Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International

Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International is a support organization that provides a spiritual and social community to current and former Seventh-day Adventists who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex (LGBTI), and have felt hurt or rejected because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. SDA Kinship offers them the compassion and support not generally available within the organized Adventist Church. [ [http://sdakinship.org/ Welcome to SDA Kinship ] ]

History and organization

SDA Kinship grew out of a 1976 meeting in Palm Desert, California, after some gay Adventist men placed an advertisement in "The Advocate" seeking other gay Adventists. Within four months there were 75 members and a rudimentary organization. During this time the name "Kinship" was chosen because Seventh-day Adventists typically enjoy a close-knit family relationship with each other. Small groups of gay Adventists who had found each other in New York and San Francisco soon joined Kinship.

SDA Kinship is managed by a volunteer board and was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1981. Current membership, including friends and family, is approximately 1,500 people in 62 countries. At this time Kinship has no formal connection with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. [http://sdakinship.org/faq.htm Welcome to SDA Kinship ] ]

Member services

SDA Kinship exists to ease the initial distress of Seventh-day Adventists when they realize that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, and to facilitate the reconciling of their spirituality with their sexual orientation by offering suggested reading materials, personal dialog, professional counseling referrals, and a network of supportive members.³

Media services

SDA Kinship enables communication among members by publishing a free monthly newsletter, "Connection", and maintaining a free online community, Kinship Online (KOL), which includes a web-based chat venue called KinNet.

Kampmeeting

Since 1980, SDA Kinship has organized an annual week long conference called Kampmeeting where members can meet and renew friendships. Worship, lectures, music, group activities, and good food, including vegetarian fare, are all part of the program. Spiritual ministry is provided by supportive church leaders and gay former pastors. Communion service is conducted on Friday evening and is the only communion received by many members who have been alienated from the church. In recent years (as of 2008), similar gatherings have been held in Europe, Australia, and other parts of the world.

Regional services

In order to communicate with and serve its diverse membership SDA Kinship is organized by regions, with nine United States regions and eight overseas regions: Australia-New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, Central-South America, Europe, Germany, The Philippines, and the British Isles. Regional coordinators communicate with members, sometimes by newsletter, and often sponsor meetings for social, recreational, educational and worship purposes. The frequency and type of activities depend largely on the number and proximity of members living within each region.

Special interest group services

In addition, attention is paid to the needs of special interest groups. "IMRU?" (I am, Are You?) is an outreach for college-age and under-30 young people and there are also coordinators for intersex persons, transgender persons, older adults, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and friends and family. [http://www.someone-to-talk-to.net/ www.someone-to-talk-to.net] is the website for the ministry for families.

Actions taken to inform and sensitize the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Information packets

SDA Kinship has mailed thousands of information packets to Adventist pastors, teachers and counselors and to every Adventist academy and college in North America. Information about HIV/AIDS has also been sent to every Adventist church in the United States.

Church leaders invited to Kampmeeting

In 1980 SDA Kinship held its first national gathering called Kampmeeting (similar to a typical Adventist camp meeting). Three professors from the Adventist Theological Seminary and two pastors were invited to participate. They received permission from the General Conference, with the stipulation that SDA Kinship would not claim that this indicated the church’s acceptance of homosexuality and that Colin Cook also be invited to present his ideas about helping homosexuals find healing. The invited theology professors, after the first in-depth research into what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, came to the conclusion that it was silent about persons with a homosexual orientation, and that its proscriptions against sexual exploitation, promiscuity, rape, and temple prostitution apply equally to heterosexuals and homosexuals. After hearing the traumatic stories of growing up gay in the Adventist church, the clergy were deeply moved and drew up a list of recommendations in their report to church leadership. [cite journal
last = Benton
first = Elvin
authorlink =
title = Adventists Face Homosexuality
journal = Spectrum
volume = 12
issue = 3
pages =
publisher = Adventist Forums
location = Roseville, California
issn = 0890-0264
date = April 1982
url = http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive11-15/12-3benton.pdf
format = PDF
doi =
id =
accessdate = 2008-06-18 See also the other two articles in the [http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive11-15/index12-3.html same issue] ] However, protests from conservative members prompted church president Neal Wilson to instruct Adventist college, hospital, and church administrators to prevent anyone from meeting with Kampmeeting attendees the following year. Nevertheless, certain pastors and church leaders have continued to attend and speak at the annual Kampmeetings. ["The Caring Church" by Ron Lawson in "Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives", David Ferguson, Fritz Guy and David Larson, eds., Adventist Forums, 2008]

