Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International
Encyclopedia
Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International is a support organization that provides a spiritual and social community to current and former Seventh-day Adventists who are lesbian
, gay
, bisexual, transgender
and/or intersex
(LGBTI), and have felt hurt or rejected because of their sexual orientation
and/or gender identity
. SDA Kinship offers them the compassion and support not generally available within the organized Adventist Church.
, California
, after some gay Adventist men placed an advertisement in The Advocate
seeking other gay Adventists. Within four months there were 75 members and a rudimentary organization. During this time the name "Kinship" was chosen because Seventh-day Adventists typically enjoy a close-knit family relationship with each other. Small groups of gay Adventists who had found each other in New York and San Francisco
soon joined Kinship.
SDA Kinship is managed by a volunteer board and was incorporated as a non-profit organization
in 1981. Current membership, including friends and family, is approximately 1,500 people in 62 countries. At this time Kinship has no formal connection with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
, Australia
, and other parts of the world.
regions and eight overseas regions: Australia-New Zealand
, Brazil
, Canada
, Central
-South America
, Europe, Germany
, The Philippines
, and the British Isles
. Regional coordinators communicate with members, sometimes by newsletter, and often sponsor meetings for social, recreational, educational and worship purposes. The frequency and type of activities depend largely on the number and proximity of members living within each region.
/AIDS
has also been sent to every Adventist church in the United States.
and two pastors were invited to participate. They received permission from the General Conference
, with the stipulation that SDA Kinship would not claim that this indicated the church’s acceptance of homosexuality and that Colin Cook also be invited to present his ideas about helping homosexuals find healing. The invited theology professors, after the first in-depth research into what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, came to the conclusion that it was silent about persons with a homosexual orientation, and that its proscriptions against sexual exploitation, promiscuity, rape, and temple prostitution apply equally to heterosexuals and homosexuals. After hearing the traumatic stories of growing up gay in the Adventist church, the clergy were deeply moved and drew up a list of recommendations in their report to church leadership. However, protests from conservative members prompted church president Neal Wilson
to instruct Adventist college, hospital, and church administrators to prevent anyone from meeting with Kampmeeting attendees the following year. Nevertheless, certain pastors and church leaders have continued to attend and speak at the annual Kampmeetings.
, Maryland
, attended by many denominational headquarters personnel, conducted a support group for people with AIDS and their family members. The editor of the denominational magazine, Adventist Review, was a member of Sligo Church and together Sligo Church and the staff of Adventist Review sponsored a weekend AIDS Conference. They asked SDA Kinship to send three of its members who were ill with AIDS as delegates. A call was made at this conference for the church to address the AIDS epidemic through its hospital system. However, nothing of substance was accomplished until the extent of the epidemic among many heterosexual church members on the African continent became known.
, California, was jointly sponsored by SDA Kinship and the Association of Adventist Forums (now Adventist Forums
), and was attended by about 60 invited observers. Twelve papers were presented on biological, sociological, psychological, legal, pastoral, theological, ethical, and Biblical aspects of homosexuality, and personal experiences.
in 1995. Another book, Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives, consisting of the papers presented at the 2006 Workshop on Homosexuality and six responses, was published by Adventist Forums in May 2008. Complimentary copies were mailed to 500 pastors, administrators, and thought leaders of the Adventist Church. In 2005 SDA Kinship produced a DVD, Open Heart, Open Hand. It records three conversations with leaders in the Adventist Church who are parents of gay and lesbian children. It is introduced by an Adventist theologian whose brother was a gay man. It was filmed by Dr. Harry and Janice Wang, who also have a gay family member.
of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, “Someone to Talk to,” an outreach to Adventist families and friends of gays and lesbians, has had an exhibit presence in at least one large church convention every year, with informational handouts and book and DVD sales. A growing interest has been noted over these years.
, California, charging that by using "Seventh-day Adventist" in its name the gay support group was guilty of trademark infringement. Curiously, the lawsuit came ten years after the organization and seven years after the incorporation of SDA Kinship, and after limited cooperative contacts between the church and SDA Kinship. Leaders of SDA Kinship surmised the reasons for this belated decision may have included anger over a recent Kinship demonstration at church headquarters. The lawsuit was decided in favor of SDA Kinship.
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, bisexual, transgender
Transgender
Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
and/or intersex
Intersex
Intersex, in humans and other animals, is the presence of intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male...
