01:10 PM MST on Sunday, December 12, 2004

By Stephanie Innes / ARIZONA DAILY STAR

With religious groups arguably at the root of a current national divide about gay and lesbian rights, the Arizona Daily Star asked four local church leaders about the role of faith in the so-called culture war.

Reacting to two recent national news stories - a United Methodist pastor defrocked for being a lesbian in a committed relationship, and a United Church of Christ television ad welcoming homosexuals that was rejected by TV networks - the Star gathered two pastors from each denomination.

The panelists were: the Rev. Larry A. Woodcock, pastor of St. James United Methodist Church, 3255 N. Campbell Ave; the Rev. David Wilkinson, senior pastor at St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church, 4625 E. River Road; the Rev. Briget Nicholson, pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1350 N. Arcadia Ave.; and the Rev. Bruce Van Roekel, pastor of Casas Adobes Congregational United Church of Christ, 6801 N. Oracle Road.

The United Methodist pastors disagreed on whether Irene Elizabeth Stroud, a United Methodist clergywoman from Philadelphia, should have been defrocked.

"I think it was the violation of the rules of the church that she agreed to accept and when it was brought to her attention she was not doing that, she said, 'Too bad,'" Woodcock said. "I think the thing that people don't understand is that it's not being homosexual that is the issue. The issue was openly practicing … The United Methodists consider the homosexual act as being a sin."

Wilkinson, borrowing a quotation from Martin Luther King Jr., said that when a law is unjust, it must be broken.

All four local church leaders were critical of decisions by CBS and NBC not to air an advertisement produced by the United Church of Christ that included depictions of the denomination's acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, though Van Roekel said the controversy was too narrowly portrayed by the media.

"I think it is indicative of the times in which we live and where our culture is, and that we are again, or perhaps still, somewhat obsessed with the issue of sex and sexuality in our culture," he said. "Having said that, I was personally appalled that the networks would act as censor given the content of their broadcasts."

The local leaders did not agree on whether churches should sanctify marriage between same-sex couples, but they agreed that the country is divided and that faith groups have an important role in the outcome of the debate.

"I think it's really sad that we're part of this mainline, the two of us - the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church - that's shrinking and declining and we're fighting about alienating more people, keeping them out, driving them away," said Nicholson, who has been in a committed relationship with another woman for 12 years.

●Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com.

For more Arizona news, visit azstarnet.com or azfamily.com.