When I went to my parents house for respite from work during winter break (as well as celebrate the proverbial day of the Lord's coming to earth), my sister ended up bringing up an article she had read for class regarding homosexuality, which I might add resulted in me storming off to my room in disgust and indignation. You can read the article for yourself here(online PDF file). From her description, I was expecting a very harsh criticism of Christianity while extolling the virtues of homosexuality. I opened up the article and immediately opened a second window in my browser to Facebook notes so that I could record my thoughts and refutations. By the third page of the article, I had stopped taking notes and saved them as a draft.
The article was almost exactly opposite of what I was expecting. Sure, it defends gays and lesbians as human beings, as citizens of society, and as beneficial contributors to the human race. It also struck down a lot of nonsensical arguments people throw up to try to suggest that the heterosexual populace has a reason to discriminate, qualify, or segregate the GLBTQ community from the rest of society. At no time did I find the article deceitful, misrepresenting any group I am a part of, or even so much as attacking Christianity. Instead, it was a logical argument with sound structure and had wonderful format for citation of outside sources supporting claims made in the article. In effect, this article puts to rest a lot of fears and irrational concerns that people may have concerning homosexuality and the GLBTQ community (hence the title of this entry).
BUT HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN!
Yeah, so is lying, stealing; neglecting the orphans, widows, and poor yet I don't see churches protesting those things even though their existence is (in the case of lying and stealing) destroying society while the orphans, widows, and poor are a sign that our society is already broken somehow. Pointing out that homosexuality is a sin does nothing to open communication between the Church and the GLBTQ community, nor does adamantly maintaining that belief that it is wrong demonstrate moral integrity. I can insist that the sky is purple even while staring up at a clear blue sky, but that does not speak to my moral integrity; it simply says that I'm consistently wrong.
The fact that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been used to slander and ostracize a subset of the human race is both appalling and revolting. We are supposed to be Come-Just-As-You-Are people teaching and preaching the gospel as it is. It is not our job to decide who is qualified to come and assess whether their "progress" is adequate, that is the job of God alone. The problem is that the damage has already been done by fore-bearers of the faith. We may not intend to slander and ostracize gays and lesbians, but we have inherited flawed tools for being the ambassadors of Christ. These flawed tools were not given to us by Christ himself, but by humans who came before us; flawed and imperfect. Therefore, if we truly want to rebuild and restore the relationship between ourselves and the GLBTQ we have to throw down the flawed tools and invent new and unique ways of having fellowship with them. To do that, we must be patient, understanding, and above all else- loving.
The GLBTQ community is not going away. We have only two courses of action: be obstinate and continue to drive the wedge between our two groups or establish and elevate the conversation beyond the question of whether homosexuality is a sin or not.
For further reading, I strongly suggest Love Is An Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community by Andrew Marin.
Peace that surpasses all understanding,
James
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