c. 1999 Religion News Service

(The Rev. Marie M. Fortune is a minister in the United Church of Christ and is founder and senior analyst at The Center for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence in Seattle, Wash.)

UNDATED _ Folks who base their primary impression of the church on what they read in the newspaper are getting a very confusing message these days.

Two basic stories are repeated over and over portraying the churches’ activities and priorities. One comes under headlines like,”Churches take steps to prevent gays and lesbians from ordination, ministry, marriage,”and the other under”Churches respond to charges of sexual abuse by clergy by hiding behind the First Amendment,”or perhaps,”More high profile resignations from church leaders accused of sexual abuse.” The order of the day is swift, persistent and unequivocal action to prevent gays and lesbians from ordination, in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for example, or to punish anyone engaged in support of gays and lesbians, as in the United Methodist campaign to discipline clergy who celebrate same-sex unions or the American Baptist Convention’s vote to disfellowship local churches welcoming gays and lesbians. And, of course, the Vatican’s recent banning of Sister Jeannine Gramick and the Rev. Robert Nugent from carrying out their ministry with gays.

Simultaneously, we read about yet another case of clergy sexual abuse, usually linked to a church explanation of why it can’t be held accountable _ read, sued _ because the First Amendment protects the church from suits.

Most recently, a former seminarian, John Bollard, is suing the California Province of the Jesuits, alleging that he was sexually harassed and propositioned by the priests who had responsibility for his preparation for priesthood.

In the resignations department, Roman Catholic Bishop Patrick Ziemann resigned from the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., admitting to a sexual relationship with one of his priests.

Am I the only one who sees a contradiction here?

The church pulls out all the stops to insure gays and lesbians do not serve and are not served. For what reason _ beyond simple homophobia _ is not clear. At the same time, the church continues to hesitate to quickly and unequivocally remove clergy found responsible for sexual abuse.

These unethical clergy are a danger to congregants, and their unchecked behavior is badly damaging the credibility of the church as a whole. Gays and lesbians are not, by definition, a danger to anyone, but in fact bring gifts to ministry.

Denominational policy wonks try to puzzle out why mainline church membership has been in steady decline in recent decades while Catholic officials wonder at the disregard for church teaching.

Many survivors of sexual abuse in churches as well as many gays and lesbians who grew up in churches are long gone.

What gets lost in all this bad press _ and let’s be clear that this situation is not being created by the media _ is the good news when the church occasionally does get it right.

For example, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London, Ontario, following the lead of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, is now clear on its course of action:”If we discover that, in fact, this person has transgressed the boundaries, then we will not put them back in ministry again, unless we can be absolutely certain that what has happened will never happen again _ and that certainty is very difficult to come by,”according to the Rev. Tony Daniels, vicar general.

It is hard to imagine how much progress our churches would have made if, instead of spending enormous amounts of time and money in the past 30 years repeatedly declaring”homosexuality is a sin”and gays and lesbians are unworthy members of the household of God, they had instead spent these resources declaring sexual abuse is a sin no matter if the abuser is a pastor or bishop and providing for policies and procedures to address disclosures of abuse.

It is also hard to imagine how much stronger our churches would be now if, instead of paying legal fees to lawyers to defend clergy and judicatories on charges of indefensible actions, they had compensated the victims and survivors whose lives have been traumatically altered by the carelessness or callousness of a pastoral abuser.

Here are the headlines I long to see:”Church confesses its mistake; welcomes gays and lesbians.””Church leaders rally to support marriage for gays and lesbians.””Pope declares sexual abuse by priests a sin the church will not tolerate.””Church makes restitution to sexual abuse victim; `It’s our job to bring healing.'” Maybe then the exodus from our churches will reverse itself and we can get on with the much-needed work of ministry.

DEA END FORTUNE