By Paul Jeffrey

Tegucigalpa, 20 September (ENI) - Excluded from traditional churches, homosexual Christians in Latin America are forming their own congregations with help from the largest homosexual denomination in the United States.

“Gay and lesbian people throughout Latin America are buried, they're frightened, they're ashamed. Our churches in Latin America are like the catacombs of the early Christians, they're new millennium catacomb congregations where people can hide and yet still believe,” declared the Rev. Judy Dahl, the director of global outreach for the U.S.-based Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC).

Dahl was interviewed by ENI during a two-day stop in Honduras, one of seven countries she visited during an 18-day tour of seven Latin American countries. A former Benedictine nun, Dahl came to Honduras to talk with members of the Violet Collective, a national gay and lesbian organization, about forming a UFMCC-related congregation here. 

Dahl celebrated a worship service with members of the Violet Collective on September 12 at the organization's headquarters in Tegucigalpa.

“Christ has come to free you of your sins, not your sexuality,” she told the group at the beginning of the service.

According to Nelson Arambu, a leader of the Violet Collective, it was the first formal worship experience for gays and lesbians in Honduras.

“Given the dominant culture of Honduras, it's very difficult for homosexuals or lesbians to enter a church without being rejected,” Arambu told ENI. “A majority of homosexuals here are people of faith, but the attitude of the churches toward us has been very negative. They see us as sexual aberrations, people who aren't capable of positive lives, much less of having access to the glory of God. And since the churches have a lot of influence with the government and society, they contribute to an environment where we're rejected by our families, forcing many homosexuals into the streets where they have to sell their bodies to survive, or end up committing suicide.”

Arambu said Dahl's visit afforded him his first opportunity to participate openly in a religious ceremony.

“I give thanks to God that the people of the UFMCC have helped us, and I hope we'll soon have a church for gay and lesbian people here in Honduras,” said Arambu, a student of international diplomacy at the Catholic University of Honduras.

Arambu said that Latin American homosexuals have watched with “hope and melancholy” as homosexuals in northern countries have formed out-of-the-closet congregations. “We're happy that our gay sisters and brothers can have an opportunity to know God in that way,” Arambu stated. “And despite all the obstacles, it won't be long here. In Latin America we have a long custom of importing culture from other places. So if the church is opening up to homosexual persons elsewhere, it gives us hope that the doors of the churches here won't remain forever closed to us.”

Although Dahl officiated at the first worship service for the Violet Collective, the organization has been examining religious issues. With assistance from the Christian Commission for Development (CCD), an ecumenical organization here, the group has held occasional discussions about homosexuality and religion since 1998.

“We've looked at the scriptures together, exploring the cultural roots of the Bible's attitude toward homosexuality, and looking at the grace of God as a gift that cannot be negated by human hatred or prejudice,” said the Rev. Lyda Pierce, a United Methodist theologian who has participated in the discussions.

Dahl told ENI that the exclusion of homosexuals here is typical of experiences around the world. “The story is the same wherever I go. We may have a friend in Jesus, but the church has not been our friend. Whether it's the Philippines or South Africa, the church is entrenched in fear,” she said. “The sad truth is that all faith traditions in the world continue being not just homophobic but sexophobic. It's not just about homosexuality. The church is afraid of human sexuality, yet I believe that in the wealth of God's creation we were created by God just the way we are.”

Established in 1968, today the UFMCC claims 320 congregations in 19 countries. Dahl said that in Latin America the denomination has established churches in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, and Nicaragua. Two days before her visit to Honduras, she ordained two new pastors of the UFMCC congregation in Managua.

Yet Dahl said she is uncomfortable being called a missionary.

“In the last decade or so we've changed our understanding of missiology. Today we are responding to the remnant,” she said. “Rather than going out to proselytize, we respond when people contact us. Since the advent of the internet we're getting a lot of connections from people all over the world. And so we try to respond to people who have called us. We're not into ecclesiastical colonialism. We don't superimpose our values or ideology or theology. Rather, we share the best news of God's love with people, especially with gay, lesbian, and bisexual people who are marginalized and traumatized in Latin America. We speak the Gospel to people who have been broken, sharing the best news with them, telling them that God honors and cherishes them the way they are.”

Dahl learned of the existence of the Violet Collective after a group from Christ Covenant Metropolitan Community Church in Atlanta, in the U.S. state of Georgia, journeyed to Honduras last January to help rebuild houses for people left homeless by Hurricane Mitch. The group's visit here was coordinated by Church World Service in the U.S. and the CCD in Honduras. The Atlanta group learned about the local gay organization from CCD, and requested a meeting. The Atlanta group later informed Dahl that the Honduran group was interested in exploring links with the UFMCC. As a result, a stop in Honduras was added to Dahl's itinerary.

Even though homosexual congregations are beginning to emerge in Latin America, Dahl said they still face significant obstacles. 

“We have a congregation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a cosmopolitan setting where people are a bit freer, a bit more at ease,” Dahl said. “Yet when a camera crew from a local television station showed up to film our worship service, our pastor there had to hide from the camera because his family doesn't know he's gay.”

Dahl said one of the two new pastors she ordained in Managua on September 10 is a gay man “who has been totally erased by his family from their lives.”

Dahl reported that with the exception of Nicaragua, which she said has “a strong lesbian community,” it's gay men who have taken the leadership of homosexual churches throughout the region.

“Gay men are much more visible in Latin America, and the lesbian community is still buried underground,” Dahl said. “Though that's the way it was in the United States, where gay men were the scouts for the movement.”