c. 1999 Religion News Service

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. _ Keith Fowlkes is a newcomer to the Tennessee Valley, but he didn’t waste time in offering his support to those he feels are ignored or scorned by the local churches.

Fowlkes came to Huntsville not quite a year ago. After attending several mainline churches and talking with some of his gay friends, he decided there was a need in the community for a support group because of the cold shoulder he and his friends had received during their visits to area churches.

He said he knows his support group,”Open the Doors,”may not be received well by some people, but there are those in the area who will benefit from it.”Most of us grew up in Christian homes and when we came out we were rejected by our churches and sometimes even by our families,”he said.”But during this time we have never lost our love for and our relationship with God.” He believes times and attitudes have changed and there are some congregations in the area that would welcome him and and his group into their church.”We are not foolish enough to think that all churches will be receptive to us, but it is time for the gay community to bravely stand at the doors of the churches and knock continually until another brave soul within opens the door,”he said.

Having worked in a similar program in Pensacola, Fla., where he lived before moving to Huntsville, Fowlkes felt forming the group was something he could do to help the community and bring about changes in how some churches view homosexuality.

He said the group in Pensacola made some strides in the way churches look at homosexuality and opened some church doors previously closed, which helped gays and lesbians to begin attending the churches of their choice.

While one church in the Huntsville area focuses its ministry toward homosexuals _ the Metropolitan Community Church _ Fowlkes said he wanted to be part of a mainstream church and not one catering just to gays and lesbians.”I grew up in a church and I want to be a part of a church,”he said.”If we continue to separate ourselves from this area of our lives, we will be cheating not only ourselves, but the community churches of the gifts that God has given us,”he said.

Fowlkes said he was not out to change the world but just wanted to give gays and lesbians a choice in where they worship in the community.”This will not be an easy path, and there will be many potholes and dead ends that we may need to detour around, but I firmly believe this is the path that God has stretched out before me,”he said.

Fowlkes is hoping his group, through sessions with local congregations or Bible study groups, will help gays and lesbians be accepted by their congregations.

A native of North Mississippi, where he attended a Southern Baptist church and was a minister of music before publicly revealing his homosexuality, Fowlkes said he has received few positive reactions from churches in the Huntsville area.

He said he had attended church services at two churches in Huntsville, the United Church of Christ congregation and the Episcopal Church of the Nativity.

The Rev. Jim Norris, minister of the UCC congregation, said he had met and talked with Fowlkes and knew he was planning to start the group.

As to the issue of homosexuality in his church, Norris said the UCC doesn’t use sexual orientation as a means of judging a person.

Norris said the issue is one that has been dealt with by the church on a national level and he has dealt with it locally in sermons and study groups but it hasn’t been dealt with as a congregation.”Some United Churches of Christ have voted to be open and affirming but this congregation has not voted,”he said.

Norris said he did not have a problem with Fowlkes or any other gay or lesbian attending his church.

The Rev. Jack Wilson, associate rector of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity, said sexual preference did not matter in becoming a member of the Episcopal Church and his congregation held a seminar on the issue late last year.

Not all Huntsville churches would be as open to having homosexuals counted as members of their flock.”If we know beforehand that they are homosexuals, they can’t become a member of our church,”said the Rev. Joel McGraw, pastor of Faith Pentecostal Chapel.”We would accept them as people, and they are welcome to worship with us but we would not accept them into church as a member or in a leadership capacity.” McGraw said homosexuals have joined the church, but it was without the congregation’s knowledge of their sexual orientation. Those members were not excommunicated, but counseled and urged to return to a heterosexual lifestyle and”be free from that bondage (of homosexuality),”said McGraw.

Fowlkes said churches such as the United Church and Nativity are the exception, but he hopes his group will be able to open at least one church door in each denomination for gays and lesbians to attend. Having the support group will allow us”during the difficult times, to bind together with our prayers and our faith.”

DEA END GREENWOOD