[Dialogue] spong 11-09

[KroegerD@aol.com]

November 9, 2005 
Troy D. Perry - One of  God's Original Saints 
It all began on October 6, 1968. On that day, twelve people gathered in a  
house in Los Angeles in response to an advertisement in a four-page magazine for 
 homosexuals called "The Advocate." This ad was addressed to gay men and 
lesbians  who might want to be a part of a Christian Church in which they did not 
have to  hide. The advertisement, signed by the Rev. Troy D. Perry, gave a 
specific  address where this first service of worship would take place. Of the 
twelve who  gathered on that date, two were a heterosexual couple, the other ten 
were  homosexuals. One was African American, one Hispanic; seven were males 
and five  were females. That was the founding moment for what came to be called 
The  Metropolitan Community Church, which now has 330 congregations located 
in 22  countries. Troy D. Perry, then a 28-year-old Pentecostal preacher, is 
now a  world figure, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, a person from 
whom  presidents and presidential candidates have sought advice, a friend of 
Desmond  Tutu and a religious leader invited to meet with John Paul II on one of 
his  visits to the United States. On October 30, 2005 in the National 
Cathedral of  the Episcopal Church in Washington. D.C., the place from which 
presidents have  been buried, Troy Perry's successor, The Rev. Nancy Wilson, was 
installed as the  second Moderator of the Worldwide Fellowship of The Metropolitan 
Community  Church. That setting and transition was in itself symbolic of the 
remarkable  journey made by this incredible man, whose story needs to be told 
and whose  contribution to the life of the Christian Church needs to be 
recognized.  
Troy Perry was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1940, the oldest in what was  
to be a family of five children. His mother was a Southern Baptist; his 
father a  member of the Pentecostal Church of God, though that membership might 
have been  compromised by his father's profession. He was, what we called in the 
South in  those days, 'a bootlegger,' one who made illegal whisky available to 
those who  were willing to pay for this service. Even as a young child, Troy 
was deeply  drawn to the church and yearned to be a preacher. In Southern 
evangelical  circles, the call to preach was far more important than any academic 
preparation  designed to equip one for that duty. It was quite enough to be 
"open to the  Spirit." Troy was a gifted boy who spoke well and by the age of 13 
he had  achieved a reputation of some significance. He preached to his 
classmates before  school every Wednesday with more than a little interest being 
expressed by the  crowds of students and faculty that gathered. Soon, he was 
given a preaching  license by the Southern Baptists and became known in his 
expanding Bible Belt  orbit of North Florida, Alabama and South Georgia as "the 
Teen-Aged Evangelist."   
Like so many people of that era in the South, Troy had no idea what a  
homosexual was but he knew he had attractions toward other males his age.  Fearing 
that there was something wrong with him, he consulted a written source  
provided by his church, which informed him that homosexuals were "sick people  who 
wore dresses and molested children." Since neither was true of him, he  breathed 
a sigh of relief. Later when his fears did not go away, he turned to a  
Pentecostal preacher and was told that all he had to do was to get married and  his 
fantasies would disappear. Troy responded by marrying that man's 18-year-old  
daughter. It lasted five years and produced two sons. When the marriage 
ended,  Troy went into the army. Vietnam was to be his destiny. As part of his 
medical  examination, he was asked to check whether or not he had "any homosexual  
tendencies." The question, he said, came right after cancer and tuberculosis. 
He  checked 'yes.' Nonetheless, he was taken in, given top security clearance 
and  became a computer expert. He served well, was given an honorable 
discharge and  began to work for Sears. In time, he became a division manager. 
However, his  heart still drew him toward his pastor's calling, so back to being a 
Pentecostal  preacher he went. By this time, however, he was quite sure he was 
a homosexual  and had had gay liaisons. The church he was serving, however, 
was quite sure  that homosexuality was sinful, depraved behavior. One survived 
in that  atmosphere only by being dishonest. Hiding never works and Troy was 
discovered,  banished from that church and his license to preach revoked. It was 
for him a  moment of great despair. With the help of his first partner he 
coped with that  rejection. When that relationship broke up, his depression was 
so deep that he  slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt that failed. From 
somewhere, he says, in  that moment of darkness, he found an overwhelming sense of 
God's love for him.  That, he concluded, was the heart of the Gospel - God 
loves me. He noticed when  he read the Bible that even those who forsook, 
denied, betrayed, tortured and  crucified Jesus were still the beloved of God. Aided 
by this conviction he began  to form a new consciousness. His logic went like 
this: God loves me. I am gay.  Therefore God must love gays. "The Lord is my 
shepherd, he knows I'm gay" became  his theme. He still felt a great desire to 
preach but the churches with which he  was familiar were not open to him in 
his new found honesty. Their fear and  hostility toward homosexual people 
expressed itself in mistaken attempts to turn  them into heterosexuals and, if that 
failed, to assure them that hell was their  destiny. Troy understood that 
sexual orientation is not a choice for anyone; it  is part of our identity to 
which we awaken. Mental health begins, he believed,  in self-acceptance not 
self-rejection. So coming to the conclusion that there  must be others just like 
himself who yearned to practice the faith in which they  had been reared, Troy 
asked himself the question that would change his life:  Could there be a 
worship community in the Christian tradition for those who are  honest about their 
homosexuality? That was the moment when he placed the  advertisement in "The 
Advocate."  