(LGBTI), and have felt hurt or rejected because of their sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
and/or gender identity
Gender identity
A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...
. SDA Kinship offers them the compassion and support not generally available within the organized Adventist Church.
History and organization
SDA Kinship grew out of a 1976 meeting in Palm DesertPalm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, after some gay Adventist men placed an advertisement in The Advocate
The Advocate
The Advocate is an American LGBT-interest magazine, printed monthly and available by subscription. The Advocate brand also includes a web site. Both magazine and web site have an editorial focus on news, politics, opinion, and arts and entertainment of interest to LGBT people...
seeking other gay Adventists. Within four months there were 75 members and a rudimentary organization. During this time the name "Kinship" was chosen because Seventh-day Adventists typically enjoy a close-knit family relationship with each other. Small groups of gay Adventists who had found each other in New York and San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
soon joined Kinship.
SDA Kinship is managed by a volunteer board and was incorporated as a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in 1981. Current membership, including friends and family, is approximately 1,500 people in 62 countries. At this time Kinship has no formal connection with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Member services
SDA Kinship exists to ease the initial distress of Seventh-day Adventists when they realize that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered, and to facilitate the reconciling of their spirituality with their sexual orientation by offering suggested reading materials, personal dialog, professional counseling referrals, and a network of supportive members.3Media services
SDA Kinship enables communication among members by publishing a free monthly newsletter, Connection, and maintaining a free online community, Kinship Online (KOL), which includes a web-based chat venue called KinNet.Kampmeeting
Since 1980, SDA Kinship has organized an annual week long conference called Kampmeeting where members can meet and renew friendships. Worship, lectures, music, group activities, and good food, including vegetarian fare, are all part of the program. Spiritual ministry is provided by supportive church leaders and gay former pastors. Communion service is conducted on Friday evening and is the only communion received by many members who have been alienated from the church. In recent years (as of 2008), similar gatherings have been held in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and other parts of the world.
Regional services
In order to communicate with and serve its diverse membership SDA Kinship is organized by regions, with nine United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
regions and eight overseas regions: Australia-New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Central
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
-South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Europe, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, The Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, and the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. Regional coordinators communicate with members, sometimes by newsletter, and often sponsor meetings for social, recreational, educational and worship purposes. The frequency and type of activities depend largely on the number and proximity of members living within each region.
Special interest group services
In addition, attention is paid to the needs of special interest groups. "IMRU?" (I am, Are You?) is an outreach for college-age and under-30 young people and there are also coordinators for intersex persons, transgender persons, older adults, African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and friends and family. www.someone-to-talk-to.net is the website for the ministry for families.Information packets
SDA Kinship has mailed thousands of information packets to Adventist pastors, teachers and counselors and to every Adventist academy and college in North America. Information about HIVHIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
/AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
has also been sent to every Adventist church in the United States.
Church leaders invited to Kampmeeting
In 1980 SDA Kinship held its first national gathering called Kampmeeting (similar to a typical Adventist camp meeting). Three professors from the Adventist Theological SeminarySeventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
The Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary is the seminary located at Andrews University in Michigan, the Seventh-day Adventist Church's flagship university...
and two pastors were invited to participate. They received permission from the General Conference
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is the governing organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is located in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, where it moved in 1989...
, with the stipulation that SDA Kinship would not claim that this indicated the church’s acceptance of homosexuality and that Colin Cook also be invited to present his ideas about helping homosexuals find healing. The invited theology professors, after the first in-depth research into what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, came to the conclusion that it was silent about persons with a homosexual orientation, and that its proscriptions against sexual exploitation, promiscuity, rape, and temple prostitution apply equally to heterosexuals and homosexuals. After hearing the traumatic stories of growing up gay in the Adventist church, the clergy were deeply moved and drew up a list of recommendations in their report to church leadership. However, protests from conservative members prompted church president Neal Wilson
Neal C. Wilson
Neal C. Wilson, served as General Conference president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1979 through to 1990. Wilson was head of the North American Division when elected on January 3, 1979, to take the place of the ailing former General Conference president Robert Pierson, who had resigned...
to instruct Adventist college, hospital, and church administrators to prevent anyone from meeting with Kampmeeting attendees the following year. Nevertheless, certain pastors and church leaders have continued to attend and speak at the annual Kampmeetings.
