Standing Against Homosexuality - But Not Against People's Needs -- Dynamic Shoreline Nazarene Church Serves Community In Variety Of Ways

For more than 60 years, the Aurora Church of the Nazarene has quietly grown and prospered, returning its good fortune to the community in generous amounts of service and support.

-- Each Tuesday it sends young people to the Union Gospel Mission's family shelter in Seattle to help feed and play with the youngsters there.

-- It has opened its doors to Russian immigrants who have started a Bible school in the church.

-- It has helped build churches in the former Soviet Union and Brazil. About 40 youths from the church went to Mexico this past summer to work at an orphanage and churches in Ensenada.

-- And it has fostered strong family relations among its own membership, now more than 1,000.

But on Oct. 23, the public heard about the church in a very different context: About 300 protesters gathered outside the Shoreline-area church to denounce an appearance by anti-gay-rights leader Lon Mabon of Oregon and the Citizens Alliance of Washington (CAW). The alliance is planning a statewide initiative campaign in Washington to prevent government from giving minority status to homosexuals or promoting homosexuality to children.

The furor that surrounded the Aurora church's decision to allow Mabon to speak in its sanctuary at the CAW-sponsored event has died down.

But how did the church get involved in the first place? And exactly what is this church, whose modern, spacious sanctuary occupies the corner of North 175th Street and Meridian Avenue North?

The Rev. Tharon Daniels stresses the church is not what he said some protesters were asserting, that church members were hatemongers or bigots. "Not in any way, shape or form," he said.

It is a Bible-based church that believes the practice of homosexuality is a "sinful lifestyle," said Daniels, who urges sexual abstinence or conversion to a heterosexual lifestyle. But it's not out to "bash" homosexuals, he said.

Daniels said the Aurora Church of the Nazarene makes its sanctuary available to many different groups. He said he received a call from CAW several weeks before Mabon's appearance, asking if the sanctuary might be available for that event.

"I must be really stupid, OK, but I had no idea that it would draw any kind of a protest or conflict or anything," said Daniels, who said he knew little about Mabon beforehand.

Once the church began hearing that a protest would take place, Daniels said, he told his board of trustees that there was still time to withdraw the offer to let CAW and Mabon use their space.

But the board felt strongly that outside groups should not influence what meetings could or could not take place. And board members felt the church needed to take a stand on homosexuality, he said.

"When it crosses over into an acceptable, alternative lifestyle that is promoted as natural and normal, then we say, `Whoa, that's different than what we believe the word of God says,' " he said.

Daniels said the Aurora Church of the Nazarene is not a fundamentalist church, in the sense it believes every line in the Bible was dictated by God. But it believes the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God, that people need to live by it.

Historically, the Church of the Nazarene traces its roots back to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Its own founders included Phineas Bresee, a Methodist pastor who started the Los Angeles Rescue Mission in 1895.

The Aurora Church of the Nazarene began here in the late 1920s, holding revival meetings in the downtown Eagles Auditorium. The church moved to Shoreline in the 1950s. Its new sanctuary and religious-education building on 175th, just east of Aurora Avenue North, were completed in 1988.

The church is committed to building strong families "who love Christ, who love each other and the church, and through the richness of their own lives make a difference in the world," said Daniels.

Annie Runkel said the church offers lots of support and a variety of activities for parents and children. It is a place where her family feels comfortable because there is something for all of them to participate in.

David Peterson said he and his wife, Linda, were attracted by the church's friendliness, as well as Daniels' biblically based preaching.

As for Mabon, Peterson said that before the Oct. 23 rally he did not know him or Bob Larimer, chairman of the CAW.

"Both of these gentlemen to me were very different than the crowd (outside) would have led me to think. They were not against the people who practice homosexuality, but they were against the practice, which mirrors my view," said Peterson.

Peterson said he was not concerned about his church being stigmatized as the site of a CAW event: "If we can't stand up for a biblically based view, that would be an unfortunate state of affairs."

But Charles Brydon, president of Hands Off Washington, the citizens group mobilized to fight anti-gay-rights efforts, said the Bible is a "much more inclusive document." "It has enormous sections of love and caring for all people, driven by the Golden Rule, `Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'," he said. He added sexual orientation is not a matter of choice.

The Rev. Elaine Stanovsky, president-director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, said "people of faith clearly disagree what the gospel of love requires of us. My walk with Jesus has led me to take a much less judgmental stance toward a variety of kinds of people than some other Christian groups take." The church council, she said, will actively oppose any proposed legislation to limit the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

Terry Kennedy, a spokesman for Queer Nation, one of the groups protesting Mabon's appearance last month, said the Aurora Church of the Nazarene opened its doors to only one side of the story. He said gays and lesbians are "people just like them, with a heart and soul, who want to be recognized and loved."

Daniels said his church would not play a role in a CAW initiative campaign next year. "We are not a political organization," he said. He added he didn't envision the church having another CAW meeting, though church officials weren't saying "absolutely you cannot come. But I don't see any reason for it."

He added that homosexuality is not the focus of his sermons or the church's activities.

With its youth programs, outreach ministries and attention to people's spiritual needs, his church has had a positive impact on its members and the community, Daniels said.

But it draws a line in opposing the promotion of homosexual practices. "There we stand. We will not back down from that," he said.