Posted on 04/01/2005 12:30:16 AM PST by Rytwyng
Gay & Lesbian Churches Promote Courtship
Several leaders of the Metropolitan Community Church, have announced a courtship mentoring program to replace the random, sometimes destructive "dating" which has hitherto been the norm for romance among the gay and lesbian community.
Courtship introduces supervision (sometimes, 100% chaperoning), and careful spiritual counselling, into the pair-bonding process, with romantic activities and emotions only allowed full sway after the success of the relationship is reasonably assured. The courtship movement had its genesis among the fundamentalist homeschoolers in the 1970's, but lately it has been spreading through other segments of Christendom. Its adoption by gay churches, however, does not please the traditional ministries, most of whom regard homosexuality as irreconcilable with divine law. Comments MCC Bishop Ray Lesko, "Despite this hostility from the originators of courtship, the MCC leadership felt that the teaching had merits, and decided to adapt it to the needs of our community."
The biggest obstacle, says Lesko, is that the families of most gays and lesbians completely oppose their lifestyle and will not provide courtship supervision and counselling for their children. Among heterosexuals, courtship teaching typically recommends that those without parental support seek a pair of happily married mentors, commonly known as an "accountability couple", to act in loco parentis for the courting couple. Says the Reverend Beth Jo Feinman, "The absence of involved parents, makes courtship difficult to arrange for many couples -- especially gay and lesbian couples --which is why we are spending over $3,000,000 to recruit and equip accountability couples in every MCC church."
"This system, though it is controversial among the straight community, is becoming very popular among gays," said Pastors Richard and Joseph Williams of Los Angeles, a gay couple who have acted as courtship mentors for 137 relationships, leading in 125 cases to a formal commitment ceremony. "In the beginning, we had more courting couples than we could handle, and some of them had to wait," add Pastor Richard. "Fortunately, the gay community is rising to the challenge -- many long-term couples are seeing the benefits of the system and signing up to be mentors to the younger generation." Adds Lesko, "Ironically, courtship is not catching on among the straights, precisely because there's little or no community support for it in most of their churches. And it's not something you can do by yourself -- the do-it-yourself version is 'dating', and we want to get away from that."
Pilot programs in San Francisco and West Hollywood indicate that this can be a successful method of making a match. "The long term stability of such relationships is far superior to those formed the ordinary way, which is why we're prepared to spend money and resources to make this mentoring program available nationwide", one church spokesman said. "Gay & Lesbian courtship works, and it's long overdue. It's time for the gay community to kiss dating goodbye."
courtship ping :-)
April Fool!
Jesus said: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore, they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." -from THE BIBLE: Matthew 19:4-6
Oh a joke.
Sorry.
I have no sense of humor.
LOL! You made it all up then?
Very good, sounds completely real, very well done. I'd never have known this wasn't a completely legit story.
How many of these am I going to fall for today, this makes 2 so far and it's only 4 AM here!
LOL, maybe I better just avoid FR today!
April 1,2005? Hmmmmmmmmm...
The Church Lady says....Is'nt that special???
Right.
It's an april fools joke (and a jab at the churchy "courtship" movement).
courtship ping
Read post #3 before pinging anyone else.
Now that you're back on FR.... ping.... I just couldn't wait for next April 1st. < evil grin >
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