Keeping the faith.

Few things in American life are more

strongly held than faith in

God. And few things are more

strongly argued than gay rights. Ostensibly,

the two should never meet outside the

church pulpit. Yet where one goes, the

other often follows closely

behind, resulting in a bitter clash that has

become an identifying characteristic of

American politics.

The June 18 vote by the Southern

Baptist Convention to boycott Walt

Disney Co. for being "too gay-friendly"

is a story made for the media: a love

triangle in which gays and lesbians vie with

Bible-thumping evangelicals for the heart

of an American icon. But the more

portentous battle is one being fought not

with religious institutions but within them,

a battle for the hearts of Middle Americans

who look to mainline churches and

synagogues for moral guidance. In the long

run it's the latter struggle that is more

likely to influence the fate of gay civil rights.

The influence of organized religion

in politics has deep roots in American

history. "It was the reason people came

here," says William Schneider, a political

commentator for CNN. "For the first

century of American politics, there were

tumultuous battles over religion and

politics, which is why the doctrine of

separation of church and state became so

strong. People got sick and tired of it."

When it comes to homosexuality, the

tradition of religious condemnation

made civic is far older than the republic.

As Francis Mark Mondimore writes in A

Natural History of Homosexuality, once

the Holy Roman Empire was established,

"private sexual behaviors, considered

personal matters by authorities in ancient

Greece and pre-Christian Rome, then became subject to

ecclesiastical, and thus governmental,

regulation "

Today, antigay laws no longer take

their authority from church doctrine--at

least not in theory. But the arguments in

favor of those laws are certainly informed

by religious attitudes

in the United States. "We are just a more

religious country," says Schneider. "More

Americans believe in God and go to church

than any other Western country in the

world. I don't know any other country

where abortion or gay rights is such an

issue. There's a religious aspect to the

debate that doesn't exist elsewhere."

The passage of a statewide

nondiscrimination bill in New Hampshire 

in June, for example, would not have been

possible if the Roman Catholic hierarchy

had not signaled to legislators that it did

not oppose the measure. Activists in

Oregon attribute their success in beating

back an antigay ballot measure in 1992 to

the support they received from leaders of

organized religion in the state, including the Catholic

bishops. By contrast, the refusal of the

Catholic bishops in Colorado to condemn

that state's antigay Amendment 2 made it

easier for voters to accept the measure.

As gays and lesbians push the envelope

of their cause--going beyond asking for

basic civil rights to the quest for a fuller

acceptance that includes acknowledgment

of gay relationships and

families--opposition from mainstream

denominations is likely to become an even

greater stumbling block than it has been in

the past. Same-sex marriage is a hotly

contested issue at Episcopal and

Presbyterian general conferences this

summer, while gay Catholics and Jews are

holding their own meetings that reflect

broader conflicts within those faiths.

Nowhere has religion been more openly

engaged in a political battle than over the

debate about same-sex marriage in Hawaii.

The opposition to gay unions has been led

by the hierarchy of the Catholic diocese,

while supporters of gay marriage have been

able to marshal an impressive array of

clergy from all denominations as a

counterbalance.

To many gays and lesbians, religion

is important for another reason: They are

themselves believers and churchgoers. That

should come as no surprise, argues the Rev.

Troy Perry, founder of the predominantly

gay Unified Fellowship of Metropolitan

Community Churches: "Many of us were

raised in backgrounds where the church was

part and parcel of who you are. The large

majority in our community concern

themselves in all the culture they exist in.

They have learned they don't have to give

away their spirituality." In the end, secular

gays and lesbians may be indebted to their

religious counterparts for advances in civil

rights, as their presence helps to bridge the

gap between gay politics and the attitudes

of their churches.