The school meets in a church, but some in the religious community are speaking out against it.
When a public high school for homosexual teenagers opened last April in New York City, it had the support of at least one church. The Washington Square United Methodist Church, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, rented space to the school.
Opposition from some segments of the religious community surfaced, however, after a New York Times article described the school several weeks after it opened. Evangelical groups, along with Catholic, Orthodox Jewish, and Conservative Jewish organizations voiced opposition to the Harvey Milk School, named after a San Francisco city supervisor and homosexual activist who was murdered seven years ago.
The school is operated by the New York City Board of Education in conjunction with the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth, a homosexual advocacy group. The classes were inaugurated as one of several dozen off-site programs run by New York City for troubled youths—including pregnant girls and drug addicts—who are unwilling or unable to attend regular public schools.
The city provided the school’s teacher and about $50,000 in funds. The state provided approximately $100,000 in funds. Twenty students who had received counseling at the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth were enrolled. In answering criticisms raised by parents, psychologists, and educators, New York Schools Chancellor Nathan Quinones said the segregation of professing homosexual students is needed because they are harassed in public schools.
A. Damien Martin, a New York University professor and a cofounder of the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth, said his group is neutral toward students’ sexual orientation. “We are trying to give them a nonthreatening, nonsexual environment,” he said. Even so, institute personnel teach young people to be comfortable with their homosexuality. The institute’s staff and volunteers are either homosexuals or sympathetic to homosexual practice.
Students at the Harvey Milk School study typical high school subjects, and the credits they earn are transferable to a regular public school. The 14 boys and 6 girls—ages 14 to 19—span all high-school grades. All are self-professed homosexuals who have the approval of a parent or guardian to attend the school.
“Most of the students come from Christian backgrounds,” Martin said, “and for some of them religion is a major concern.” His solution is to put the adolescents in touch with his counselors—“people who can help them … who will get across to these young people that they can be good, spiritual beings even though they have a homosexual orientation.”
Opponents from the evangelical community disagree with Martin’s philosophy, saying the emphasis should be on helping homosexual teenagers change their lifestyles. Jesse Lee, pastor of the 40-member Neighborhood Church of Greenwich Village, has displayed protest signs in front of the Harvey Milk School. “This school should not exist,” he said. “Rather than segregating teenagers with temporary homosexual interests, we must show them they can be set free by Jesus Christ.”
An evangelical counseling service in Manhattan follows a similar philosophy. “We believe that everyone is created by God as a heterosexual,” said Ron Highley, a founder of L.I.F.E. (Living In Freedom Eternally) Ministry. Said Highley’s wife, Joanne: “I was a lesbian for 10 years, but have since been married for 29 [years]. Homosexuality is learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. It is confusion of identity. The Harvey Milk School only reinforces such deception.”
The pastor of the church that rents space to the school disagrees. “I accept gays and lesbians as persons affirmed by God,” said Martha Morrison, pastor of the 50-member Washington Square United Methodist Church. In a press release, the church stated: “We hope and pray for the day when lesbian and gay students can attend public high schools as fully accepted participants.” A similar statement was signed by New York Area United Methodist Bishop C. Dale White, New York Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore, and other religious leaders.
“There has never been a single documented case of change in sexual orientation,” said Martin, of the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth. “No one chooses to be gay or can become heterosexual. It is unethical and immoral to push the idea that people can change.”
One of the school’s opponents, however, said his experience disproves Martin’s contention. “These people don’t know the truth or the power of God,” said Dan Von Bergen, a former homosexual who serves as an elder at the Neighborhood Church. “Jesus Christ has triumphed over the power of homosexuality in my life.”
Classes at the Harvey Milk School are scheduled to resume this fall. When the school reopens, the ideological battle is expected to continue.
WORLD SCENE
Church Organization Calls For Disinvestment
The South Africa Council of Churches (SACC) has violated South African law by asking churches in other countries to disinvest their holdings in South African businesses. Laws in South Africa forbid public advocacy of disinvestment, but they have not been tested in the courts. The SACC said disinvestment is a “peaceful and effective means” of pressuring the South African government to change its racial separation policies, known as apartheid.
Church Of England Approves Women Deacons
The General Synod of the Church of England has voted to allow women to be ordained as deacons. But it stopped short of opening the priesthood to women. The measure must be approved by the British Parliament before the church can put it into practice. Women in the Church of England had been limited to serving as deaconesses, a lay position. As ordained deacons, women can perform marriages and baptisms, but they cannot celebrate Holy Communion.
Church Considers Starting Chinese University
The Mission Church of Norway is considering an invitation to establish a university in the People’s Republic of China. The invitation from Chinese officials stressed that Christian activities would not be permitted as part of the school’s educational program. However, Christian teachers could be appointed, and a church could operate on campus.
Spain Legalizes Abortion
The Spanish Parliament has legalized abortion, a procedure that had been banned for 40 years. The law allows abortions in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s mental or physical health, and in cases where the fetus is believed to be deformed. The vote followed a two-year battle involving socialist supporters of the law, their conservative political opponents, and the Roman Catholic Church.
Protestants And Catholics To Share Communion
Two Protestant bodies in West Germany have agreed to share Holy Communion with the West German Old Catholic Church. The Old Catholic Church broke from Rome in the 1870s over the doctrine of papal infallibility. Sharing the Eucharist with the West German Old Catholic Church will be the Evangelical Church in Germany and the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany.
Methodists And Catholics Criticize Freemasonry
Methodists in England and Catholics in the United States have been advised to reject Freemasonry as inconsistent with Christian faith. A report presented at the British Methodist Conference said church members should not join the secret organization and that Masonic lodges should not be allowed to meet on Methodist premises. Meanwhile, in a confidential report, a committee of U.S. Catholic bishops said Freemasonry is irreconcilable with Christianity.
China Releases Catholic Bishop
The People’s Republic of China has paroled a Roman Catholic bishop after he served nearly 30 years in jail. Official reports indicated that Bishop Ignatius Kung, 84, had recognized the legitimacy of China’s Catholic church, which operates independently of Rome. However, Kung was not quoted directly as saying he had switched allegiance from the Vatican. The bishop had been sentenced to life imprisonment for treason after he refused to sever his ties with the Vatican.
Personalia
Richard J. Wood has been appointed president of Earlham College, a four-year liberal arts institution, and the Earlham School of Religion, a Quaker seminary, both in Richmond, Indiana. Wood previously served as vice-president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Whittier (Calif.) College. He formerly taught philosophy at Earlham College.
Godfrey N. Vose, principal of the Baptist Theological College of Western Australia, has become president of the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Vose succeeds Duke McCall, former president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, as BWA president. The BWA represents some 34 million Christians in 131 affiliated bodies worldwide.
