• by Emilio Godoy (mexico city)
• Thursday, October 14, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Alejandro González left the Catholic Church to join the gay-supportive Metropolitan Community Churches in Mexico, in search of a more open and tolerant place of worship.

'I switched to be genuine, and so there would be no gap between what I preach and what I live,' González told IPS. 'The church's message must not be one of finger-pointing and condemnation, but of acceptance.'

Seven months ago, González became pastor of the 'Casa de Luz' Church, affiliated with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey.

The first MCC was founded in 1968 by gay rights activist Troy Perry in Los Angeles, California, in response to the strong homophobia in other churches.

The denomination, which is in the mainline Protestant tradition, specifically reaches out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. It is considered the first Christian church to have recognised the necessity of ministering to the needs of LGBT people around the world.

The Universal Fellowship of MCC has member congregations in 23 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela, in Latin America.

It arrived in Mexico in 1998, when David Pettitt, an MCC pastor from the United States, founded the Casa de Luz church.

The MCC -- or ICM, its Spanish acronym -- also has branches in the northern city of Piedras Negras and in Guadalajara in western Mexico. The congregation in Monterrey has 80 members.

Other Christian churches welcoming the LGBT community have emerged in Mexico in recent years, in response to the discrimination that members of sexual minorities complain about in more traditional churches, especially the Catholic Church.

There are now at least six large inclusive religious communities in this Latin American country.

'We are people who have been hurt by the Christian church, with social impacts that affect us in the area of religion as well,' pastor Liliana Huerta, one of the five people who lead the Comunidad Cristiana de Esperanza (CCE - Christian Community of Hope), a pentecostal church, told IPS. 'Our community emerged from the need to build an inclusive church.'

The CCE, which was founded in 2000, now has a congregation of 200. In November it will open its second church in Mexico, on the south side of the capital. It also has branches in Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and Spain.

There are a total of 7,392 religious associations registered in Mexico, 7,360 of which are Christian. The rest are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and others. (An estimated 90 percent of Mexicans are Catholic.)

Of the Christian churches, 4,050 are evangelical, 3,190 are Catholic, 89 are mainline Protestant, 28 are orthodox and three are from other traditions, according to the interior ministry's national office of religious associations.

The Mexican capital is in the vanguard of a growing regional trend towards greater respect for the rights of sexual minorities. For example, the city government passed a law legalising gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.

Since the law went into effect in March, 433 same-sex couples -- 232 gay couples and 201 lesbian couples -- have married in the city, according to the Mexico City civil registry.

'We created this place free of marginalisation and lack of respect, where we talk about religious questions and try to understand sexuality in a spiritual light,' pastor Salvador Barragán of the 'Reconciliación' Metropolitan Community Church, told IPS.

The Reconciliación church was founded in 1981 by John P. Doner, a pastor from the United States. The church, which was initially linked to the Universal Fellowship of the MCC, went its own way in 2006. Although it only has around 20 active members, its religious services usually draw some 70 people.

Barragán distanced himself from the Catholic faith two decades ago because he felt marginalised due to his sexual orientation. He has headed the Reconciliación church since November 2009, after the death of the last pastor, Jorge Sosa, an activist for LGBT rights.

The Catholic Church considers homosexual behaviour a sin and is opposed to same-sex civil unions or marriages.

'They continue to maintain a way of thinking that keeps people stuck in an anti-rights mindset,' Barragán said.

In February, the Casa de Luz church held collective ceremonies to bless homosexual couples in Monterrey, and it will repeat the event next year.

In the Comunidad Cristiana de Esperanza church, two couples have been married since it was founded.

'Being a church that is different from the traditional church is part of our activism,' said González, who replaced Uruguayan pastor Fernando Frontán.

But despite the dedication and activism of the congregations of these churches, there are few links among them and with other institutions. 'We need to converse with other groups, to fight the anti-church attitude,' Barragán said.

The CCE's Huerta said, however, that other denominations have asked them for advice in terms of studies on homosexuality in the light of Biblical texts.

She added, nevertheless, that 'We have a long way to go. We have to take firm steps in our growth.'

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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