{"id":666,"date":"2011-05-11T10:10:36","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T14:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/?p=666"},"modified":"2011-05-11T15:00:55","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T19:00:55","slug":"presbyterians-u-s-navy-tackle-gay-acceptance-upsetting-some-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/05\/presbyterians-u-s-navy-tackle-gay-acceptance-upsetting-some-christians.html","title":{"rendered":"Presbyterians, U.S. Navy Tackle Gay Acceptance &#8212; Upsetting Some Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Do big gay faith news stories come in threes? If so, we&#8217;ve already had two this week:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Presbyterian Church got enough member region (presbytery) votes Tuesday to allow gay clergy, after more than three decades of debate and nearly a year after <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/07\/presbyterian-assembly-approves-gay-clergy-not-gay-marriage.html\">church leaders had agreed to the shift<\/a>. This is now the fourth Protestant denomination in the United States to have made the move, preceded the\u00a0United Church of Christ, the <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/elca-starts-reinstating-gay-clergy-thanks-to-new-rules.html\">Evangelical  Lutheran Church in America <\/a>and the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.episcopalcafe.com\/lead\/sexuality\/pcusa_synods_vote_for_inclusio.html\"> Episcopal Church<\/a>. See coverage from <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/nm\/20110511\/us_nm\/us_religion_gays\">Reuters<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/05\/11\/us\/11presbyterian.html?partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss\">The New York Times<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The U.S. Navy seemed poised to allow chaplains to officiate same-sex unions, as the military prepares for the repeal of Don&#8217;t Ask Don&#8217;t Tell, but the outcry from conservative Christian politicians has halted that notion &#8212; for now? See the coverage from the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/us_gays_in_military\">AP<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/religionclause.blogspot.com\/\">Religion Clause<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2011\/US\/05\/11\/navy.same.sex.marriages\/index.html\">CNN<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritual-politics.org\/2011\/05\/same-sex_marriages_in_navy_chapels.html\">Spiritual Politics<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking of the consequences of repealing DADT, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/05\/religious-groups-split-on-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell.html\">as I had predicted,<\/a> America&#8217;s elite (thank you, Navy Seals, for re-popularizing the correct meaning) universities &#8212; Harvard, Stanford, Columbia &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gibill.com\/news\/rotc-back-at-elite-schools-347.html\">are now taking steps to bring ROTC back.<\/a> So, it would appear that the benefits &#8212; a stronger pool of officers &#8212; may outweigh the religious right&#8217;s concerns that homophobia will discourage enlistment\/reenlistment. Time will tell&#8230; I&#8217;ll keep an eye on this story.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to\u00a0<strong>subscribe to Belief Beat <\/strong><\/a>and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to\u00a0<strong>follow Belief Beat on  Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do big gay faith news stories come in threes? If so, we&#8217;ve already had two this week: The Presbyterian Church got enough member region (presbytery) votes Tuesday to allow gay clergy, after more than three decades of debate and nearly a year after church leaders had agreed to the shift. This is now the fourth&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[14,173,172,175,177,13,176,170,171,174],"class_list":["post-666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-christianity","tag-dadt","tag-dont-ask-dont-tell","tag-elca","tag-episcopal-church","tag-evangelical-christians","tag-evangelical-lutheran-church-in-america","tag-gay-clergy","tag-presbyterian-church","tag-united-church-of-christ"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Presbyterians, U.S. Navy Tackle Gay Acceptance - Upsetting Some Christians - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2011\/05\/presbyterians-u-s-navy-tackle-gay-acceptance-upsetting-some-christians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Presbyterians, U.S. Navy Tackle Gay Acceptance - Upsetting Some Christians - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do big gay faith news stories come in threes? 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