Americans United for Separation of Church and State

---

Bob Terry, Editor, Word & Way

A letter to select Missouri Baptist pastors

July 27, 1995, pg. 3

---

Homosexuality is not sin

In an August 1991 interview with AU executive director Robert Maddox, a Southern Baptist minister, and Rob Boston, associate editor of AU’s Church and State journal, the two agreed that the act of homosexuality is neither “sin” nor “wrong in and of itself,” but that it becomes sin at the point where the life-style becomes destructive.  Maddox stated in response to his position:  “I have a few friends who have lived a gay life-style for a long, long time, in great stability, in great productivity and creativity.”  (Tape recorded interview at AU’s headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland)

Thanking God for Diversity

In a 1994 column appearing in AU’s Church and State journal, AU executive director Barry Lynn states that he finds “no fault with such a theological stance” as thanking God  for the “diversity” that He created, “making us male and female, black, white, gay and straight.”  (Church and State, December 1994, pg. 21)

Gay Marriages and Re-defining the Family

In a 1995 interview with ACLU media director Phil Gutis, AU’s Barry Lynn stated his support for gay marriages, a position also held by Lynn’s former employer, the ACLU. (http://www.aclu.org/about/transcripts/ctrstage.html)  In a 1995 article appearing in AU’s Church and State journal, Lynn followed the logic of his support for same-sex marriage and argued for “same-gender families:”  “We live in a much more diverse nation of familes: single-parent families, families with members of three generations, same-gender families and families with foster children who stay for brief periods of time.  These are all the American family of 1995.”  (emphasis ours)  (Church and State, June 1995, pg. 23)

Homosexuality:  A church/state issue

In a workshop at AU’s 1994 National Conference, AU staffer Bunnie Riedel listed 11 top church/state issues for 1995.  Number four on the list was the need to combat Religious Right opposition to “promoting homosexuality” and “homosexual issues.”  In a June 1998 interview with Gay Today, AU executive director Barry Lynn contended that abortion and homosexuality are both indeed religious liberty issues, arguing that “anti-choice legislation and sodomy laws [are] unconstitutional, because they enact particular religious views into statutory form.”  (http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/interview/060198in.htm)

AU plays a key role in the How to Win manual

Along with the BJCPA, AU was also listed as one of the organizations “whose hard work on the editorial and media committees made [the How to Win] manual a reality.”  Many of the participating organizations in this far-left political training manual are represented on the governing board of AU, including:  Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs; People for the American Way; National Education Association; American Humanist Association; The Interfaith Alliance; National Center for Science Education; National PTA; Union of American Hebrew Congregations; and Unitarian Universalist Association.

AU and the National Religious Leadership Roundtable

Americans United is one of the participating organizations in the National Religious Leadership Roundtable, “a national gathering of religious leaders and faith-based activists who support equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons.  The Roundtable is an on-going project of Equal partners in Faith and the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.”  AU’s Barry Lynn serves on the Advisory Committee of Equal Partners in Faith (EPF) and two AU staff members serve on EPF’s steering committee. (http://www.us.net/epf/HOMENRLR.HTM and www.us.net/epf/STEERING.HTM and www.us.net/epf/ADVISORY.HTM)

 

 

 

[ Back ] [ Contents ] [ Next ]