Over at Huffington, Ryan J. Bell, Senior Pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church, writes about the energy with which the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventists are working to thwart efforts to stop the bullying of gay kids in their schools…
When Carrol Grady received a phone call telling her that her organization, Someone To Talk To, was being disinvited from having a booth at this week’s North American gathering of Seventh-day Adventist teachers because “this convention is not the right venue for your group,” she was shocked and distressed. With only one week before the start of the convention this was painful news to absorb, to say nothing of the expense already incurred personally by her and her volunteers.
Someone To Talk To is a ministry to Adventist families and friends of gays and lesbians. Grady is the 76-year-old founder. “I found it difficult to understand how this venue was not right for our group,” she says, “when we are a ministry directed toward young people who are often the target of bullying in our schools and one of the themes of this convention is bullying and harassment in schools…
But what you have to understand is bullying and harassment of gay kids is only their just due in the minds of some adults, who would otherwise be outraged over child sexual abuse in a different context. Gay kids make handy targets for adults who can’t express a single emotion toward their gay neighbors that isn’t fear, disgust or contempt. But increasingly that homophobia finds itself having to take aim at a new target: heterosexual adults who have finally become fed up with the cheapshit bar stool prejudices of other heterosexual adults…
In conjunction with these events, Adventist filmmakers, Daneen Akers and Stephen Eyer are screening their recent documentary, “Seventh-Gay Adventists: A Film About Faith on the Margins,” on Tuesday in a nearby venue not officially connected with the Teachers’ Convention (info here). Akers is being told by teachers that an email was sent from regional education superintendents that the time of the film screening would be a good time for them to hold a mandatory meeting of all their employees.
One teacher who did not want to be named said, “The teachers were told that Tuesday evening would be their only free evening to rest or explore Nashville. Some were also planning to see ‘Seventh-Gay Adventists.’ Now, in several conferences, teachers are being summoned to a mandatory meeting…
How dare you make us look like the knuckle dragging bigots we are! We’ll just see about that… You get the feeling when the day comes that gay kids are loved and cherished, and no longer endure tormenting and bullying in Seventh-day Adventist schools, that day will be a Great Disappointment.
