Fired Up? An Interview with the Rev. Jeff Falter
Harry Knox, director of HRC’s Religion and Faith Program, chatted with the Rev. Jeff Falter, whose small Presbyterian church in the mountain town of Elkins, W.Va., voted to fire him after he publicly announced his support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. After four years of service to the church, Falter and his wife and two children are leaving Elkins so he can find a post elsewhere.
Following is a transcript of Knox’s interview with Falter:
The Rev. Jeff Falter
Knox: Reverend Falter, you were fired from your pastoral position at a Presbyterian church because you supported GLBT rights. What happened?
Falter: I published a sermon in the local newspaper in which I said, “Gay and lesbian Christians are no different than the rest of us. They deserve full equality in the church and in society, for they are my brothers and sisters, people for whom Christ died.” That article, like much of my ministry, demonstrated the importance of inclusion to me — not only of GLBT people, but also of Hispanics, women, African Americans and any other group which may be treated as second-class in church or society.
The newspaper sermon was, to say the least, controversial in the small Appalachian town of Elkins, West Virginia, and in the Presbyterian congregation I served there. Though many people in the church and community were grateful for the word I had spoken, others were not. In the end, the publication of that article, and the turmoil that resulted from it, resulted in the congregation voting to dissolve its relationship with me, by a vote of 100 to 72.
Knox: How has that experience affected you and your family?
Falter: Jesus said that each one of us must pick up our cross and follow him. While my cross has not led me to a physical death like Christ’s, I have in many ways faced metaphorical death: loss of position, loss of home. I have to take my children away from their friends, and my wife and I have to leave the life we have been building here long before we intended.
I am now in the process of seeking a new call as a pastor or campus minister/chaplain. I do not yet know where God is leading me in that process. But despite the personal and professional cost, I remain absolutely committed to working for the full equality of GLBT people in the church, trusting that the God who called me to do this will not abandon me now.
Knox: Thank you for making this sacrifice for your GLBT neighbors.
Falter: I am grateful that my words and actions are bearing a good witness to the GLBT community and to others. For too long, the church of Jesus Christ has spoken only words of condemnation to the GLBT people among us, refusing to recognize them as sisters and brothers in Christ, people for whom Christ died.
I must say, however, that I did not intend to make a sacrifice for my GLBT neighbors. Instead, it has always been my goal to serve Christ, in whatever way Christ may ask me to serve, no matter the cost, no matter my fear. At this point in my life and ministry, Christ has led me into a very direct ministry of embracing GLBT people and working for their full equality within the Christian faith and in the larger society. In my ministry, Christ has also led me to participate in a surgical mission trip to Belize each year, to teach Bible studies in the local church, to combat domestic violence.
I remain passionately committed to leading the church to embrace the GLBT people among us. I also remain passionately committed to faithfully answering Christ’s call in whatever form that may take.
Knox: What role did your faith play in motivating you to speak out?
Falter: When I first published my article, I was not looking to make a bold political statement nor enter into a political fray. I wanted to address the real spiritual needs of the gay and lesbian community in my own town and in the congregation I was serving. People were hurting and suffering because of the stand that “good Christian people” had made about GLBT people over the years.
Forty years ago, a very wise president from Texas said, “In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace. We seek order. We seek unity. But we will not accept the peace of stifled rights, or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. For peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.”[1] Unfortunately, over the last year or two we have seen this wisdom escaping us as a nation, finding instead that state after state is adopting a “Defense of Marriage” amendment to its constitution, encoding our prejudices into law, simply because the majority of people find the pursuit of happiness of a minority objectionable. Such actions have served to bring further pain to the GLBT community, working to destroy life rather than build it.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The greatest sin of our time is not the few who have destroyed but the vast majority who sat idly by.” When I recognized the destruction of life caused by the church’s stand against GLBT people, I could no longer sit idly by. Christ calls me to build life, not destroy it. In publishing my sermon in the local paper in February, I wanted to help build life for people in my congregation and in this community, in response to Christ’s call.
Knox: We often hear religious leaders say that the Bible says being lesbian or gay is wrong — usually disregarding bisexual and transgender people altogether. How do you respond?
Falter: Presbyterians have, historically, clung tightly to the “right of private judgment” — that is, to the universal and unalienable right of each individual to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience regarding the interpretation of Scripture. I do not wish to violate anyone’s right to interpret Scripture, even as I continue to pray that others will discover more light from the witness of Scripture, as I did.
I would like to ask folks a question, however. My own experience has been that on questions fundamental to the Christian faith — questions about baptism, salvation, justification, sanctification, communion, resurrection, eschatology — Christians can have a wide diversity of opinion and yet remain respectful of one another as co-workers for Christ. Why can Christians not have that same fundamental respect for one another when it comes to differing understandings of human sexuality — an issue which is most definitely not central to the Christian faith. Why is diversity of belief in the field of human sexuality so threatening?
Like other Presbyterians, and other Christians throughout the ages, I take Scripture seriously: “Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death,” to quote the Barmen Declaration.[2] Therefore, I find it essential to struggle with Scripture to understand how God would have me act, think, teach in regard to GLBT concerns.
