Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1998 | 11:07 a.m.
Last year, a Las Vegas Methodist minister asked a group of homosexuals to leave his church.
They were members of Metropolitan Community Church who had been using the building at Wesley United Methodist for almost three years under an agreement with a previous pastor.
The new Methodist minister, the Rev. Billy Archibald, said the decision to "invite them to leave" arose from a series of disagreements over proper use of the facilities. He stopped them from performing gay weddings -- Holy Union ceremonies. He forbid them from hosting a dance in the sanctuary, although he had allowed the Methodist youth group to do so during the same time period.
Metropolitan members held the dance despite Archibald's request.
"And from there, things just deteriorated," Archibald said. "Homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity."
The tiff between some of Las Vegas' gay Christians and Wesley Methodist is a small piece of a much larger issue, one with which Christians and homosexuals are struggling in Las Vegas and across the nation.
"Homosexuality is a major, major issue within Christianity," the Rev. Jerry Blankinship, a Las Vegas Methodist chaplain and part-time UNLV religion professor, said. "I don't see it being resolved any time too soon."
Christians are divided over whether homosexuals are equal to heterosexuals in God's eyes -- whether homosexuality is a sinful choice or a God-given trait. Differences of opinion on the matter have resulted in the formation of segregated churches, organizations aimed at fighting the ideological war from both sides and support groups for ostracized gay Christians.
People on each side of the issue interpret differently the biblical passages that appear to address the issue -- some say the Bible clearly speaks against homosexuality and some say the true meaning of specific passages has been lost in revisions. Still others argue that even if the Bible says homosexuality is sinful, the Christian community has chosen unfairly to criticize homosexuality more than many other sins.
Opinions are not clearly divided by denominational lines. Within each Christian denomination -- from Catholicism to Presbyterianism -- one may find Christians who accept, and those who reject, homosexuals.
However, leaders in most denominations have formally addressed the issue -- most issuing statements that cast homosexuals as something less than equal to heterosexuals. Many churches have taken the stance that homosexuals may worship in their congregations as long as they are celibate and quiet about their sexuality, but they may be neither ordained nor married.
The Vatican issued a letter in 1992 to American bishops asking them to oppose all gay-rights legislation, calling for respectful treatment of homosexuals but reminding Catholics that all sexual acts outside of marriage -- in fact, all sexual acts "not open to the potential for procreation" -- are sinful.
In recent months, leaders in the Anglican (Episcopal) Church, Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Methodist Church have all taken action regarding either the ordination or marriage of homosexuals in the church.
None has agreed to allow "practicing," or sexually active, homosexuals to be ordained. And while some churches have hosted gay marriages, clergy who conduct them have been sanctioned in some cases.
"As Presbyterians, we've had big struggles on sexuality," the Rev. Rick Karns, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Las Vegas, said. "Homosexuality is sinful, but all of us are sinful and all of us are still welcome to worship. By the book, though, we don't ordain practicing, ordained homosexuals."
The issue was further exacerbated last summer by a coalition of conservative Christian organizations, Exodus, that purchased advertising space in the New York Times, Washington Post and other major national newspapers to advance this message: Sufficient doses of God can, and has, turned gays straight.
"It is untrue -- you can't turn straight," the Rev. Beau McDaniels, senior pastor at Metropolitan, said. "I'm not asking heterosexuals to become homosexuals, so why are they asking us to become heterosexual? Instead, I'm asking them to understand that this is how God created us to be: gay."
Biological research about the origins of homosexuality is inconclusive.
Amid the controversy, gay Christians have taken several approaches to continuing the practice of their faith. Some keep their sexuality a secret and continue to attend either their church or more tolerant services such as those at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation; others attend support group meetings for gay Christians; and still others have formed their own churches such as Metropolitan, a member of a nationwide association of gay-friendly churches.
Las Vegas, a city renowned for accepting -- in fact, flaunting -- "straight" sexual expression, does not offer the same acceptance to homosexuals seeking religious fellowship, according to some gay Christians.
"You get two blocks off the Strip and it's no longer a cosmopolitan city," the Rev. B.J. McDaniels, senior pastor at Metropolitan, said. "It may as well be right smack-dab in the Midwest as far as attitudes -- it's very conservative and very condemning."
For members of Metropolitan, the eviction from Wesley was not monumental.
"(Archibald) invited us to leave. This is nothing new to us," McDaniels said. "Everyone keeps thinking this issue should be getting better, but it isn't."
