Why HRC Will Attend Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission Conf.

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Posted: 10/28/2014 11:26 am EDT
Updated: 10/28/2014 11:59 am EDT
Sharon Groves
Director of HRC Foundation’s Religion & Faith Program

Today the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission meets in Nashville, Tenn., for a conference on "The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage." There is neither anything in the printed program nor in the recent history of the church that suggests this will be a pleasant conversation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people or our allies. Even so, we'll be there.

A small but influential group of LGBT-affirming Baptist and evangelical Christian leaders will be joined by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation's Religion & Faith Program because we believe a shift is possible. Despite the intolerance we expect to face, we see movement among many evangelical leaders toward greater acceptance and inclusion, especially among younger generations. And the time to build on that momentum is now.

There are many parts of the country - particularly rural and religiously conservative communities - where coming out as LGBT is not just difficult, but often excruciatingly lonely and even dangerous. In a recent survey conducted as part of HRC's Project One America, more than 50 percent of LGBT Mississippian respondents were people of faith. But 22 percent experienced harassment monthly - or even more frequently - in their houses of worship. Similar trends happened in Arkansas and Alabama. And respondents in all three states spoke of violence and harassment as one of their biggest concerns.

Sadly, church leaders have often legitimized such actions. We heard stories from this survey that chilled us to the bone. Take the Southern Baptist choir director who told a young gay college student that "it would be better to shoot yourself in the head then to come back and corrupt our youth at the church anymore."

https://news.google.com/news?ncl=dnF-hcFKmIbxOtMvjLurnlCrlSHCM&q=religious&lr=English&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uhJQVKSPD-nLsASri4L4Aw&ved=0CC0QqgIwBQ

http://www.hrc.org/topics/religion-faith

[cbayer]

1. Wow! That's going to make this even more interesting.

I hope that there is some good reporting on this.