What I discovered in my exploration of Scripture is that our world is not the same as the ancient world. In the Ancient Near East, marriages were usually arranged by parents long before children could fall in love and make their own choices. The Bible sought to regulate sexual behavior based on that historical, cultural context. So, for example, when Leviticus 18 speaks about “Holiness in Sexual Behavior,” it tells the male members of the society, “You cannot have sex with your in-laws, your relatives, your animals, your slaves, your children, sacred prostitutes or anyone else. You have a spouse with whom alone you may practice your sexuality.” In this context, if a man had same-sex sexual activity (lesbianism is not addressed in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament), it meant that he was breaking fidelity with his spouse.
In our 21st century, North American context, the issue of fidelity/faithfulness remains essential: no one should break faith with one’s partner. However, unlike the Ancient Near East, 21st century marriages in modern Western societies are not arranged by parents for their children. Instead, marriage is the result of two individuals falling in love and deciding to commit their lives to one another. The Bible makes no claim about whom one may or may not fall in love with — but the Bible has a lot to say about remaining faithful to those with whom we are in relationship.
I find four other biblical passages significant for me in addressing GLBT issues. Three are quotes from Jesus (who, by the way, never directly addresses same-sex relationships): Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away”;[3] “You will know them by their fruits”;[4] and “Whoever does the will of God is my brother or sister or mother.”[5] These three passages remind me that not only those who think and act as I do are worthy to be called children of God. Instead, everyone who does the will of God is part of God’s family, someone for whom Christ died. The other passage is the admonition of Gamaliel: “If this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail [on its own]; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow [it] — in that case you may even be found fighting against God!”[6] If God intends GLBT people to become an integral part of the church’s life, then Christians sure don’t want to be found fighting against it. If, on the other hand, such activity is not God’s desire, then it will fail all by itself.
Lastly, I recall the words of one of my professors from seminary: “It is better to err on the side of grace.” When I stand before my God, I would rather have God accuse me of showing too much grace than too much judgment.
Knox: Martin Luther King Jr. said that on civil rights issues the church is more often the taillight than the headlight. Is there hope that we can change that where GLBT issues are concerned?
Falter: There is always hope. In the end, the church will change because that is what God intends. Hatred, prejudice, fear, falsehood cannot survive forever.
However, only with the hard work and dedication of numerous Christians will the church change and become leaders in this issue. Isaac Newton taught us the Law of Inertia: a body at rest tends to remain at rest unless some force works to change it. The church by its nature succumbs to this law.
President Kennedy, in a commencement address at American University, had this to say about building true peace in our society and in our world: “Let us not be blind to our differences, but let us … direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.”[7] If the church is to obey the voice of God in Scripture to build the just, peaceable kingdom of God, then it must work for the full equality of GLBT people — and everyone else — in this society.
In an address on civil rights the following day, President Kennedy said, “We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?”[8] Today we must ask those same questions about the GLBT community. If we are to demonstrate justice for all as commanded by God, “You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; … you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert justice,”[9] then the church must learn to become the headlight in society, pointing the way forward for all people.
Knox: Is it possible for people from diverse faith communities to come together and speak out on the importance of GLBT equality?
Falter: Yes. I remain hopeful that this will happen within the Christian community. Many Christian denominations have GLBT advocacy groups. I think the Human Rights Campaign’s new initiative to address religious issues can help build bridges among these various advocacy groups. As Ecclesiastes 4:9 reminds us, “Two are better than one.”
On a larger scale, I must confess my ignorance: I am unfamiliar with the stand of Jews, Muslims, Hindis, etc. on GLBT issues. I would hope that despite the varieties of religious traditions, despite the diversity of our beliefs, that people may work together for the full equality of all because it is the right thing to do.
Knox: You have been courageous in a way we wish more clergy would be. But they might see your experience as another reason not to take a stand. What would you say to them? Would you do it all again?
Falter: First, I would want to say to my fellow clergy that I wouldn’t presume to claim to know what God’s call for them is at this point in heir lives. God’s call to each of us is unique. God has called me at this point in time to work for the full equality of GLBT people in church and society.
At the same time, I would like to remind my fellow clergy of the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”[10] Christ does not call the Christian to a life of comfort and ease and self-satisfaction, nor can we allow our own fears, our own desires for security, determine Christ’s calling for us. Christ calls us instead to pick up our cross and follow him. If we, as the public leaders and examples of Christian faith, are unwilling to put our lives on the line for the call of Christ, do we really have the right to expect our parishioners to lead transformed lives as Christ’s disciples?
Knox: If you had a chance to do it over, would you still publish that sermon?
Falter: Would I do it all again? Absolutely. At the end of the day, I take comfort in Christ’s words, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”[11] I know that at the end of the day, I can look myself in the mirror: I have answered Christ’s call to me despite the cost.
References
[1] President Lyndon Johnson, in his speech “We Shall Overcome,” urging Congress to pass the Voting Rights Acts of 1965.
[2] Written by the Confessing Church of Germany in 1934 in contradistinction to Hitler’s “German Christian” movement.
[3] John 6:37.
[4] Matthew 7:16.
[5] Mark 3:35.
[6] Acts 5:38-39.
[7] June 10, 1963.
[8] June 11, 1963, at the White House.
[9] Exodus 23:2.
[10] The Cost of Discipleship, New York: Touchstone, 1995.
[11] Luke 6:22-23.