AIDS conference

In 1989 a pastor at Sligo Adventist Church in Takoma Park, Maryland, attended by many denominational headquarters personnel, conducted a support group for people with AIDS and their family members. The editor of the denominational magazine, "Adventist Review", was a member of Sligo Church and together Sligo Church and the staff of "Adventist Review" sponsored a weekend AIDS Conference. They asked SDA Kinship to send three of its members who were ill with AIDS as delegates. A call was made at this conference for the church to address the AIDS epidemic through its hospital system. However, nothing of substance was accomplished until the extent of the epidemic among many heterosexual church members on the African continent became known.

Kinship Advisory Council

In 2000, a group of supportive church leaders was invited to form an advisory council to guide SDA Kinship in bringing the Adventist Church to a more loving and redemptive attitude. This Council was instrumental in organizing a Workshop on Homosexuality and publishing a book resulting from the workshop. [Bylaws of Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International]

Workshop on Homosexuality

In January 2006, a Workshop on Homosexuality, held in Ontario, California, was jointly sponsored by SDA Kinship and the Association of Adventist Forums (now Adventist Forums), and was attended by about 60 invited observers. Twelve papers were presented on biological, sociological, psychological, legal, pastoral, theological, ethical, and Biblical aspects of homosexuality, and personal experiences. ["Connection: The Journal of Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International, Inc.," February, 2006, Vol. 30, No. 2]

Media Activities

A book, "My Son, Beloved Stranger", written by the wife of an Adventist minister about her family’s experience after learning their youngest son is gay, was published by Pacific Press in 1995. Another book, "Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives", consisting of the papers presented at the 2006 Workshop on Homosexuality and six responses, was published by Adventist Forums in May 2008. Complimentary copies were mailed to 500 pastors, administrators, and thought leaders of the Adventist Church. [http://www.sdagayperspectives.com/ SDA Gay Perspectives ] ] In 2005 SDA Kinship produced a DVD, "Open Heart, Open Hand". It records three conversations with leaders in the Adventist Church who are parents of gay and lesbian children. It is introduced by an Adventist theologian whose brother was a gay man. It was filmed by Dr. Harry and Janice Wang, who also have a gay family member.

Exhibits at church conferences

Beginning in 2000, at the quinquennial General Conference Session of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, “Someone to Talk to,” an outreach to Adventist families and friends of gays and lesbians, has had an exhibit presence in at least one large church convention every year, with informational handouts and book and DVD sales. A growing interest has been noted over these years. [ [http://someone-to-talk-to.net Someone to Talk to ] ]

Relationship of Adventist Church to homosexuality/Kinship

Church-sponsored healing program

Colin Cook, an Adventist pastor in New York, was dismissed from the ministry following discovery of his homosexual behavior. After seeking spiritual healing, he declared himself “recovered,” was married, and in 1976 authored several articles in "Insight", an Adventist youth publication, proclaiming that homosexuals could find deliverance through faith by claiming Jesus’ heterosexuality as their own. In 1978 Cook prepared ten hours of cassette tapes, titled “Homosexuality and the Power to Change,” which were widely distributed.

