NY Metropolitan Area CRH Proposed Policy Statement

NY Metropolitan Area CRH Proposed Policy Statement

Organization Collection

Repository: National Archive of LGBT History

CRH
-The N. Y. Metropolitan Area -Council on -Religion and the Homosexual-
(a proposed policy statement
(from the WHY Committee

In order to promote a better understanding of the homosexual condition by the religious community in the greater New York Metropolitan Area and a better understanding of what the religious community has to offer the homosexual, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual sets forth this policy statement:

1) To provide means of orienting the religious community (local congregations, councils of churches and synagogues, national instrumentalities, related schools and other institutions, and their publications) on aspects of homosexuality in accordance with testimony by homosexuals of both genders and available valid scientific data.

2) To encourage and assist the religious community to re-examine its biblical and theological positions in light of contemporary social conditions on fundamental areas of involvement for the homosexual including
but not limited to the meaning of masculine and feminine, morality and ethics, salvation and redemption, marriage, family relationships.

3) To encourage and assist the religious community to open its ministries of worship, fellowship; service, and outreach to the homosexual; to know him or her as a person, as a "thou" not as an "it".

4) To encourage and assist the religiously concerned homosexual to find a meaningful relationship as a homosexual within the religious community.

5) To encourage and assist further research and understanding of homosexuality by religiously concerned individuals and organizations, publications and denominational officers not only for the sake of improved honesty and accuracy but as a counter force to centuries of ignorance, fear, prejudice, and superstition on the subject.

6) To provide an effective voice in our geographical area in behalf of homosexuals in matters of laws, police behavior, employment, housing, the military and federal government policy.

7) To be especially concerned with young people facing the possibility of homosexuality in their own lives and with professional persons seeking to relate constructively with them.

8) To cooperate with other Councils on Religion and the Homosexual in this country and abroad. To cooperate with homophile organizations in this country and abroad.