Church Rite for Gay Couple Is Protested

A group of fundamentalist Christians, brandishing signs reading “Homo Sex Is Sin” and shouting “God is against you!” protested outside Sunday services at a Pasadena Episcopal church where a gay couple’s union was blessed last month.

The 15 protesters, who tried to hand out flyers reading “What’s worse than dying from AIDS? Dying without Jesus,” were largely ignored by the hundreds of parishioners arriving for services at All Saints Church. Some churchgoers did glare at the signs, shaking their heads as they entered the sanctuary.

Parishioner Jane Hicks found the demonstrators’ methods “rather silly, very childish.” Last month, in a bold move intended to demonstrate his church’s view of homosexuality, the Rev. George Regas, All Saints’ activist rector, blessed the union of Mark Benson, 47, a physician’s assistant, and Philip Straw, 45, a postal worker, in a service attended by 500 guests.

The ceremony was considered significant because of the prominence of All Saints, the largest Episcopal church west of the Mississippi River with 3,000 members. The ritual, similar to a wedding, has stoked an intense debate about homosexuality within the national Episcopal church.

For members of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle, a Los Angeles church with a congregation of 300, the blessing was motivation to speak out in front of All Saints.

“The Bible is very clear,” said Deacon Jeffrey S. Shibata. “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. . . . The time has come to stop pretending that the Bible doesn’t have anything to say about homosexuality.”

Shibata, accompanied by five men in dark suits who silently stood in front of the church with their placards, said it is “morally wrong” for Regas to condone such a union. He said his group is not “narrow-minded and intolerant,” but wants to draw a moral line.

Another nine men, several of whom shouted Bible verses and demanded that parishioners repent, joined the protest after hearing about it through a “secret, underground network” that calls itself Christian Brothers, according to the group’s leader, who identified himself as “bobby BIBLE.”

As parishioners filed into church, many greeting one another with hugs, members of the Christian Brothers shouted: “The Bible is against you for justifying evil!” and “God has us cleansing this temple today!”

On the church steps after Mass, Regas said the church has “always welcomed the freedom of speech,” but added that protesters have taken “a selective view of the Bible.”

“We believe in a Christ of inclusive love, a church that is open to everybody,” Regas said. “That includes gay people and straight people.”

Shortly before Regas began his homily at the 11:15 a.m. service, a protester stood and walked out, proclaiming: “If the blind follow the blind you will end up in the pits.”

In an oblique reference to the demonstrators, Regas told the congregation that “every person belongs to God’s world, black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight.”

Twyla Meyer, 41, of Pomona attended the Benson-Straw ceremony and described the couple as “wonderful people” whose relationship she supports. As Meyer chatted with two friends after Mass, she said she was “not really paying attention” to the men on the sidewalk shouting “Hypocrite church!”

“The people who come to this church are open to accepting all people,” Meyer said.