To issue a public call for homosexuals to gather at a specific address was a  
bold act in 1968. Hate crimes were quite normal in that day. To sign that  
advertisement with one's real name and to provide one's telephone number was  
thought foolhardy even by Troy's friends. Having no idea what a vast audience  
was waiting for this catalyst, he accepted the risk. There are today MCC  
churches in every major city in America and Canada; some of them bulging at the  
seams with members. Interestingly enough, their strength is primarily in the  
South, by which I mean that stretch of states that once constituted the heart of 
 Dixie, from Texas to Florida. The MCC conducts an annual conference each 
year to  which as many as ten thousand are in attendance. Today their pastors are 
trained  in accredited seminaries like The Pacific School of Religion in 
Berkeley, Union  in New York City, Harvard Divinity School, the Divinity School of 
the University  of Chicago and the Vancouver School of Theology among others. 
This Church  continues to grow and is beginning to attract young gay people 
who feel  alienated from those churches that condemn what they know they are.  
I first met Troy Perry in 1991 when the Episcopal National Convention and the 
 MCC National Conference were both meeting in Phoenix. My book, "Living in  
Sin?" had come out in 1988 and had placed me in the national eye since in  that 
book I called for the State to make homosexual unions legal and for the  
Church to give these unions the blessing we bestow in marriage. I also  challenged 
the Church to be honest about its gay clergy whose name was and is  legion. 
Acting on this conviction, I ordained to the priesthood in December of  1989 
America's first openly homosexual person living in a publicly acknowledged,  
committed relationship. The hostility I absorbed was overwhelming. Hate mail  
poured in; abusive telephone calls, even death threats, were plentiful. The  
House of Bishops in September of 2000 had voted to disassociate themselves from  
me for this action by a slender 78-74 margin, with two abstentions, one of 
which  was my own. I honestly did not know how to vote on whether or not I wanted 
to  associate with myself! Prior to this vote, I had carried this battle to 
the  airways of this nation with appearances on CBS This Morning, the Phil 
Donahue  Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and even Bill Buckley's Firing Line. Despite 
the  rejecting anger that engulfed me, I felt compelled to see this battle 
through.  When I prepared to go to the General Convention of my Church in1991 in 
Phoenix,  I was sure the debate would be intense and that I would be abused 
again in  speech after speech. When Troy heard that I was in town, he invited 
me to speak  to his National Conference. Christine and I had dinner with him 
prior to my  talk, at which time I could not help but be aware of the heavy 
security around  him. One manifestation of this was his insistence that we ride in 
separate cars  to the hall where his delegates gathered. When we arrived Troy 
led Chris and me  onto the stage, but before any word of introduction had 
been spoken, the entire  assembly rose as one and gave us a sustained, indeed a 
thunderous, ovation that  lasted for ten literal minutes. It was like having 
all of our wounds bathed with  healing love. We stood there teary eyed, taking 
it all in. If what we had done  meant that much to this many, it was worth all 
the hostility we had absorbed.  From that day to this, Troy has been a close 
friend. We have dinner with him  when in Los Angeles. We consult on the phone 
on various strategies and  opportunities and I have spoken in MCC churches in 
five countries. I was touched  when he asked me to speak at his retirement.  
Troy Perry made the Church more whole, inclusive and yes more Christian. MCC  
had to be formed to show the rest of us how unwelcoming we had been to some 
of  God's children. Troy knew full well that when Christians sang, "Just as I 
am  without a plea, O Lamb of God, I come," they had to mean it. He knew that 
Jesus  had said: "Come unto me all of ye," not "some of ye." I will always be 
grateful  for the existence of The Metropolitan Community Church and for Troy 
D. Perry,  its enormously talented founder and first moderator.  
— John Shelby Spong  
_Note from  the Editor: Bishop Spong's new book is available now at 
bookstores everywhere  and by clicking here!_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060762055/agoramedia-20)   
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Rev. Herbert Freitag from Clearwater Beach, Florida, writes:  
The one area where I would welcome more thought and discussion concerns the  
too rapid "doing away" with all the old forms, rituals, hymns, etc. which  
reflect a theological perspective to which we cannot subscribe. We accomplish  
little if we drive people away rather than get them to move. And some of the old 
 forms can, I think, be used in new ways while being respected as part of our 
 history - a part that is no longer logical or relevant but is part of our  
transition. It's like the singing of hymns such as "In the Garden" - the  
theology is lousy but the tune evokes positive feelings. Perhaps such  "dinosaurs" 
can be utilized as tools, by which to share new directions and  
interpretations that make more sense.  
Dear Herbert,  
You are correct at least in part that people cannot deal with the too rapid  
loss of their sacred symbols. They have invested too much of their emotional  
security in those symbols.  
On the other hand, if a religious institution clings too long to concepts  
that no longer are believable, it will die of irrelevance. Once, human beings  
worshipped the sun. Then we learned that the sun is a ball of burning gas and  
matter and no longer would our minds allow us to worship that object. The 
heart  will never worship what the mind rejects.  
I discover that people feel good about hymns so long as the tunes remain  
familiar. They pay little attention to words. People are comfortable with  
liturgy when they know what is coming next. They are not upset with word changes  so 
long as the changes do not make them feel lost or stupid for not knowing what 
 comes next. The problem has been that churches fall in love with their own  
liturgies and preserve them beyond the point that they are preservable.  
I am still drawn to Gothic space, stained glass, great organs and beautifully 
 done liturgy. I am not drawn to pre-modern concepts, an invasive 
supernatural  deity who lives above the sky. the concept of original sin, blood sacrifice 
as  the means of salvation, etc. The last prayer book revision in my church 
(1979)  was out of date before the ink on its pages was dry. Consciousness in 
regard to  liturgy is a slow developing process. However, it does develop as 
one can  clearly see if you go back and read the prayer books of my church in 
their 1549  and 1662 versions.  
Most pastors have to balance the tension between emotional ties to the past  
and new learning. However, some pastors must articulate the new learning 
because  that is the only way that people can grow. The church will always carry 
those  pastors who are closed to any change. I hope you will continue both to 
grow and  to be sensitive to the truth and the feelings of your people.  
My best,  
— John Shelby Spong 
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