Church begins ad
campaign urging
tolerance for gay
people
By AP from
FortWayne.com on the Web, May 31, 2006
INDIANAPOLIS -- A gay-friendly
church has begun an advertising campaign that includes yard signs, bumper
stickers and newspaper ads asking whether Jesus would discriminate against gay
people.
The Jesus Metropolitan Community Church is spending $55,000 on the campaign.
About 300 volunteers are distributing 650 bumper stickers, 720 T-shirts, 2,000
yard signs and 25,000 door hangers.
Church members hope the ads will spark a conversation about the issue, and they
are also planning a town hall meeting on homosexuality and the Bible.
"Jesus defended social and religious outcasts," said the Rev. Jeff Miner, senior
pastor at the church. "Yet many in today's Church seem to specialize in
beating up on those who are different. What's wrong with this picture?"
An ad planned to run in The Indianapolis Star will show a group of Klansmen
around a burning cross with a headline, "Remember a time when a symbol of love
was used as a symbol of hate? The Bible shouldn't be misused to justify
discrimination against any group, including gay people."
Miner said some people use the Bible now in the same way it was used to support
slavery, oppose women's suffrage and to defend laws against interracial
marriage.
"We want to help other Christians connect the dots between past acts of
discrimination and what is happening today," he said.
Some conservatives, however, say it's clear that sexual relations are condemned
by the Bible unless they involve one man and one woman married to each other.
Curt Smith, of the Indiana Family Institute, said Miner is wrong about the role
Christians have played in past discrimination. He said it was dedicated
Christians who ended slavery and have fought for many social justice issues
throughout history.
"The Bible is misused all the time, and I think the good pastor is misusing it
as well," said Smith.
Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis was founded in 1990 by 18
gay Christians. The church is working on the ad campaign with the national
groups Faith In America -- a group organized to fight discrimination against
gays and lesbians -- and Metropolitan Community Churches worldwide.
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