Freedom Writer - August 1994 [ref001] Conference speakers bare hidden agenda By Mike Shave

Freedom Writer - August 1994

[ref001]

Conference speakers bare hidden agenda

By Mike Shaver

From the beginning, gay rights proponents have claimed that anti-gay 
measures like Amendment 2 are driven by individuals and organizations 
with an exclusive religious agenda, inherently at odds with basic 
notions of pluralism and political inclusion.

The anti-gay forces' success, therefore, has required establishing 
political credibility in the mantra "equal rights, not special rights." 
As important as this claim was during the Amendment 2 campaign, taped 
sessions and documents from the Colorado for Family Values conference 
contained no references to this slogan, which was described by many 
as the genius of Amendment 2. Could it be that this was less about 
rights and more about a larger objective?

Robert Skolrood, who heads the organization that worked with Colorado 
for Family Values to draft and defend Amendment 2, prefaced his legal 
talk by emphasizing, "As you know, it's a spiritual battle and we 
at the National Legal Foundation use II Corinthians 10:3-5 as our 
scripture... Although we lead normal human lives, the battle we are 
fighting is on the spiritual level."

More revealing is the list of "foundational principles" which summarizes 
the conference. The list appears to be a set of agreed-upon tenets 
which came out of the group sessions following the presentations.

Objectives include getting elected officials to expose gay-friendly 
legislation and public policy, eliminating government dollars and 
resources which are "the result of improper behavior brought on by 
their lifestyle (ex. AIDS) [sic]," and stressing family values so 
that "homosexuality would be regarded as a sad pathology by implication." 
Standing in marked contrast to these principles is item three, which 
reads simply, "Spiritual revival."

This item may have been inspired by Ron Ray, an active and vociferous 
critic of gays serving in the military. His presentation included 
several minutes of a religiously charged rhetoric.

"We're going to have to remember His standard," Ray said. "And then 
we can have repentance, because the problem is the church... Once 
we have repentance, we can have revival. Once we have the smoothing 
of the Holy Spirit, we can have restoration... All of us are working 
very hard at restoration, and the sad thing is that we're going to 
be bound by God's objective order.

"Sodomy, Sodom and Gomorrah, means the end or termination point... 
When you accept it in the law order, they have rendered thy word void, 
now the Lord will have to move."

Ronald Ray and Bob Skolrood were not alone in drawing on this theme. 
John Eldridge, who noted that Focus on the Family president James 
Dobson sees the issue of homosexuality as "one of the key issues of 
our age," outlined the work that Focus is doing to "raise the consciousness 
of the vast majority of Christians in the country who are woefully 
ignorant on these issues." Noting that the church is "slowly waking 
up," Eldridge promised that evangelical churches would turn "the great 
ship of evangelism back toward social engagement."

While these comments appear to stray from the conference theme, they 
bring to light what appears to be a shared motive of exclusion in 
the name of religion which is often hidden from the debate when the 
issue of gay rights unfolds in the public arena.

Mike Shaver is director of the Citizens Project in Colorado Springs.

_
Back to [ref002]Inside Glen Eyrie Castle
_

[ref003][ref004] Return to table of contents

Copyright 1995 IFAS
The Freedom Writer / ifas@crocker.com

[ref001] ../banner.gif
[ref002] gleneyrie.html
[ref003] index.html
[ref004] ../../uparrow.gif

        This file is copywritten by the Institute for First
        Amendment Studies.

        Subscribe to The Freedom Writer and Walk Away news
        letters by writing to or telephoneing the Institute
        for First Amendment Studies:

        Post Office Box 589
        Great Barrington, Massachusetts.  01230
        Telephone: (413) 528-3800
        E-Mail: ifas@crocker.com
        Web page: http://www.crocker.com/~ifas