news-list Mailing List: S.O.S. for WORLDPRIDE

[John Clinton Bradley (johnclint]

Please read the message below.  Rabbi Kleinbaum's office and the NY Times
are planning to do a follow-up story on the World Pride controversy in the
next few days.  At this point there are only 45 "self-identified" Episcopal
clergy on the online support petition.  Please sign up at
http://www.cbst.org/worldPridePetition.shtml if you feel comfortable doing
so.

*******************************

April 12, 2005

Dear Colleague, 

As some of you might know, a major international glbt event is scheduled for
Jerusalem this August.  WorldPride 2005 [http://www.worldpride.net/] is an
international interfaith gathering of gay and lesbian people hosted by
Jerusalem Open House, Jerusalem's GLBT Center.  An international campaign,
initiated by evangelical Christians, to oppose WorldPride has been launched.
This right wing religious campaign has now enlisted all the Shas members of
Kenneset, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, the deputy
mufti of Jerusalem, the Latin patriarch and the Armenian patriarch to
pressure the Israeli authorities to cancel this event.

"They plan to fill the hotels and restaurants and party like Sodomites,
while the world press takes pictures. It is a disgrace to the eternal
holiness of Jerusalem and to its people." Texas evangelist Mike Evans
 
"We fear that Israel is now making a disastrous mistake by allowing this
gathering to take place in this land where G-d has blessed you in such a
special way. We petition you to deny the request for this event to take
place in this land where G-d has blessed you in such a special way."  ...
"It is painful for us to comprehend why you would permit such a meeting ...
It has been the historic position of each of these faiths [Judaism,
Christianity, Islam] that homosexuality is an abomination to the one true
G-d." Leo Giovinetti, pastor of the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship in
San Diego, California

"This parade constitutes a 10-day homosexual pornographic festival...
"They're trying to rape the Holy Land."  Rabbi Yehuda Levin, the director of
the Rabbinical Alliance of America.

In these times of intolerance and suspicion, please join with us in
supporting WorldPride 2005.  I am immensely proud of the efforts of those
who are trying to show the world a Jerusalem which is open and loving rather
than the Jerusalem so often projected of violence and bigotry.  We are
gathering a list of international clergy to present to the media and to the
Israeli government.  As an expression of support for WorldPride, sign a
clergy letter in support of WorldPride and pass it to your colleagues.

Please reply to http://www.cbst.org/worldPridePetition.shtml if you are
comfortable being publicly listed as supporting WorldPride.
 
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
North American Chair of WorldPride

P.S. If you haven't seen it and would like to read The New York Times
article go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/international/worldspecial/31gay.html?hp&e
x=1112331600&en=ea87f5d9f1d87d9d&ei=5094&partner=homepage