This is how the culture war progresses…

Megachurch wants choir to sign anti-gay covenant

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) — Several choir members at Orange County’s Crystal Cathedral say they’re upset over a document they’ve been asked to sign that takes a strong stand against homosexuality.

The “Crystal Cathedral Worship Choir and Worship Team Covenant” recently handed out to members states that they should commit to being Christians by following the Bible in every way, the Orange County Register reported Tuesday.

Former and current choir members say they are particularly offended by a statement in the document that refers to homosexuality. Long-time church members say this is the first time they have seen the cathedral take a firm stand against homosexuality and are disturbed by it.

“I understand that in an era where images of family relationship and personal sexuality are often confused, Crystal Cathedral Ministries believes that it is important to teach and model the biblical view,” the covenant reads. “I understand that Crystal Cathedral Ministries teaches that sexual intimacy is intended by God to only be within the bonds of marriage, between one man and one woman.”

Sheila Schuller Coleman, daughter of the founder and senior pastor of the megachurch, issued a statement saying the document is intended to “clarify expectations placed on them as ministry leaders.” Coleman also apologized for the pain the covenant has caused some choir members.

Ann Moore Waltz, a longtime church member and former choir member, said she does not agree with the statement in the covenant.

“If I were still in the choir and if that was presented to me, and if a gay person had walked out, I would have walked out with him or her,” she told the Register. “If you are a Christian group and people come to you, you should be a good servant, love them and shine the light of Jesus on them — regardless of who they are.”

Understand, this isn’t aimed at the gay people in the choir, it’s aimed at their families and friends. It’s happening because the biggest fear of the homophobes is slowly but surely coming true and even cocooned deep in their echo chambers they can see it:  The homosexual monster they’ve been waving at everyone for decades is fading, fading away, loosing its power, right before their eyes.  We live openly now, and eventually the weight of the evidence of those small solitary lives lived openly becomes too much for even the most professionally constructed propaganda to bear.  The monster fades away and in its place steps forward gay sons and daughters, the gay uncle and aunt, gay fathers and mothers, the gay co-worker…the gay neighbor.

The war was never about homosexuality.  From the beginning it was a war on love.  And it was never just the homosexual who could not be allowed to know what it was to love and be loved by another.  Love builds bridges.  Love moves mountains.  Love can make you see yourself in the face of a stranger.  For the authoritarian mindset whose greatest fear is loss of control, love can only be an enemy.  See it now.  The message of the good Christians in the glass house of God is you must either cast out the homosexual, or be cast out yourself.  If you love your neighbor, you are the enemy.