The latest version of DeBusk's bio doesn't include that "entrapment by the police in a cruise spot" information. Hmmm, I wonder why. Like I said, the old bio is more interesting.
Our pastor, Gary DeBusk, spent most of his life as a Southern Baptist minister,and as a closeted gay man. For some years he found the ministry to be a refuge from his personal struggle with sexual orientation. He attempted to repress and deny his true self in order to live as he felt he was "supposed to." The repression and denial led to feelings of depression, loneliness, fear and shame.While closeted Gary was heterosexually married for twenty-two years. He has two sons from that marriage—one who is gay. In March 1998, Gary came out of the closet of shame to finally live a life of integrity and wholeness.
[snip]
In 1985 Pastor Gary and his family relocated to Jacksonville where he became pastor of the Hyde Park Baptist Church. It was during this period of his life that coping with his sexual repression became even more difficult. After just a short time in Jacksonville Gary explored the practical issues of leaving his marriage in order to come out. However, his wife pleaded with him to remain in the marriage. The pain of the closet, feelings of living a lie, intensified repressed sexual feelings, and the frequenting of local cruise spots led Gary to enter into therapy, and to seek a new direction in ministry.
[snip]
Unfortunately, Gary experienced what is all too common for many sexually repressed closeted gay men, entrapment by the police in a cruise spot. Gary's experience with the police finally led he and his wife to together make a decision of integrity to end the marriage. Gary would come out so that both he and his wife could get on with their individual lives. Or as Gary's attorney said, "You need to come out or it looks like God is pushing you out."
Upon coming out Gary found his way to St. Luke's Metropolitan Community Church where he successfully served on staff for nearly two years. In November 2000 Gary along with several other individuals decided it was time for a fresh spiritual voice in the GLBT community—and therefore CHRIST CHURCH OF PEACE was born...
Also, check out the transcript from his June 16 appearance on CNN's American Morning. The interviewer, Miles O'Brien, did a surprisingly good job trying to nail him (video can be found here, at the blog for DeBusk's so-called "Know Thy Neighbor" project). DeBusk dissembles with the best of 'em.
On the Christ Church of Peace site, DeBusk's sermons are posted. The same pretzel logic through which one could believe that scripture supports the notion homosexuality is tolerable for Christians is evident in DeBusk's own writings. Here's one from November 2005 entitled "We Are a Church":
MILES O'BRIEN: Pastor DeBusk, good to have you with us. What made you decide this was a good idea?
GARY DEBUSK, PASTOR, CHRIST CHURCH OF PEACE: Well, we're facing a constitutional amendment here in our state that would declare that marriage is only between one man and one woman, and also eliminate any kind of domestic partnerships. And a few months ago we found out what they were doing in Massachusetts, a similar kind of effort there. And we modeled them. And so we decided to take the names of the petition signers and to post them on our Web site, because we want to begin a dialogue with those who are opposed to equality and civil rights.
O'BRIEN: A lot of people, though, who have signed that petition are pretty angry about this. They feel as if this crosses the line of privacy. And essentially they say it almost has a malicious streak to it.
How do you respond to that?
DEBUSK: Well, again, that -- that is not at all our intent. And all of this is public information which was given to us by the supervisor of elections in each of the 67 counties in Florida. And it's hard for us to understand how someone can sign a petition and think they can do that under the cover of darkness in order to limit the rights of other tax-paying citizens.
O'BRIEN: Well I suppose, though, to come up with analogies here, how do you feel about people who post the names and addresses and phone numbers of doctors who perform abortions, for example? Do you feel that that's appropriate?
DEBUSK: Well, again, that's really off of the topic. What we're doing here...
O'BRIEN: No, no, no. It's actually a pretty good analogy here. It's a pretty good analogy here.
DEBUSK: Well, no.
O'BRIEN: And I'm asking you if you are consistent about this, because if you're going to put people's names out there, you should probably be consistent about it, correct?
DEBUSK: Well, again, that is not what I'm concerned with here, which is civil rights and equal rights. And we're tax-paying citizens in the state of Florida.
O'BRIEN: No, no, no. No, we're just -- we're just talking right now about a tactic of using people's names, personal information, putting it out on Web sites. And, you know, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander here, right?
