God Hates Raves

Here's an interesting cultural conflict. St. Johns Episcopal Church in San Francisco is torn by a controversy over the Divine Rhythm Society, a group of ravers who have been using church facilities for a while. The conflict pits the ravers, who are largely younger and straight, against the traditional parishioners, who are largely older and gay, demonstrating how frequently members of the city's large gay community end up on the more conservative side of various controversies (to a degree I think would be surprising to anybody who lives in a place where the gay community isn't a social or political force). But the best comment comes from Rev. Kevin Pearson, who has obviously been reading up on Rick Strassman's DMT: The Spirit Molecule: "We use entheogens to reach for God, not to get high."

Comments

[D. Miner]

The SF Chronicle article wrongly portrays this as between old and young, gay and straight. There are members of the rave group in their sixties and seventies, and the group's founder is gay. Many of the people opposing drug use in the church are in their late twenties and early thirties and include straight married folk, gays, and lesbians. The two main issues dividing the church are the poor pastoral performance of the pastor (not visiting a man dying of AIDS when requested, for example) and the use of illegal drugs on church premises (one known overdose on the premises during a rave).