In 1980, many responses from people seeking help led Cook to found the Quest Learning Center (Quest) in Reading, Pennsylvania, where a live-in program combined counseling and involvement in a mutual support group, Homosexuals Anonymous (HA), which he co-founded. Soon the Adventist Church voted to provide more than half of Quest’s operating budget, the first denomination to fund such a healing ministry. Quest/HA was publicized in church periodicals, and as it attracted attention in public media and then other conservative churches, Adventist leaders enjoyed favorable publicity. After Cook’s appearance on "The Phil Donahue Show", the church provided an 800 number to handle interests.

Dr. Ronald Lawson, an Adventist sociology professor at Queens College in New York City, interviewed 14 Quest clients and learned that none actually felt their orientation had changed, nor did they know of any others in the program who claimed this. Most of them were “fragile, very conservative church members with high levels of guilt and self-rejection,”Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives, “The Caring Church,” Lawson, p.3-29 - 3-74.] whose experience in discovering other gay Adventists resulted in confusion and turmoil because of the attractions they felt to each other. Lawson was shocked to learn that, in addition, they reported sexually inappropriate actions by Colin Cook, such as nude massages and close, prolonged hugs. Lawson felt obligated to report this exploitation to Neal Wilson, President of the General Conference. With Cook’s admission of guilt, Quest was closed within a week.

No public mention of this action was made by the church for seven months until finally, in response to questioning by Lawson, a brief announcement appeared in the "Adventist Review", stating that Quest had been closed because of the director’s resignation. Nearly a year later, the church’s "Ministry" for pastors published a lengthy interview with Cook, who admitted his “incomplete” recovery that had led to his fall. This appeared to be an attempt to rehabilitate Cook and strongly endorsed his methods. Angered by this, SDA Kinship members picketed the General Conference offices in Takoma Park, Maryland, during the 1987 Annual Council, demanding that the church cease its support of Cook and that its many hospitals around the world begin to address the AIDS crisis.

"Christianity Today" published a favorable article about Cook in 1989 and four years later Cook moved to Denver, Colorado, where he started a new ministry called FaithQuest. Focus on the Family referred counselees to this ministry, and "Colorado for Family Values" invited him to speak at their seminars promoting a repeal of state gay civil rights. He began speaking regularly in area Adventist churches, received invitations from Adventist college campuses, and was contacted by young Adventist men struggling with homosexual feelings, since most Adventists had never been made aware of his previous fall.

Lawson was subsequently contacted by two of Cook’s new counselees who shared their experiences of Cook’s continued sexual predations. Lawson leaked the details to a reporter at the "Denver Post" and her article made the front page of the October 27, 1995, edition. Because of this publicity, Christian Right organizations backed away from Cook, and the "Adventist Review" announced that the church was not connected with Cook’s activities, but did not mention that it had failed to retract earlier church promotion of Cook. About this time, Cook’s wife divorced him, after several years of separation.

The Adventist Church has been more cautious in regard to endorsing another “ex-gay” Adventist, Ron Woolsey. Although denominational publishing houses turned him down, his book, "That Kind Can Never Change, Can They?" tells the typical story of struggles with homosexuality, return to God from a degrading and promiscuous lifestyle, eventual marriage and children, and his belief that all homosexuals can be “delivered” as he has been. [ [http://victorjadamson.com/index2.html Victor J. Admason.com ] ] Acting as a lay pastor in a small country church, he has not received official denominational recognition, although his book is now sold in Adventist book stores and, like Cook many years ago, he has been interviewed and promoted on the Adventist television program, "It Is Written". [ [http://www.itiswritten.com/tvprogram/episode/set-free TV Program Overview | It Is Written ] ]

Biblical Research Institute publishes book

In the 1980s, the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference, which, according to its newsletter, aims "to foster doctrinal and theological unity in the world church" [ http://www.adventistbiblicalresearch.org/. Accessed 2008] commissioned David Larson, ethics professor at Loma Linda University, to write a paper about homosexuality. When the paper he submitted did not conform with their viewpoint and he declined to revise it, they turned to Ronald Springett, a religion faculty member at Southern University of Seventh-day Adventists (now Southern Adventist University). His paper was published as a book, "Homosexuality in History and Scripture", in 1992, and reviewed by Larry Hallock, who concluded that although the bulk of the material represents some minimal changes from traditional Adventist understanding, the certainty with which unwarranted conclusions are presented in the final chapter negate this advance. [Larry Hallock, " [http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive16-20/20-2hallock.pdf Adventists and Homosexuality Revisited] ," "Spectrum", Volume 20, No. 2]

