Date: Sun, 7 Jan 96 09:35:42 HST From: ramsey@math.hawaii.edu (Tom Ramsey) Subject: HAWAII, JAN. 7 A LUTHERAN PERSPECTIVE ON SAME-GENDER MARRIAGE Below is attached the testimony of Rev. Don Johnson, pastor of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. LCH welcomes gay and lesbian Christians to full participation in its sacraments. LCH is also well-known for its excellent music ministry. As an example of the latter, on most Sunday nights a small choir sings Compline by candlelight at 9 pm. Aloha! Tom Ramsey Co-Coordinator of HERMP TESTIMONY FOR THE COMMISSION ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND THE LAW From: Rev. Dr. Donald K. Johnson Date: Given, October 14, 1995 I am an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I have served the Lutheran Church of Honolulu for the past 26 years. With many Biblical scholars, I find no clear moral judgment that negates mutually agreed upon same sex relationships in the Old or New Testament. Violent, abusive sexual relationships are despised. The moral support surrounding procreation in the Old and New Testaments is designed to organize a community for the birth of many children. That need no longer exists given today's need for sustainable population, women's rights and democracy. The purity codes in the scriptures deal with religious purity, which is often wrongly interpreted as dealing with sexual purity. The world has changed from the tribal and agrarian communities described in the Biblical material to a high tech industrialized world, and moral solutions that create healthy communities will be different. It is an appropriate time to review morality as it speaks to sexual orientation and the law. 1. It is important to carefully take moral truth from the scriptures. The Sodom and Gomorrah story (Genesis 18:16-19:38) deals with sexual violence both in the rape of men and the rape of women. Both are morally wrong. When Jesus discusses the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah, he makes no mention of a "sexual problem," but speaks specifically about the evil of witholding proper hospitality to strangers (Matthew 10:5-15). Social violence is the evil. In Paul's letter to the Romans (1:18-32), he is often quoted as speaking against mutually-agreed-upon-same-sex-relations. The Greek word translated there refers to the pederasty practiced in the Roman gymnasium where elders took advantage of children and youth. Sexual violence is evil. That reference is a part of Paul's argument in the first three chapters of Romans to show that all human beings, including the reader, are sinful in some form or another and in need of God's grace (Romans 3:21). 2. Rather than excluding gay and lesbian people from the protection ... [of the church---text damaged in being faxed to LRB]....[we] offer them acceptance..... [we have declared our Lutheran churches RIC by a vote] .... of delegates from 170 congregrations from Hawaii and Orange County, California. The RIC designation means we welcome gay and lesbian people to full participa- tion and membership in our congregation without negative judgment. I beleive that we should do something similar in affirming long term commit- ments between gay and lesbian couples. 3. The government needs to create laws that contribute to the stability of our communities. Throughout the world, marriage laws and customs take a variety of forms but always these laws and customs are designed to create a stable community that is productive, life-giving and sustainable. In our high tech cosmopolitan world of family disruption, travel, and change, the government would do well to offer gay and lesbian couples support in their long term relationships. Let the state offer them some of the legal support we offer hetrosexual couples for the good of our communities. The world deteriorates ecologically and economically with too many people. Overpopulation of Earth is a world-wide concrn and excellent care for the children of our own state is a great need. Blessing long term same sex relationships with legal and economic advantages would affirm their positive contribution along with the hetrosexual people toward the stability of our communities. 4. Sexually transmitted diseases are best controlled with stable long term sexual relationships. there will be economic and social advantages to our state when we affirm monogamous same sex relationships. 5. I am concerned with the erosion of family structures in our present culture. Because we are a diverse community, we need to affirm a diversity of family structures. Nuclear families, extended families, same sex families as represented in monastic communities and gay and lesbian families are all good. When all the wonderfully different forms of families are encouraged with creative boundaries and non-violent expectations, they will give life and righteousness to our land. Lutheran Church of Honolulu phone: 941-2566 fax: 942-3177 1730 Punahou Street Honolulu, HI 96822