SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/253817_bill29.html
Religious leaders rally for gay rights
Group says Antioch Bible Church wrong to oppose state
bill
Thursday, December 29, 2005
By JOHN IWASAKI
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
KIRKLAND -- Religious leaders who favor increased protection for
gays took their cause to the Eastside Wednesday, directly
challenging the Rev. Ken Hutcherson and his supporters.
About 30 people of various faiths gathered at the entrance of Lake
Washington High School to support long-stymied legislation that
would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation.
Joshua Trujillo / P-I
From left, Pastor Craig Darling of Seattle First Baptist Church,
Rabbi Jonathan Singer of Temple Beth Am and Cantor David
Serkin-Poole of Temple B'nai Torah demonstrate for gay rights
Wednesday in Kirkland at the site where Antioch Bible Church meets
on Sundays. Last year, the church opposed a state bill that would
have outlawed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The bill is expected to be introduced again this year.
The group also met "to counter the very loud voices by a very few
fundamentalist religious leaders" who oppose the bill, which was
narrowly defeated in the 2005 Legislature and is expected to be
reintroduced in the upcoming session, said Robert Jacobs, Northwest
regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Jacobs later said he was referring to Hutcherson -- whose Antioch
Bible Church meets at the high school -- and Rabbi Daniel Lapin of
Mercer Island. He is president of Toward Tradition, a national
coalition of Jews and Christians.
"They speak so often ... as if they represent the word of God,"
Jacobs said. But the Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy and
laypeople at the news conference showed a different religious
perspective, he said.
The Rev. Monica Corsaro, ecumenical campus minister at the
University of Washington, said it was erroneous to use scripture
critical of homosexuality as the basis for withholding support for
gay rights.
"We can't be literalists when it comes to interpreting scripture,"
said Corsaro, who also is co-chairwoman of the Religious Coalition
for Equality. "It's not the perfect word of God. It's heretical to
superimpose 21st-century context and values on first-century
context and values."
Hutcherson and Lapin, who did not attend the event, defended the
biblical condemnations of homosexual behavior.
"It's hard to get around what the Bible says about the sin of
homosexuality," Hutcherson said. "We believe in an inerrant word of
God. That means there's no mistake. Biblical truth overrides
culture and time."
Lapin said it was "chilling" to imply that "those who wish to echo
the words from Leviticus, spoken from Sinai three millennia ago,
should be suppressed."
In April, the state Senate defeated HB1515 by one vote after it had
passed the house. State law prohibits discrimination based on race,
gender, age, religion, marital status and other factors. The bill
would have added sexual orientation to the list.
Microsoft Corp. initially supported the bill, then pulled back --
before Hutcherson threatened to organize a national boycott of
Microsoft products, the software company said. Hutcherson
maintained that Microsoft shifted only after he voiced his
threat.
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Seems that more and more people see gays as a norm. 
Any comments?