DEBUSK: I understand what you're saying, but I would like to stay on topic, and the topic is equal rights and civil rights in Florida.
O'BRIEN: So just -- but just to get you on record, you would not agree with putting doctors who perform abortions, their information online?
DEBUSK: That's a whole other issue. It's the same kind of issue as people who have said, well, what about the names of your church members...
O'BRIEN: Well, no, no, no. But...
DEBUSK: ... what about the names of your church members...
O'BRIEN: So is the answer no? Is the answer no?
DEBUSK: Our church members have signed a petition that would limit the rights of other folks.
I might go ahead and say, in our state the dialogue that we want to have -- for instance, we had a couple in our church, a lesbian couple who had a civil union, a wedding a couple years ago. And they have discovered people on the list who attended their wedding. And they want to go to them and say, "We know you love us and we know you care about us. Can we dialogue about this?"
That's what we want to create.
O'BRIEN: Well...
DEBUSK: We've also found an individual who found her mother's name on the list...
O'BRIEN: But don't you think...
DEBUSK: ... and when she went to talk to her mother about it, her mother said, "I didn't understand that's what this petition was about. I thought it was to support." We've also found people...
O'BRIEN: Let's throw a little bit -- let's throw a little bit -- another thing in the pot here if I could, please. This comes from the Florida Family Policy Council, a conservative group, John Stemberger. "Imagine what would happen if a conservative church group posted online the home address of every gay-identified citizen in Florida?"
In other words...
DEBUSK: I understand what you're saying.
O'BRIEN: ... "It would be decried as a witch hunt and an un- Christian hateful attempt to mark gays like pedophiles... this appears to be the only tactic available to a small group of extremists who are losing in the market place of ideas of our representative democracy."
What do you say to that one?
DEBUSK: Again, what I'm saying is we have not signed a petition to limit the rights of other folks. And these folks are -- we're tax- paying citizens. And this would be the first time the Constitution in Florida would be amended to limit rights. The Constitution is there really to guarantee rights.
I might say this, too. An interesting issue that you might want to follow up on, a few years ago in Florida, the Constitution was amended to protect pregnant pigs. It's very interesting that now...
O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know what, Pastor? Pastor, you wanted to stay on topic and we're talking about pregnant pigs here now.
DEBUSK: I am.
O'BRIEN: Let me finish this up. I want to ask you one final question.
DEBUSK: And what I'm saying is...
O'BRIEN: Let me ask you one final question, if I could. Do you feel this is a Christian thing to do? Would Jesus do something like this?
DEBUSK: I can't answer about what Jesus would do, but I can say that I think we have to have dialogue. And that's what this is about. And it seems to me that it's pretty intimidating for a group of people to want to limit the rights of another group of people and just want them to sit back and do nothing about it.
O'BRIEN: Gary DeBusk.
DEBUSK: And so, again, this is equal rights and civil rights.
O'BRIEN: Thank you for your time, sir.
Gary DeBusk is pastor of the Christ Church of Peace.
And we appreciate your time.
DEBUSK: Thank you.
Hmmph. So much for honor and respecting differences and not getting involved in politics. But this is not surprising. Being a San Francisco native teaches you that the Gay-stapo plays dirty 24/7.
At Christ Church of Peace we desire to become more and more diverse. We honor and respect differences. Not just differences in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity but in every way—life style, philosophy, political opinion, dog lovers and cat lovers...[snip]
Sitting at the table together requires a certain degree of open-mindedness and a definite respect for the belief and the truth of others.
A part of CCOP’s vision is to be a tool for social change. It is inappropriate for a church to become involved in politics. It would be unacceptable for me to tell you who to vote for. Yet, at the same time it would be inappropriate and unacceptable for the church not to take a stand on social issues that involve injustice and inequality.
A few months ago I received an anonymous letter from an individual that does not want the church to take a stand on same-sex marriage stating that not everyone in the church is a democrat and believes in same-sex marriage. I have no doubt but that both these things are true; however, as far as I understand it, same-sex marriage is not a democrat or republican issue it is an equal rights issue, it is a social justice issue. And just as progressive churches have always stood on the side of justice and equality for all, so will Christ Church of Peace.
Thanks for researching the background info on this activist.