Our church is going through a series from a book called "They Love Jesus But Not The Church". This book asks the church a few hard questions. These questions will cause your church to take a good look at themselves and maybe challenge themselves in the way they have presented themselves AND Jesus to their communities.
This week the question asked was "Is the church homophobic?" I remembered something that had happened to me awhile back.
About five years ago, I met a woman that really made me think about how the church treats members of the gay community. This woman came to me for assistance. She was a single woman in her late thirties. A little masculine in her appearance.
At the time the ministry I'm a part of had this questionnaire form that I was suppose to use at each interview. I did not like the form because I felt that is was intrusive. (I may have told you about this form before).
The thing I did like about the form was that I did get to know people better. One of the questions was "Do you attend church anywhere?"
When I asked this woman this question she said "no", she did not attend church and then proceeded to tell me why.
She said she was gay and not welcome in most churches. She had been treated with hostility in the past.
I told her my feelings. I told her that I knew what the Bible said about homosexuals, but it also said the greatest commandment was to "love the Lord with all of your heart" and then "Love your neighbor as yourself". I try to love people.
She told me the reason she was struggling with provisions was because she had a niece living with her that was a teenager and pregnant. I got the feeling that the young girl had been ostracized by her family and that her aunt took her in out of the goodness of her heart.
There it is!
The goodness of her heart!
This woman had a good heart. Her niece came in a few minutes later and you could see the love and appreciation in her eyes towards her aunt who was now struggling financially because she had opened her home to her. Months later, I would see them again, when the girl's baby was a toddler. The aunt was more of a grandma to this baby than a great aunt. And they were a very close family unit. You could feel the love when they were together.
And some in the church say "Gays are bad.....the church is good."
I'm confused. I have known more than one good church family who has thrown a teenage daughter out of the house and onto the street because she became pregnant and spoiled their "good Christian name".
I feel that this woman who is gay seemed to personify the character of Jesus more than those "good Christian" families who felt their names had been spoiled by a teenager's poor judgement.
Here's how I feel: it's time to look at these people who call themselves gay and spend some time with them. Get to know them. Most of them have good hearts and are deserving of our respect and the love that God has so freely shown us.
This is not about sin. Everyone sins. Gay people sin, good Christian families sin, priests sin...(oops...did I say that out loud?)
This is about loving and accepting human beings that were created, like you and me, in the image of Christ.
What do you think? Do you KNOW someone who is gay? What kind of impression have they left on you? How well do you know them? I'd love your opinion about this!
