically reported on this revival effort on his television show a while back. That report prominently featured James Stabile, a young man who was supposedly cured of his homosexuality at a “purity siege” held in Dallas’ Oak Lawn gayborhood.

John Wright of the Dallas Voice has followed up on the story. He contacted Joe Oden of Heartland World Ministries Church, who was also featured in Robertson’s report, to discover what happened after Stabile was “cured”:

Oden told me Stabile had been shipped off to Pure Life Ministries, which operates a residential treatment program in Northern Kentucky.

“It’s a program for people who’ve lived alternative lifestyles just to get totally clean,” Oden told me.

Upon further investigation, I discovered Pure Life Ministries is also the place where Mike Johnston — remember him?! — is director of donor and media relations.

Johnston was the HIV-positive “ex-gay” who was featured in the anti-gay video “It’s Not Gay” before he was busted in 2003 for hosting orgies and having unsafe sex with other men on the side. (Despite all that, the American Family Association is still selling his video as if nothing every happened.)

Wright also contacted Stabile’s father, the Rev. Joseph Stabile, who is the pastor at Dallas’ oldest church, the Cochran Chapel United Methodist Church. Rev. Stabile said he’s fully accepting of his son’s sexual orientation and believes that being gay is neither a choice nor a sin. When asked what happened, he said that his son simply left home that Friday evening and never returned:

James called a few days later and told his parents he was moving out, and that he’d be back to get his stuff. James apparently had moved in with some folks from Heartland.

After that, it would be some time before James’ parents heard from him, as his church friends reportedly advised him not to contact them.

Joseph Stabile said the Heartland folks also may have advised James to throw away his medication, telling him that God would cure his bipolar disorder, too.

Joseph’s parents said James has a tendency to be less than truthful, especially when he’s off his medication, and that he loves attention. They said they don’t believe he’s ever questioned his sexuality, but that the folks from Heartland manipulated and exploited him for publicity.

Not surprisingly, James Stabile didn’t stay in the program for very long.

When James was kicked out of Pure Life, his father asked if they could provide him with a bus ticket home. After all, James had paid $2,100 up front plus $150 a week to be part of the program. Pure Life refused.

Now nearly four months after that fateful “purity seige,” Jame has returned home where he’s seeing his therapist once again and is hopefully back on his meds.

Hetero Suburban Sex Club In Texas

Here’s more evidence of the heterosexual menace that’s sweeping the nation:

The most popular address on Cedar Ridge Drive is Jim Trulock’s split-level home, which has a group sex room and attracts as many as 100 people to swinger parties featuring “Naked Twister” nights.

The Trulocks have been transforming their home on a quiet Duncanville, Texas street into “The Cherry Pit” every Friday and Saturday evening, and local officials fear that it may be placing a stain on the city just south of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Duncanville bills itself as “The Perfect Blend of Family, Community and Business.”

Duncanville officials are moving to ban sexually-oriented businesses inside the city limits, but the Trulocks plan to sue, saying their parties are private parties and not a business. And what a party it is:

“They have the largest hot tub in Dallas … a dance floor complete with stripper pole, a torture room … a group room with a giant frame with 6 full mattresses … and a semi-private room with three mattresses.”

Now I know Peter LaBarbera has been very keen to bust some of these parties wide open, now that he’s earned himself an appearance on Fox News showing his home movies of the Folsum Street Fair. Maybe he’d like to pack his camera and head down to Duncanville before the parties end. I happen to know for a fact that flights between Chicago and D/FW are cheap and frequent. If he can’t make the flight, then he might just head over to Club Meet4more in Chicago.

Oh, but it’s mostly heterosexuals. I guess he won’t be interested.

Broadway Baptist Punts on Gay Members’ Photos

As we told you earlier, there is a debate at Fort Worth’s Broadway Baptist Church over whether the photos of gay members can be included in a church directory.

Broadway views itself as inclusive and no doubt cannot see the message that is inherent in, “If we put your picture in the directory, we are endorsing your sin”. Nor do we hear discussion about the double standard of excluding gay members but not excluding others for their sins or non-orthodox theology.

The church was scheduled to vote yesterday on a compromise – include gay people but only photograph them as individuals, not couples – but the Dallas News reports that the body could not come to conclusion.

Members were to vote Sunday after morning worship. But in a clear indication that they are divided over how accepting to be of homosexuality, they met for an hour and then postponed any decision until deacons make a recommendation on Feb. 24.

“We will continue to discuss this issue together as a church family,” Kathy Madeja, chair of the deacons, said in a prepared statement. “We do not want to rush to make a decision, but rather to continue to listen to each other and for God’s leading for our church.”

