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A Statement from The Rt. Rev'd John S. Spong
on the death of Matthew Shepard
22 October 1998 - Trinity and St. Philip's Cathedral, Newark, NJ
When we proposed to conduct this memorial service for Matthew Shepard, we
asked a statewide gay and lesbian organization to assist us in planning and
promoting this event. To our surprise they declined stating that Christianity
had killed Matthew Shepard. When we protested this charge and said that this
was only the religious right, they responded by quoting the resolution passed
by the Anglican/Episcopal bishops of the world at last summer's Lambeth
Conference which proclaimed by a large majority that homosexual persons are
sinful, and voted to continue to exclude them from full membership in the life
of the Church. Despite my personal opposition to that resolution, I was
forced to admit that my church worldwide had sent a very negative message to
the gay and lesbian people of the world, a negativity that they have almost
come to expect from religious sources. Public statements made by the pope,
John Paul II, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the Rev. Pat Robertson, the Anglican
bishops and a wide variety of other Christian voices proclaim that
homosexuality is not normal, that it is a deviation, that all homosexual
practices are to be condemned, that God is opposed to homosexuality and that
the Sacred Scriptures condemn it. All Christians must live with the judgment
of the homosexual community on the Church because, as painful as it is to
realize, their charges are accurate.
Words shape consciousness and therefore words have consequences. When
religious voices claim to speak for Christ suggest in their prejudiced
ignorance that homosexual people are sinful, abnormal, unclean or subhuman, we
do nothing less than to sow the seeds that are used to justify hate, and even
murder. These words embolden those religious voices who believe that they
speak for God when they oppose extending hate crime laws to include gay and
lesbian people. Christianity does have bloody hands. We did contribute to
the murder of Matthew Shepard.
That is why we gather in this Cathedral today as Christian people to mourn the
death of this innocent victim and to pledge ourselves in a public way to stand
against the rampant homophobia that the Christian Church has helped to create
and to encourage.
May I say to my Christian friends as powerfully as I can, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ is about love not hate, acceptance not rejection. It celebrates the
essence of one's humanity. It calls people beyond the prejudices of tribe,
ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. It challenges those who have
elevated their religious convictions to the realm of infallible or inerrant
truth. But even more powerfully it calls those of us who claim to be
disciples of this Christ to stand at the side of those our world would
victimize, to counter the rhetoric of religious prejudice, to risk our lives
for justice, and to do it quite publicly.
So through this public service today I call upon the congregations of this
diocese, and on Christians everywhere, to look deeply into their own hearts
and to expunge the sin of hate, ignorance and intolerance from their personal
lives and from the lives of their congregations. I call upon the members of
this diocese and Christians everywhere, to speak up and speak out against
intolerance and violence wherever we find it.
We must live what we claim: The Body of Christ is an INCLUSIVE church, where
all are welcomed and all are honored as God's own.
© Baptist Watch.org
Baptist Watch was created October 14, 1998
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