As the main stream Churches and Synagogues come to more accepting terms with gay people and their rights, it seems there is even a shift of mood in the smaller, radical denominations. A few evangelicals are seeing gay people as potentials church members. Perhaps their aim is to swell their rolls and their coffers, but giving these churches the benefit of our cautious doubt is the charitable thing to do.

Here are two recent examples that have happen within 50 miles of our rural location:

1. An "X Gay" clergyman has married and established a church where gay people are invited with promises of love and acceptance. He reports that while he believes that gays can be "cured" as he has been, his church will not pressure gay people to change.

The big news here is that there was a long article about this preacher in one of the area's right wing newspapers.

2. In June a soldier died in Iraq and his funeral was scheduled. Then the "I hate everybody" church* of a Missouri clergyman announced that his congregation (made up mostly of his family clan) would demonstrated at the soldier's funeral. The church group backed out at the last minute, either their funds were waning or their nerve when they realized that nearly every truck in this area comes from the factory with a gun rake.

Also, the Family and Save Marriage from the gays groups* are still beating the bushes to raise millions for fighting gay rights, but the possible rejection of Proposition 8 in California (on which millions were spent) has damped enthusiasm for giving to losing causes.

Is gay opposition running out of steam? Of course, it is, but no one can predict when full gay rights will arrive or the insane opposition to it will end.

*Note: The above groups benefit from tax deductible donations. In a real sense, gay people's tax dollars are going to organizations which fight against gay people, while donations to Apollo Network, which supports gay rights, are not tax deductible. What's wrong with this picture?