One More Victory!

Congratulations to my gay and lesbian friends, and the state of Illinois for becoming one more state that believes in equality!

Beyond Race and Religious Differences

Below you will find a video from a few years back entitled “Gays and God: Being LGBT and a Person of Faith.” This ecumenical discussion takes place at Harvard University in Boston, MA and is comprised of diverse cultures, races, and religious frameworks. It is pretty lengthy – the panel discussion begins about 10 minutes into the video. Listen closely.

“Gays and God: Being LGBT and a Person of Faith”

 

Homosexuality and Christianity

About a year ago I fearfully shared my journey as it concerns the subject of homosexuality. Though it is not my tendency to cower in fear and be silent when the occasion calls for speaking, I found myself hesitant. Here I am a year later and the core of my being is moved to a point where silence is no longer sustainable.

I didn’t wake up one day and decide that I want to care about Gay/Lesbian folks. I sincerely believe that what is happening in my heart is the moving of God within me. I care about people – period. I also hold a special place in my heart for groups of people who have historically been marginalized and even ridiculed from pulpits in churches. Preachers have proclaimed messages of “get right because it is wrong” without providing love and support and seeing the LGBTQ Community as human. We can do so much better!

The reality is that caring will cost me. On some level it is costing me now. By caring and being a voice I risk losing friends, having people who KNOW that I love God question my role and calling as a spiritual leader or pastor; I risk being misunderstood, rejected and encountering those who believe that the only role I have as a spiritual leader is to tell the LGBTQ Community that they are living in sin and need to be changed. I believe there is a better way to interact with the LGBTQ Community – some of whom are my Christian brothers and sisters.

Human sexuality and God’s view of it is not nearly as simplified as some lead others to believe. The Church’s silence is at times deafening and our shunning is destructive. I absolutely believe that we not only should, but can do better.

Recently, President Barak Obama gave voice to his affirmation that same-sex couples should be able to marry. Members of the LGBTQ Community rejoiced. Some members of the Christian Community were outraged,others agreed with him, and still others were silent (whether because of ignorance, fear, apathy or something else). Whether we believe homosexual practice is a sin or not is really not the point to harp on. At the heart of the matter is the issue of humanness, equal value and learning HOW to love people well.

I don’t have all of the answers, but what I do know is that we need to be open:

1. To authentically enter into people’s stories

2. Listen for the purpose of understanding (not to fix or convince of our perspective)

3. To thoroughly think through what we say we believe & why we believe it

4. To consider that whether right or left, Christian or not, Gay or Straight, we each are capable of being right or wrong

More to come on this subject in future days. In the meantime I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Out!

Photo Credit: Unknown

There are moments when you get tired of trying to be who everyone else expects you to be, confined to the prison of who they think they know you to be. There are moments when the religious beliefs you once held begin to evolve and shift and you are no longer able to simply believe certain teachings just because it is what you have always known and assumed to be accurate.

I am experiencing such a moment – I have been for the last few years. Do I still believe in God? Yes. Am I Christian? Also yes. Am I in opposition to the so called “gay agenda?” I used to be, but I am no longer. The more I learn, the more conversations I have with folks who identify as LGBTQ, and the more I grow in my love for people, the more I evolve and recognize that the “gay agenda” is a myth. Those who identify as Same Gender Loving people are no less human than anyone else, and they have just as much right to equality and freedom as those who identify as “straight.” Even more important is that the right to be loved unconditionally is not based on sexual orientation, but on our humanity and life given to us by our Creator.

I titled this post “Out,” not because I am LGBTQ, but because of an insatiable need to come out of the confines of theological and sociological constructs that imprison my thinking, and to be a voice of healing for some of the wounds that have been inflicted upon the LGBTQ community by faith-based institutions, primarily the Christian Church. They’ve messed up! I’ve messed up! We’ve messed up! There is a need to do better and to do right by ALL people.

Thinking and belief systems that place limitations on an entire segment of society benefit no one – we are not truly free until all of humanity experiences freedom. Attitudes that force us into a position of unwillingness to learn and grow, eventually lead to arrogance and injury.

Isn’t it time that we are able to have non-punitive discussions on the subject of sexuality and spirituality? I believe it is. The two are not in opposition to one another, they have inextricable links that coexist to make us whole beings. A few steps that can be taken in the direction of forward movement are:

1. Lose the “need” to be right and accept that others can also be right

2. Enter into each others stories so that we can understand and be sensitive to each others realities

3. Leave judgment at the door – it’s unnecessary baggage that only weighs others down

What are some other steps that can be taken in the journey towards social, sexual and spiritual progress?

 

 

Listening and Learning

The Christian community has only ever known one way to handle same-sex sexual behavior: take a stand and keep a distance. Productive dialogue comes from cognitive insight and can only be accomplished through an [embodied] posture of humility and living as a learner. – Andrew Marin