A number of events in the San Francisco area in 1965 had an impact on the issue of homosexuality and indirectly on the Methodist Church. In January, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual co-sponsored the Annual Gay Ball in San Francisco, an event that non-violently challenged the way police in the area had treated gays and lesbians (Moore, 2000a). The organizing Methodist pastors were present. Although CRH had been promised cooperation from the local police, all 600 participants were photographed as they arrived and departed; all police were blocked from entering. This event ended when several, including a Methodist layman, were arrested for not cooperating with the police, charged with resisting arrest, and taken to jail. The American Civil Liberties Union agreed to defend those arrested, but the judge found them "not guilty" before the case was presented (McAdams, 1999; Moore, 2000a; McIlvenna, personal communication, February 6, 2002).

Later in January, the Rev. John Moore (a retired clergy member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the Methodist Church and a former active participant in CRH activities), preached three sermons at Glide Church on "The Gospel and Sexuality" (Moore, 2002a). In these sermons, he charged the legislature to remove all references to private sexual acts by competent, consenting adults from the criminal code. Responses to his sermon were both grateful and condemning. One woman from Illinois wrote, "The women of the church will rise up and drive out the likes of Ted McIlvenna and John Moore" (Moore, 2002a).

In June, 1965, in an effort to promote change in the treatment of the gay population, the CRH published "A Brief of Injustices: An Indictment of Our Society in Its Treatment of the Homosexual." The Brief, signed by the CRH board, stated that they had found that

a majority of [lesbians and gays] are productive members of society, doing excellent work in many fields of art, business, industry, and the professions. Most were normal in appearance and fully capable of deep, lasting, and moral relationships. [They] were not inherently more criminal in intent or actions and no better or worse than their heterosexual counterparts. (McAdams, 1999)

Over the ensuing years, interns from Glide Foundation worked with the gay and lesbian community. An associate at Glide Church organized and met with a group of gay street youth. The Council on Religion and The Homosexual met in Glide Church and held workshops on homosexuality in which numerous pastors and laity from Northern California participated. An executive with the United Church of Christ (UCC) commented on the work with the homosexual community, noting "how incongruous it was for the Council on Religion and The Homosexual to be meeting in a Methodist church which prohibited its ministers to smoke" (Moore, 2000a).

In 1967, Glide Methodist Church and the Glide Foundation of San Francisco staged one of the first economic boycotts in support of gay rights by "not only stating that they will not buy goods and services from companies that discriminate against homosexuals, but encouraging others to follow their lead" (GLINN).

In 1967, a Consultation was held at the Institute for Sex Research in Bloomington, Indiana (the Kinsey Institute). Participants included representatives from the Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the United Presbyterian Church, the American Baptist church, the Southern Presbyterian Church, the National Institutes of Mental Health, and the Glide Foundation. The creation of the National Sex Forum occurred at this gathering, and it was decided that the Glide Foundation in San Francisco would house the National Sex Forum (IASHS, 1995, 2002; McIlvenna, 1994, p. 311).

Beginning in 1967 and continuing to the present, the Good News Movement, an unofficial evangelical caucus within the UMC (for more information, see Glossary), has played an increasingly prominent role in UM denominational politics and General Conference actions. According to James Heidinger (1997), current president and publisher of Good News Magazine, the movement began as a result of an article published in the New Christian Advocate, a Methodist publication for ministers, in 1966. Upon request of the magazine editor, Methodist pastor Charles Keysor wrote an article entitled "Methodism’s Silent Minority" to describe "the central beliefs and convictions" of the evangelical population within the Methodist denomination (Heidinger, 1997, paras. 2, 3).

In response to the "silent minority" article, Heidinger (1997) reported that Keysor heard from many pastors who believed the same way and/or felt isolated within the denomination because of their beliefs. To address the concerns and interests raised by those who read his article, Keysor subsequently (in 1967) published a magazine in his parsonage basement, and he called the first issue Good News. That first issue and the response to it marked the beginning of the Good News movement. Within two months of the publication of the magazine, Keysor asked 12 Methodists to be board members and incorporated the group as "A Forum for Scriptural Christianity" (Heidinger, 1997, para. 8). Keysor’s magazine is now known as the Good News Magazine. Since that beginning, the evangelical UMs have shed the "silent minority" description, and the movement has continued to promote "the central beliefs and convictions" of the evangelical segment of the denomination and has become a major player in denominational politics.

 

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