Church sues SDA Kinship over use of church name

In 1980 a federal lawsuit was filed by the Adventist Church against SDA Kinship in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, California, charging that by using "Seventh-day Adventist" in its name the gay support group was guilty of trademark infringement. Curiously, the lawsuit came ten years after the organization and seven years after the incorporation of SDA Kinship, and after limited cooperative contacts between the church and SDA Kinship. Leaders of SDA Kinship surmised the reasons for this belated decision may have included anger over a recent Kinship demonstration at church headquarters. [Peter Freiberg, "Gay Seventh-day Adventists Sued by Church," "The Advocate", April 12, 1988, Issue 486] The lawsuit was decided in favor of SDA Kinship.

Church opposes gay rights

The Adventist Church has long been an active supporter of religious freedom as a fundamental human right, subject to the equal rights of others. An official church statement says, "We will continue to cooperate and network with others to defend the religious liberty of all people, including those with whom we may disagree." [ [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main_stat19.html A Statement on Religious Freedom ] ] Nevertheless, when faced with gay rights and gay marriage issues in recent years, several Adventist religious liberty directors have argued that religious liberty is only concerned with the first four of the Ten Commandments, or one's obligations to God. The last six, they assert, are also civil obligations enforceable by government, although opposition to gay rights violates the religious convictions of a significant minority of Christians.http://churchstate.org/article.php?id=72 – Alan Reinach – March 5, 2004] [http://www.gleaneronline.org/99/9/22128.html - Greg Hamilton - Sept, 2004]

When a gay marriage bill came before the California legislature in April, 2004, Adventist church members were urged to contact their representatives and voice their opposition. In "The Liberty Blog" the religious liberty director for the North American Division of the Adventist church argued against the proposed federal "Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007," suggesting it could have an indirect impact on free speech, would give special protection to some crime victims while failing to cover others, would be unnecessary since local laws already provide protection against hate crimes, and could lead to marginalizing those who oppose homosexual practice. [http://www.religiousliberty.info/blog/index.php?paged=3, June 28, 2007] In the September/October, 2004, issue of church periodical, "Liberty", which was devoted to the issue of gay marriage, another religious liberty director called for the church not to remain silent in opposing gay rights. [Barry Bussey, "Why Silence is Not an Option," "Liberty", September-October, 2004]

Church statements regarding homosexuality

Official statements:
* " [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main_stat46.html Seventh-day Adventist Position Statement on Homosexuality] ", voted 1999
* " [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main_stat53.html Seventh-day Adventist Response to Same-Sex Unions--A Reaffirmation of Christian Marriage] ", voted 2004
* " [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main_stat35.html A Statement of Concern on Sexual Behavior] ", voted 1987
* " [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/other_documents/safeguarding.html Safeguarding Mission in Changing Social Environments] ", voted 2007

See also " [http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/main_stat16.html An Affirmation of Marriage] ", voted 1996, and "Marriage and the Family", doctrine number 22 in "Seventh-day Adventists Believe--A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines".

According to the "Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual", one reason for church discipline includes, "Such violations as fornication, promiscuity, incest, homosexual practice, sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults, and other sexual perversions, and the remarriage of a divorced person, except of the spouse who has remained faithful to the marriage vow in a divorce for adultery or for sexual perversions." [Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual", page 194]

References

* "Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives", edited by Fritz Guy, David Ferguson, and David Larson (Roseville, California: Adventist Forums, 2008)
* "Gay religion" by Scott Thumma and Edward R. Gray

External links

* [http://www.sdakinship.org/ Official website]
* [http://www.sdakinshipaustralia.org/ Kinship Australia]