ChiTrib's 'Seeker' Fails to Look for Orthodox View on Gay Congregations

In a June 28 "The Seeker" blog post asking, "[s]hould gay flocks have their own churches," Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear failed to find a conservative, orthodox Christians or Jews to level a warning about the incompatibility of homosexuality and those faith traditions.

"Three area churches who cater to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Christians are marching in today's Gay Pride parade," Brachear noted in opening her 16-paragraph post. "Should gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender flocks have their own sanctuaries? Or does the concept of a LGBT congregation encourage an isolation within faith communities that defies the very purpose of assembling for worship?"

Brachear then went on to cite a Christian pastor and a Jewish rabbi to defend their gay-oriented congregations. Both cited the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt in defense of their sexually-oriented ecclesiology.

Yet despite the Trib's insistence in her profile that "Chicago Tribune religion reporter Manya Brachear embodies the journalist’s quest for truth and the personal search for Truth--with a capital T," the so-called Seeker failed to consult religious conservatives among Jewish and Christian traditions in the Windy City who would rebuke the practice of homosexuality as incompatible with the teachings of those faiths.

Such voices of opposition might also argue that practicing homosexuals can be encouraged to repent and forsake homosexuality in the context of a loving community of worshipers from all walks of life, whereas self-segregation by sexual orientation only entrenches them further in sinful behavior.

Even leaving aside conservative or orthodox criticisms, Brachear could have found at least a semblance of balance by including a liberal pastor and rabbi who would agree with the liberal sexual ethics of his colleagues while disagreeing with the notion of separate congregations defined solely on the basis of its congregants' bedroom habits.