CHURCHES VARY ON POLICY TOWARD GAYS AS CONGREGATIONS STRUGGLE WITH THE ISSUE, SOME OFFER HOMOSEXUALS LEADERSHIP ROLES.

Byline: Naomi Kresge Staff Writer

Homosexuality was something Gene Johnson tried to sidestep for years.

Eventually, it cost him his position as the prominent pastor of a Methodist church in Peoria, Ill. He resigned rather than come out as a gay minister in a church that did not accept people in same-sex relationships.

It did not, however, cost him his faith.

``God created me. He knows who I am,'' Johnson said, ``regardless of whether there are churches who understand.''

After moving to Southern California with his partner and four children, Johnson found churches that accepted him as he is.

He isn't alone. As denominations struggle on national and local levels with doctrinal stances on homosexuality - whether to ordain noncelibate gay and lesbian pastors and bless same-sex unions, in particular - some churches have decided to offer full acceptance, including leadership positions, to their gay and lesbian parishioners.

The decision remains a controversial one, as became clear last year when the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America disciplined the Rev. David Kalke for hiring a lesbian as associate pastor of Central City Lutheran Mission in San Bernardino.

The Orange County-based synod removed Kalke's name from its roster of pastors, and his congregation's name from its list of churches. Though gay and lesbian ministers are allowed, they must remain celibate, unlike heterosexual ministers.

Dennis MacDonald, a New Testament scholar and professor at the Claremont School of Theology, said Protestant denominations are moving toward a split over the issue.

``It's sort of dispiriting to continue to hear so many denominations that continue to put out statements that deny who we are, but on the other hand, it's refreshing to realize that these things are being discussed,'' said the Rev. Ricky Hoyt, 42, a Claremont School of Theology graduate who pastors a Unitarian Universalist church near Santa Clarita and helps run a gay spirituality retreat in Angelus Oaks.

Hoyt first aspired to the ministry as a young boy in the Methodist church, but left the church after he realized he was gay. He returned in 1991, brought by a boyfriend who had heard that Unitarian Universalist churches accept gay people.

``(Churches) have to go through this period before you get to the open and accepting place that I think they will eventually get to,'' he said.

Johnson, 64, of Upland has a doctorate in ministry and an early story not much different from that of any straight minister.

He was born and raised in the Lutheran church, then became a Methodist. He married, started a family and eventually accepted the call to the ministry.

Already an ordained minister, he met a man, fell in love and spent about 16 years struggling with his sexuality while still heading his church and remaining with his family. Eventually, he said, he decided he had to leave his church.

``I broke off everything, I left the church, I got a divorce, and I decided, let's come here,'' Johnson said.

Now, having raised his four children with his male partner of 31 years, he attends the Claremont United Church of Christ, Congregational (UCCC). The church is in the vanguard of local pro-gay rights congregations.

With about 1,700 members, the church is the largest officially designated open and affirming UCCC congregation in the country, said the Rev. Butch Henderson.

A few of the country's smaller denominations agree with him, seeing gay rights as part of Jesus' teaching of love and social justice.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, which has slightly more than 1,000 congregations in the United States, lobbies for gay rights. Some denomination ministers began performing same-sex marriages as early as the mid-1970s.

Sylvia Rhue, director of the Washington-based advocacy group Equal Partners in Faith, said opinion differs on homosexuality within nearly every denomination.

``Even the Catholic Church, the pope, recognizes that there is such a thing as sexual orientation, and a lot of churches don't even recognize that. That's progress,'' Rhue said.

Nationally, she said, less accepting denominations include Southern Baptists, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Seventh-Day Adventists, Assemblies of God, the Church of God in Christ and large segments within Roman Catholicism.