AIDS conference
In 1989 a pastor at Sligo Adventist Church in Takoma ParkTakoma Park, Maryland
Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, attended by many denominational headquarters personnel, conducted a support group for people with AIDS and their family members. The editor of the denominational magazine, Adventist Review, was a member of Sligo Church and together Sligo Church and the staff of Adventist Review sponsored a weekend AIDS Conference. They asked SDA Kinship to send three of its members who were ill with AIDS as delegates. A call was made at this conference for the church to address the AIDS epidemic through its hospital system. However, nothing of substance was accomplished until the extent of the epidemic among many heterosexual church members on the African continent became known.
Kinship Advisory Council
In 2000, a group of supportive church leaders was invited to form an advisory council to guide SDA Kinship in bringing the Adventist Church to a more loving and redemptive attitude. This Council was instrumental in organizing a Workshop on Homosexuality and publishing a book resulting from the workshop.Workshop on Homosexuality
In January 2006, a Workshop on Homosexuality, held in OntarioOntario, California
Ontario is a city located in San Bernardino County, California, United States, 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire region, it lies just east of the Los Angeles county line and is part of the Greater Los Angeles Area...
, California, was jointly sponsored by SDA Kinship and the Association of Adventist Forums (now Adventist Forums
Adventist Forums
Adventist Forums is an international non-profit organization of Seventh-day Adventists. It publishes Spectrum magazine. Its stated aim is to create community through open conversation. Local groups of the association are known as local forum chapters...
), and was attended by about 60 invited observers. Twelve papers were presented on biological, sociological, psychological, legal, pastoral, theological, ethical, and Biblical aspects of homosexuality, and personal experiences.
Media Activities
A book, My Son, Beloved Stranger, written by the wife of an Adventist minister about her family’s experience after learning their youngest son is gay, was published by Pacific PressPacific Press Publishing Association
The Pacific Press Publishing Association, or Pacific Press for short, is one of two major Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses in North America. It was founded in 1874 by James White in Oakland, California, and is now located in Nampa, Idaho. Its titles include theological works as well as...
in 1995. Another book, Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives, consisting of the papers presented at the 2006 Workshop on Homosexuality and six responses, was published by Adventist Forums in May 2008. Complimentary copies were mailed to 500 pastors, administrators, and thought leaders of the Adventist Church. In 2005 SDA Kinship produced a DVD, Open Heart, Open Hand. It records three conversations with leaders in the Adventist Church who are parents of gay and lesbian children. It is introduced by an Adventist theologian whose brother was a gay man. It was filmed by Dr. Harry and Janice Wang, who also have a gay family member.
Exhibits at church conferences
Beginning in 2000, at the quinquennial General Conference SessionGeneral Conference Session
The General Conference Session is the official world meeting of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The first session was held on May 20, 1863 with 20 delegates in attendance, and it is now held quinquennially ....
of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, “Someone to Talk to,” an outreach to Adventist families and friends of gays and lesbians, has had an exhibit presence in at least one large church convention every year, with informational handouts and book and DVD sales. A growing interest has been noted over these years.
Relations with Adventist Church
In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, homosexual relations are considered a violation and members engaging in such relations are subject to discipline.Church sues SDA Kinship over use of church name
In 1987 a federal lawsuit was filed by the Adventist Church against SDA Kinship in the U.S. District Court in Los AngelesLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California, charging that by using "Seventh-day Adventist" in its name the gay support group was guilty of trademark infringement. Curiously, the lawsuit came ten years after the organization and seven years after the incorporation of SDA Kinship, and after limited cooperative contacts between the church and SDA Kinship. Leaders of SDA Kinship surmised the reasons for this belated decision may have included anger over a recent Kinship demonstration at church headquarters. The lawsuit was decided in favor of SDA Kinship.
External links
- Kinship International official website
- Kinship Australia
- "Dilemmas of a Homosexual" by Wayne Blakely. Adventist TodayAdventist TodayAdventist Today is a bimonthly Christian magazine representing a progressive Seventh-day Adventist perspective. First published in 1993, it is currently edited by J. David Newman, the former editor of Ministry...
website, posted September 7, 2009 - Adventists and homosexuality part one and part two, from ReligiousTolerance.orgOntario Consultants on Religious ToleranceThe Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance are a small group in Kingston, Ontario dedicated to the promotion of religious tolerance through their website, ReligiousTolerance.org.-History of the group and its website:Bruce A...
- Marriage, Homosexuality and the Church special report, from the Adventist Review