The world-wide Anglican Communion has approved a discriminatory conservative resolution on gays at its once-a-decade Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England.

The conservative, anti-gay wing of the Anglican church is mostly popular with Asian and African bishops. The Rev. Perry says their decision "represents continued pain and rejection for the millions of gay and lesbian Anglicans."

"For too long," said Perry, " organized religion has attempted to erect barriers between God and gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons. This is no longer acceptable.

"The action by the Lambeth Conference delegates is yet another sobering reminder that there is much unfinished work to be done to bring about spiritual justice for all God's people. The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches will not cease in its calling to raise a bold, prophetic voice for an inclusive Christian spirituality."

Other observers ridiculed the discriminatory vote. Quoting the famous 19th century orator, Robert G. Ingersoll (historically one of the most effective foes of pious cults) GayToday editor Jack Nichols, author of The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists, said: "I don't believe in calling a man a liar simply because he's a bishop. Its bad enough to call a man a bishop." Nichols recommended that disillusioned believers consult the full works of Ingersoll and that they read Thomas Paine's Age of Reason to disabuse themselves of "puerile superstitions."

Nichols, who, in 1964, laid original groundwork for dialogues between gay representatives and a variety of churches, dismissed his own early efforts to effect gay integration into the orthodox churches: "The Bible has never been a decent source of sexual enlightenment," he said, "It's full of sexual curses aimed at women, homosexuals and those who dare to spill their seed on the ground. Its first curse was leveled at Eve for the 'crime' of curiosity."

OutRage! members dress up as bishops
to protest the Church's discrimination.
(Photo: John Hunt/OutRage!)

The author also quoted the American poet Walt Whitman: "Men make churches: men may destroy churches. I see no use for the church: it lags superfluous on the stage…The whole ideal of the church is low, loathsome, horrible—a sort of moral negation—as if men got down in the mud to worship—delighting in the filth: out of touch entirely with the great struggles of contemporary humanity."

Mel White, author of Stranger at the Gate, and a onetime Episcopalian church member, called the Lambeth vote "a tragic (though temporary) setback." White is now the Minister of Justice for the UFMCC and the creator of Soulforce, a group that utilizes the non-violent strategies of Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in its attempts to effect the integration of gay men and lesbians into Christian churches.

White's Soulforce group issued the following statement:

"Each person of faith must determine how he or she will respond to this tragic decision. But the Soulforce principles of relentless nonviolent resistance (as taught by Jesus, Gandhi, and King) make one thing clear. In Gandhi's words, "It is as much our moral obligation NOT to cooperate with evil as it is to cooperate with good."

"The Lambeth decision is evil. It lends credibility to the untruth that leads to suffering and death for God's gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered children. We must not cooperate with that evil decision. "We urge all people of faith to use this coming Sunday, August 9, 1998, as a day of mourning. Wear black arm bands to signal our grief that once again Christian leaders are supporting ignorance and intolerance as they did against Gandhi's people in India and South Africa and against King's people in the U.S.

"However, we must never forget the courageous Anglicans who took their stand against colonial brutality and the courageous Episcopalians who marched against slavery and segregation. Once again, we will see determined Anglican Christians taking their stand against untruth. I hope all people of faith will join them."