The pastor is offering another alternative which is to forgo members’ pictures altogether and focus instead on church ministries. Though I believe the pastor’s intentions are honorable, this option reminds me of those school districts that will ban all student groups in order to keep gay students from forming a support club. Sadly, too often excluding gay people becomes the highest priority and anti-gays are quick to restrict the privileges of all people to ensure that gay people cannot participate.

We’ll let you know what the church ultimately decides.

See also:
Broadway’s Pastor Calls It Quits
Broadway’s Anti-Gays Vote
Broadway Baptist Finds a Happy Compromise
Broadway Baptist Punts on Gay Members’ Photos
More Baptist Controversy

I-35 Saves!

Some people can crack open the Bible and find just about anything. Jeff Baldwin opened Isaiah to chapter 35 and decided to that Interstate 35, which runs from Lorado, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota would be the Highway to Holiness.

Isaiah 35, I-35 — get it? Anyway they’re set to clear cities along the entire stretch of the highway of gays. And so far, they’re claiming far better success than Exodus ever dreamed of.

That’s not the first time I’ve heard claims of instantaneous “cures” for homosexuality. I wonder if Jones and Yarhouse will be looking into this?

More Baptist Controversy

Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX, is a moderately welcoming church. Although they have had gay members for many years, they seek to neither “endorse or condemn homosexuality.” This neutrality has served them well, allowing gay people to feel welcome but also allowing those Texas Baptists who’s religious convictions persuaded them of homosexuality’s sinfulness to join in worship without direct confrontation.

But sometimes confrontation comes unexpectedly, as it did for Broadway Baptist. The church decided to celebrate its 125th anniversary with a book describing its missions and displaying pictures of its members.

But when a gay couple showed up to have their picture taken for the directory, Betty Price, the directory coordinator, was having none of it. She raised a stink and spread her discontent – even calling the General Baptist Convention of Texas – before resigning from the position.

So now the church is having to face the decision of how to treat their gay brothers and sisters. Would they include the couple as a family, would they include individual photos, or would they decide that gay members are not worthy of inclusion in a directory.

The pastor, Brett Younger, discussed the problem at a Wednesday night church service (Star-Telegram):

Younger said that the church has had gay members for decades but that no couple had ever been pictured in the directory. He said to change directions would understandably be “troubling to many.”

On the other hand, Younger wrote that other church members think that the congregation’s gays, who “worship, serve and give just like everyone else,” should not be treated like “second-class members.”

The response has been varied. The church staff recommended to exclude them from the directory. The deacons considered letting families decide for themselves who was in their family, but voted that down and could come to no further decision. Those attending a monthly business meeting voted to present the idea to the congregation (for their vote) to list the couple together in the telephone directory but to show two separate photographs. The vote will be on December 2.

One of the more interesting aspects of this story, to me, is the attitude of the couple in question. They refused to allow their names to be published and they willingly took separate photographs because they did not want to be “poster child[ren] for a division in the church”.

“We are at the church to learn and to serve,” one of the men said. “There are people out there who are destined to be activists. I don’t feel like one of them.”

Often it is those who are quietly living their lives with integrity that most impact the world around them.

As a side note, perhaps it is not surprising that the pastor at Broadway Baptist from 1992 to 1999 was Rev. Stephen Shoemaker, currently the pastor at Myers Park Baptist.

See also:
Broadway’s Pastor Calls It Quits
Broadway’s Anti-Gays Vote
Broadway Baptist Finds a Happy Compromise
Broadway Baptist Punts on Gay Members’ Photos
More Baptist Controversy

Partner of Gay Navy Vet Who Was Refused Funeral Responds

A commenter identifying himself as Paul Wagner, Cecil Sinclair’s partner, left a comment with more details concerning High Point Church’s refusal to host Cecil’s funeral. Because of the details he provided, and the fact that his email address and ISP identify his location as being in Texas, I’m inclined to believe it’s the real thing.

Update: I tried to respond to him via the email he provided with my condolences, but the email was returned as being an invalid address. While I’m inclined to believe the account below, I haven’t yet been able to confirm it.

Update: The Dallas Morning News Religion Blog received the same message.

Update: I have confirmed that this is indeed Cecil Sinclair’s partner. Paul’s original comment had a typo in his email address, making contact difficult. I have since been in direct contact with him.

I am the partner of Cecil Sinclair who passed. It is unfortunate that the church has decided to tell untruths in order to make themselves feel better, or make their side of the story into a saner response. Hopefully more of the truth will come out in future articles or investigations.