In its 18 years in Las Vegas, Metropolitan has moved nearly that many times, forced out of a variety of places by growth, lease issues and prejudice. The church regularly receives hate tracts and anti-gay telephone calls.
In fact, Metropolitan Community Church of Las Vegas held its first services in a bar because the bar owner was the only proprietor to offer his facilities on Sunday mornings.
"Las Vegas is not a welcoming place for gay Christians," the Rev. David Gillentine, associate pastor at Metropolitan, said.
"And while we are a 'gay' church, we don't focus on homosexuality. We're a Christian church," McDaniels said.
At the weekly services now held in a rented theater space, Metropolitan pastors offer broad Christian messages to a congregation sometimes numbering more than 100, with participants coming from traditions that range from Catholicism to Pentecostalism.
"We're here for spirituality -- sometimes we get dragged into politics, but first and foremost, we are Christians," Gillentine said. "When a homeless person comes to our door for food, we don't ask whether he's gay, or pro-choice, or Republican, or anything like that. We give him food. Ours is very much like other Christian churches."
In addition to Metropolitan's weekly services in Las Vegas, several hundred gay Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Mormons and nondenominational Christians, among others, meet for segregated Bible study or in support groups at various locations around town.
Chris, a 32-year-old gay Mormon, attends the local 50-member chapter of the international gay Mormon support group, Affirmation.
The Mormon Church teaches tolerance toward homosexuals as long as they are celibate, Chris said. But in Mormon theology, the highest level of heaven is reachable only by married couples.
"I grew up in the church. I went on a mission. But when I decided to come out of the closet, I basically had to step away from all that," Chris said.
"I still believe in the teachings of the church, and we believe in the Bible. Jesus said, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.' He didn't judge. And that's all I would ask other Mormons to do -- not judge."
Chris occasionally attends meetings at his local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he remains closeted and keeps to himself, he said.
"I still do go once in a while, and I sit and listen, but I make no ties, no attempt to get involved. I go to feel the spirit, but not to deal with the social issues. I would not be welcome or comfortable there if I were out."
For socializing, he relies on Affirmation, which hosts two social events per month in addition to support-group meetings.
The Mormon Church funded lobbying efforts against gay rights in several states this year, a move that Chris said is aimed at preventing internal church conflict.
"As Mormons, we believe in obeying and sustaining and following laws, and that's why the church is putting money into opposing gay rights -- because if a law is changed and gay marriage is allowed in some state, then by our own standards Mormons would have to follow the law," he said.
But while Chris quotes the biblical passage in which Jesus asks Christians not to judge, other Christians cite Leviticus 18:22: "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination."
"I don't have any difficulty determining what I believe the Bible says about homosexuality," the Rev. Michael Rochelle, senior pastor of the 2,000-member Shadow Hills Baptist Church, said. "It is sinful.
"Southern Baptists do not believe that homosexuality is an acceptable alternative lifestyle," he said. "If two men came into our church holding hands, they're not welcome if they are determined to continue that lifestyle. ... Some of our people would just be aghast. We wouldn't tolerate somebody flaunting it. We would be here, however, to help them overcome it."
McDaniels said the demand by some congregations to keep homosexuals closeted or change them is just as oppressive, if not more so, than rejecting them outright.
"It's just blatant discrimination," she said. "Straight couples hold hands in their churches all the time. It is discrimination, and unfortunately, it is nothing new to gays and lesbians."
Rochelle said it is not discrimination, but an enforcement of a standard of conduct expected of Christian worshippers.
"Homosexuality destroys lives and families like gambling and alcohol. If a guy who is an alcoholic comes here and takes his Jack Daniels out during worship, we wouldn't allow that, either," Rochelle said.
Ironically, the condemnation from church leaders causes many gay Christians to go through a period of questioning their religion that often results in a stronger faith in God, McDaniels said.
"Many of us came out of a background where we were taught not to question, but Jesus said, 'Test your teachers,' McDaniels, who was raised Baptist, said. "And I thought, 'How could I learn about a God of love from people who were being hateful? I grew closer to God as I tried to understand."'
Gillentine's departure from mainline Christian churches also came after a childhood steeped in Baptist teachings.
"I thank the Southern Baptists for my firm Bible background," Gillentine said. "People are always commenting on my ability to quote scripture. But I had a painful departure from the Baptist Church at the age of 21."
His pastor asked him whether he was gay, and he was subsequently ostracized from his church, he said.
"But never did it occur to me that God didn't love me for some reason," Gillentine said. "I always knew that God loved me."
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