Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love one another and love our neighbors as ourselves. This is an important lesson when thinking about the role of our faith communities in ending the violence, fear, discrimination and rejection that many LGBT people experience. It’s in this spirit that we are pleased to launch our latest resource, “A Christian Conversation Guide: Creating Safe and Inclusive Spaces for People who are LGBT.” Focused on Christian congregations, this guide provides practical suggestions for building safe and inclusive faith communities and congregations. Included in the guide is a step-by-step conversation guide for small group discussions on the health and well-being of LGBT people; a list of actions faith communities can immediately take in their congregation and communities; as well as a comprehensive glossary of useful terms when talking about sexual orientation and gender identity.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of humanity that a “conversation guide” like this is necessary. The good news is that we appear to have finally evolved to a point where at least discussing the idea of treating the LGBT community as full and equal partners is on the table. That’s real progress, because just a few short years ago, same-sex marriage was almost universally illegal from coast to coast. Now 70% of Americans live in states where marriage equality is the law, and that percentage will only grow as courts increasingly determine that there’s no “same-sex” marriage or “traditional” marriage, there’s only marriage- no qualifiers, no divisions.
Homophobia isn’t a tenet of Christianity; it’s something introduced into the Christian faith tradition by haters and bigots who intermingled their fears and prejudice into their teachings of the Gospel. Over the years, hatred of gays became an accepted (if unChristian) part of Christianity. Today many socially conservative Christians unquestioningly accept that Jesus hated gays, therefore they have the right- nay, the obligation- to ensure that the LGBT community was treated like the aggregation of sinful Sodomites they are. Except that’s not was Jesus preached. Not at all.
Contrary to what haters on the Far Right preach, there is no Homosexual Agenda. There’s no army of militant gays whose sole goal in life is to convert our children to the fabulous gay lifestyle. Sexuality is a small part of who we are as humans; set “the gay” aside, and what you’ll find is that “they” want the same things out of life we heterosexuals do- to be left alone to live their lives as they choose.
This isn’t to say that Conservatives don’t have the right to feel as they do, but where they err is in assuming that their convictions afford them the right to make the rules everyone must live by. They have a very simple choice before them- if they oppose same-sex marriage, don’t marry someone of the same sex. Problem solved, eh? But that’s where they authority ends. Despite what they may think, haters don’t have the right to define marriage to fit their prejudice.
Perhaps if fewer people concerned themselves with how others live and love, this world be a better and more harmonious place. I can only hope I live long enough to see a world in which there aren’t “gay” people or “straight” people, there are only people. Wouldn’t that be something?
Of course, one would have to wonder who Christians would find to hate in order to allow themselves to feel like superior beings.