First of all, let me start by stating that it was a member of the church who offered the use of their facility to us, on behalf of his brother who is/was a member of their congregation. I was introduced to this man as Cecil’s partner. To my knowledge, this person at least was fully aware that we were living openly as a couple. This same member of the church, when were later advised that we could not use the facilities, on his own, with money from his own pocket, not church coffers, went and procured another facility for the funeral. The church did not do so. At no time did a member of the church contact us to indicate that they had a problem with any part of the service we were planning. We never had contact with the minister or any of the administration.

On Tuesday morning, we gave the church a total of 83 various pictures of Cecil that were forwarded to us by various members of his family. Of those, not a single one showed a man hugging or kissing another man, nor were there any overtly homosexual references. Cecil’s sister Kathleen sat and worked with the two people preparing the video and went through all of the photos with them. There was only one photo which would be considered offensive, as it was a picture of him in his early 20s making a rude gesture at his best friend who was taking the photo. We removed it and never asked that it be included. It was just overlooked in the rush to get things done. These individuals went through all the other photos, which were pictures of family gatherings, birthday parties, vacations, etc. At no time was anything expressed to her or us that they had a disagreement with any of the other photos.

Cecil’s brother Lee, who was the member of the church, asked that we include a call to prayer near the beginning of the services, as well as a call for salvation at the end. We immediately agreed to this because it meant so much to his brother personally. We even asked if they wanted to have their own minister conduct it, or if our officiator could. Our officiator was a baptist minister. There was no objection raised, so we assumed that it was OK.

On Wednesday evening about 6pm, we received a call. The person on the line put Cecil’s brother Lee, who is mentally impaired, onto the phone. Lee informed us that something had gone wrong, and then someone else got on the phone. That person informed us that a terrible string of errors was made, and that the service could no longer be held at their facility. We never spoke to the pastor nor anyone from his administration directly. It was all done through middlemen. When we requested to know why we could no longer use their facility, there was no answer. They simply stated a mistake was made.

Later that night, while we were scrambling to find another location, Cecil’s niece called back to the church and demanded an explanation. It was at that time a very long string of excuses began to form. First she was told that it was because we were bringing in outside food, which they didn’t allow. Then we were told it was because there was construction going on nearby which they felt would be too obtrusive. We said we didn’t think it would interfere. Then we were told it was because there was a scheduling conflict. When asked was other event was being held that was conflicting, the call was disconnected.

The remembrance we held for Cecil I felt was wonderful. We started with a brief welcome by the officiator. A song (For the Fallen) was sung. Cecil’s obituary was read. We then played the video which was about 10 minutes long, showing him from childhood, graduation, his naval service, and family gatherings, especially those from his 46th birthday, which had just been on the 5th of July. The officiator then read from personal family statements and remembrances of him. His mother, father, uncle and sister had all contributed personal insights into his life that they were not able to state themselves due to grief. A time was then allowed for individuals to come to the mike and offer their own personal remembrances of him. The chorale then sang another song (Amazing Grace). Closing remarks were made by the officiator and we then moved to the light meal that had been prepared. Meat and cheese sandwiches, cakes, and cookies. Only a small amount of this was offered by the church, most was either brought by family or friends.

To me personally, I have no problem with the church turning us away. My problem is with the method in which they did it. I happen to know several other members of that church who are also gay, and they had no idea that their church held that opinion on this topic either. If they had told us right away, or even on Tuesday that they were not comfortable with the service, we would have been more than willing to try and come to some sort of compromise, or we could have changed venues. We were never given that option. Someone in a position of power made the decision to cut us off, and didn’t even have the moral courage to tell us the truth to our faces.

Hopefully your reading this helps to make sense of what occurred. I fully understand the church’s right to deny us the use of their facilities. I also served in the military, (US Army, 1987-2002), and I have fought to defend their freedom of religion and freedom of choice.

If just one couple or family can be saved from having to suffer the same as we did, I would consider all this to have been worthwhile. I truly believe all congregations need to have more open communication between all their members, so that the person who had initially welcomed us into their church would have known that is was not acceptable in the eyes of their leaders, and the entire issue would have been avoided. If we had known from the beginning we were not welcome, or the offer had never been made, we would have just continued making the same arrangements we finally had in the end. Nothing we did for Cecil’s remembrance ceremony was changed, other than the location.

I loved Cecil truly and deeply, and I am sorry that anyone considers a truly heartfelt, emotional, even spiritual connection to another human being to be sinful, simply because that love is between two people of the same sex.