Pro-Gay Activists Arrested at Presbyterian Convention

Eighty pro-gay activists were arrested Sunday in Long Beach at the national convention of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) just days before the denomination is scheduled to vote on whether to explicitly prohibit its ministers from officiating at same-sex unions.

Among those arrested was one of the most prominent Presbyterians in the country, William P. Thompson, 81, of Lagrange Park, Ill., who led the 2.6-million-member denomination from 1966 to 1984 as stated clerk of the church’s General Assembly, its highest legislative body. He also is a past president of the National Council of Churches, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. His wife, Mary, accompanied him but was not arrested.

The arrests on misdemeanor charges of blocking a public driveway came during a peaceful demonstration and underscored ongoing tensions within several of the nation’s leading denominations over homosexuality.

Last month, pro-gay protesters led by the same interdenominational activist group, Soulforce, carried out a similar action in Cleveland at the United Methodist Church’s General Conference. Soulforce’s leader, the Rev. Mel White of the predominantly gay and lesbian Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, said Soulforce will demonstrate again next month in Denver when the Episcopal Church holds its triennial General Convention.

In one sense, Sunday’s demonstration amounted to street theater. Soulforce leaders held several meetings in advance with church leaders to which police were invited. The protesters knew exactly where to stand to be arrested. Indeed, shortly before the choreographed protests, a Soulforce leader advised protesters they could not be arrested unless they had a photo ID.

“If anyone doesn’t have an ID we’ll get you arrested next time,” the leader said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

A counter-protester from a fundamentalist Baptist church in Kansas yelled, “If you want to get arrested, get arrested for the good of God, not the devil!”

After their arrests, the activists were bused to Veterans Park several miles away, booked, issued misdemeanor citations for obstructing passage to a public place and released, Officer David Marander said. The city prosecutor’s office and the Municipal Court will decide what fines will be assessed, Marander said.

Afterward, the church issued an official statement saying that God’s love is unconditional and is extended to gays and lesbians. The church said it supports civil and human rights for gay men and lesbians. But, said the Rev. Doug Oldenburg, “our official policy is that homosexuality is not God’s wish for humanity.”

The immediate issue confronting Presbyterians involves three resolutions, known as overtures, that would tighten language in the church’s constitution, or Book of Order, to impose an outright ban on same-sex unions. Last month, the church’s highest court, the Permanent Judicial Commission, ruled that because the Book of Order was silent on the matter, ministers were free to officiate at gay or lesbian unions so long as there was no mistaking them with a traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

Church leaders said they have no idea how the General Assembly will vote. On Saturday it elected a centrist, the Rev. Syngman Rhee, 69, as its new moderator. He pledged to help the church find “common ground” in the midst of disagreement.

Rhee, 69, is the first Asian American to be elected to the post. He fled North Korea when the Korean War began.

There were four candidates for moderator and, for the first time in the church’s history, none were white males. The moderator serves as an unpaid spokesperson and goodwill ambassador for the denomination.

The General Assembly also turned back efforts to revive a debate over whether to ordain non-celibate gay men and lesbians as elders and ministers of the word and sacrament. In doing so, the assembly honored a vote a year ago to delay discussion on the ordination issue for two years.

But that restraint will not apply to the same-sex blessing issue, which has so far eclipsed other issues before this year’s General Assembly.

As 5,000 Presbyterians held a worship service in the Long Beach Arena, pro-gay demonstrators held their own prayer service outside.

Among those speaking was the Rev. Janie Spahr, a lesbian who was called by a Rochester, N.Y., congregation to be its minister but whose appointment was blocked by the regional presbytery. She now serves as a Presbyterian minister in San Rafael, Calif., and is executive director of a pro-gay advocate group, “That All May Freely Serve.”

She assured about 125 who gathered for the rally that they are integral members of the Presbyterian Church. Speaking rhetorically to the official delegates gathered inside, she declared, “We are your deacons. We are your elders. We are your ministers. We are your mothers and fathers. We are you and you are us!”

Thompson, the church’s former national leader, drew laughs when he noted that he was dressed in a conservative black suit.

“I’m convinced that sexual orientation is received by people. It is not chosen,” he said.

He compared differences in sexual orientation to differences between men and women. “Differences between men and women were equalized by the church. It’s past time we equalized rights and privileges of all our members,” he said.

At the official worship service inside, outgoing Moderator Freda M. Gardner said trials in life are not new.

“If we grumble or curse or are saddened that this time is ours . . . what time would we choose?” she asked. “The Crusades? The Inquisition? The Reformation?”