Morehouse School of Medicine
Presentation
March 3, 2008
Dr. Satcher and members of the National Advisory Council, distinguished panelists, it is a
pleasure and an honor to be with you today. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to you
on the issues of faith and religious tradition, sexual health and responsible sexual behavior, and
science from the perspective of a person who is a member of the United Church of Christ, a
mainline Protestant Christian denomination.
The United Church of Christ has 1.2 million members in 5,600 local churches throughout the
United States. The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two
Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational
Christian Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of two earlier traditions.
Through the years, other groups such as American Indians, Afro-Christians, Asian Americans,
Pacific Islanders, Volga Germans, Armenians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the
four earlier groups. In recent years, Christians from other traditions have found a home in the
UCC, thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues a broad variety of traditions in
its common life.
Some of the historical ‘firsts’ of the UCC include being among the first to take a stand against
slavery, ordaining the first African American in 1783, the first woman, in 1853, and the first
openly gay minister, in 1972. Throughout its history, issues of justice and peace have defined
much of the ministry and mission of the UCC.
The United Church of Christ has a congregational polity. We are not organized in a hierarchical
way which means that what any setting of the church says is not binding on any other setting of
the church. However, one of the best descriptions of UCC polity is to call it a dynamic
“partnership covenant.” It values the commitment the parts of the UCC have made to one
another to live and work together in behalf of justice, peace, and ministry.
This brief background is important. I can speak to you today, as a member of the national staff
of the UCC, but it would be improper for me to speak on behalf of all settings and churches and
members in the United Church of Christ. My ministry of sexuality education and justice is
guided by resolutions adopted by the General Synod, a biennial gathering of approximately 700
delegates who represent all settings of the Church who gather every two years.
Over the past fifty years, the United Church of Christ has lifted up issues of sexuality education
and justice in many of its settings. As early as 1970, parts of the UCC were encouraging the
study of human sexuality. A Human Sexuality study was completed and approved in 1983,
calling upon the entire church to develop resources, based not only on deeply held religious
beliefs, but on science, that would not only educate people of all ages on issues of human
sexuality, but lift up the injustices of sexism, heterosexism and racism.
In 1985, the General Synod, called upon all settings of the church to become ‘open and
affirming’ of gay, lesbian and bisexual person; and in 2003, lifted up transgender persons as
people who need to be added to all ‘open and affirming’ movements.
In the process of developing a resource for adults for use in congregations, Created in God’s
Image, the writers, working in collaboration with many people from differing settings of the
church, articulated nine assumptions that would help participants reflect upon the personal
convictions they bring to a study of human sexuality.
Realizing that each person’s attitudes about sexuality begins at birth and that each individual
brings with them their own life-long experience, we in the United Church of Christ know that
no one can speak for everyone – therefore, I will not do this. However, let me share with you
the assumptions upon which Created in God’s Image was written. In my opinion, I feel they
state with integrity what many people in the United Church of Christ (and other faith traditions)
believe:
●Sexuality is a God-given gift.
●The purposes of sexuality are to enhance human wholeness and fulfillment, to express love,
commitment, delight and pleasure, to bring new life into the world, and to give glory to God.
●When making decisions about sexuality, the primary guide is God=s call to love and justice.
●Sexuality is intended to express mutuality, love, and justice. In judging whether behavior is
ethical or unethical, the norms of mutuality, love, and justice are the central criteria.
●Sexuality is distorted by unethical behaviors, attitudes, and systems that foster violence,
exploitation, infidelity, assertion of power, and the treatment of persons as objects.
●In developing a just sexuality, we need to avoid a double standard.
●A responsible and mature sexual ethic respects the moral agency of every person.
●The church, in all settings, ought to be a context for discussion about human sexuality.
●The church ought to encourage and support advocacy with those who are sexually oppressed
or the victims of sexual violence and abuse. The church can and must have a role in defining
and implementing public policy.1
It is noted in the subtext of these assumptions that the Bible is a primary source of inspiration
and knowledge, but not the only one. Our understanding of human sexuality is deepened and
enriched when we avail ourselves of accurate and up-to-date information and research. We
affirm the reality of the living Spirit that moves where it will and is as active in our day as in the
days when the scriptures were recorded.
Since 1993, the UCC along with the Unitarian Universalist Association has worked together on
publishing age-span comprehensive sexuality resources for use in faith communities and in
1
Created In God’s Image, United Church of Christ, 1993.
secular settings. In late January of this year, the last Our Whole Lives – Sexuality and Our
Faith resource (for Young Adults) was produced. Based on over-arching values of self worth,
sexual health, responsibility, justice and inclusivity, these resources provide age-appropriate
and medically- accurate information on human sexuality for all ages – starting with five and six
year old children and continuing on through adults.
Developers of this invaluable resource, along with other UCC, UUA and numerous other people
of faith, believe that human beings are empowered to make better choices for their physical,
spiritual, emotional and sexual lives, when they receive knowledge based on medically-accurate
information. And, in faith communities, we seek to continually integrate knowledge with our
continuing faith journeys and all the possibilities for new enlightenment.
One of the groups formed in the United Church of Christ is the Science and Technology
Network. Membership in this group includes theologians, scientists, and ethicists. In January
2008, they released a paper called: A New Voice Arising: A Pastoral Letter on Faith Engaging
Science and Technology.
This paper invites people, no matter where they are on life’s journey, to explore the relationship
between science and faith.
Quoting from the paper:
“Are we alone? Does the universe have a purpose? What does it mean to be human?
Questions like these are as old as scripture and as new as the latest discoveries of physics and
biology. For many people today, old answers to these questions are no longer credible.
Science is sometimes unsettling because it destroys old foundations without providing new ones.
Yet, because of science, many today are on a new search for meaning. Can our church address
the seekers of today? Can we offer a word for our time, one full of hope and encouragement,
one taken seriously for its keep insight and honest comprehension? Can we care to seek, to
wonder, and if necessary to doubt until we believe anew, confident that in the end we will be
filled with a fresh faith that engages the hunger in so many hearts and minds?”2
In communities of faith throughout the UCC and beyond, we are encouraged to integrate our
values, our understanding of religious history, how science impacts our faith journey, and our
own personal experiences.
I conclude my presentation by again quoting from A New Voice Arising: A Pastoral Letter on
Faith Engaging Science and Technology.
“Many today are hungering for an authentic spirituality that is intellectually honest and at
home in a scientific era. They are searching for a new kind of wisdom to live by…We know that
the challenges of science and technology are not easy. We also know that they are not optional,
as if we could be a faithful church while ignoring our context…Side by side we listen for the
God who is speaking to our time, to this culture, and to our heart’s deepest questions.
God speaks and the Word becomes flesh, local, in a particular time and place. God is still
speaking, and the words of a living God become enfleshed here, now, in our own time and
place. What joy is ours when we hear the new world of the living God speaking to us today!”3
Thank you, again, for this opportunity to be with you today.
2
http://www.ucc.org/not-mutually-exclusive/
3
http://www.ucc.org/not-mutually-exclusive/