Thursday, January 16, 1997
By the Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs
We at the United Methodist Campus Ministry, which serves UCLA
along with many others at the University Religious Conference
(URC), are outraged at the attack the other day on Christian gays
and lesbians. The Christian right continues to use inappropriate,
out-of-date Biblical text to condemn them, whom God loves and whom
God blessed and called good from the earliest times.
A year ago, the following "Covenant of Reconciliation" was
written and affirmed by many of the URC community. I believe it is
worth sharing again with the entire UCLA community:
"As a community of faith in an academic environment, we strive
to reach out to all persons seeking spiritual faith and guidance.
We affirm the participation of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and
transgendered people in all aspects of our life together. We seek
to address and advocate the needs and concerns of peoples of all
sexual orientations in our religious communities and society. We
strive to utilize the gifts of all persons in our ministries
without regard to sexual orientation.
We believe all persons are recipients of God’s love and grace.
God intends spiritual communities to embody love, grace and justice
for all people. As a sign of faithfulness to God’s covenant with
all humankind, we discern that God challenges all communities of
faith to accept lesbians, gay men, and bisexual and transgendered
peoples as co-workers in the household of faith.
We are concerned by the presence of homophobia in our society
and in our religious communities. Such fear and hatred reflect
neither God’s love nor intent for our communities of faith. We hope
that our affirmation of the wholeness of all persons will bring
reconciliation to all people within our spiritual communities who
find themselves in exile from the family of God."
The Rev. Peter Moore-Kochlacs is director of the United
Methodist Campus Ministry at UCLA and a 1971 UCLA alumnus.