LOS ANGELES (BP)–Jimmy Allen, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is scheduled to address the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches’ 30th anniversary “General Conference and World Jubilee” the morning of July 16 in Los Angeles, according to a news release circulated nationally by PRNewswire.
The July 14 news release, which the homosexual-oriented religious group paid PRNewswire to distribute, states, “While Rev. Allen disagrees with UFMCC doctrine on the issue of being gay and Christian, he shares much with the 1,500 church leaders attending the conference from 21 countries. Rev. Allen lost a daughter-in-law and two grandsons to AIDS. He will share his experiences of trying to find a Sunday School within his own denomination that would accept his grandchildren. Many Metropolitan Community Churches now offer Sunday School to growing numbers of children with HIV/AIDS and others diseases.”
Allen could not be reached for comment July 15 on his plans to address the group.
Now living in Big Canoe, Ga., Allen was SBC president from 1977-79 and later became president of the SBC’s former Radio and Television Commission. He also is a former pastor of First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas.
Allen wrote a book about his family’s losses from AIDS titled, “Burden of a Secret: A Story of Truth and Mercy in the Face of AIDS,” published in 1995 by Moorings, a former imprint of The Ballantine Publishing Group, Random House, Inc.
In the PRNewswire release, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches describes itself as “the world’s largest organization serving the spiritual needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community.” It also states that “over 40% of the male congregants in many of their churches have died or are living with AIDS, including many of their clergy.”
In the evening of July 16, the UFMCC will honor Betty DeGeneres, mother of actress Ellen DeGeneres, with its “Edith Allen Perry award,” for a parent “who unconditionally loves their children,” as stated in the PRNewswire release. Ellen DeGeneres portrayed network TV’s first openly lesbian lead character in her former ABC sitcom, “Ellen.”
Also, actress June Lockhart “will be honored for speaking out for the rights of gays and lesbians dating back to 1970,” the PRNewswrite release stated.
The news release also noted that the UFMCC on July 11 dedicated its “$3.8 million, five-story world headquarters and new mother church at 8704-8714 Santa Monica Boulevard. Over 3,000 attended the opening ceremony which featured greetings from Zev Yaroslavsky, president of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, along with other community and religious leaders.”
The homosexual-oriented religious body, according to the PRNewswire release, was founded by Troy Perry in 1968 in his home in Huntington Park, Calif. “That same year, he performed the first same-sex marriage in the USA,” the news release said.
