The Virginian-Pilot 
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994                TAG: 9407290025
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

HEED THE COUNSEL OF GAMALIEL

In response to recent fundamentalist Christian, anti-gay/lesbian propaganda, including your article about a ``home lobbying kit'' designed to ``reveal the secrets of the homosexual agenda'':

In the Jewish council of the Sanhedrin, the pragmatic religious leader Gamaliel would later say of the nativity of Christianity: ``If this movement is merely human, it will die of its own accord. But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop it, and you might find yourselves opposing God'' (Acts 5:38-39).

The dictionary defines ``nativity'' as birth, especially with reference to place, time and accompanying conditions. There have been many nativities conceived of the Holy Spirit that have been described either in Scripture or tradition. Prophets anticipated or recognized them, and the community of faith realized God at work, often in retrospect. For example: Pentecost, the nativity of the church; The Reformation, the nativity of Protestantism and the revitalized Roman Catholicism. In these and other movements of the Holy Spirit, we have beheld Christ's glory.

The birth of the present gay movement is also a nativity of the Spirit. In the gloom of homophobia, prophets have proclaimed ``More Light!'' because both light and glory are obscured for the majority of Christians. There are fearful political and religious leaders, Herods and Sanhedrins, who are afraid that what is happening might challenge their power and control. And there are inhospitable innkeepers who have no room, and strangers who fail to recognize the Spirit at work.

Thanks be to God that when the Spirit gives birth, there are always those, who, like shepherds, welcome the interruption of ``God's messengers'' in their lives and are eager to understand; and the wise, who, like the Magi, find themselves outside the immediate experience but have insight and perspective to understand.

In this birth of the Spirit, Christians will be blessed if they behave more like shepherds than Sanhedrins, more like wise ones than innkeepers. In the nativity of the gay movement, the church might well heed Gamaliel's counsel.

DAWN ROBIN RANKIN-PHELPS

Chesapeake, July 20, 1994 by CNB