Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 October 2010 13:44:16
I'm off to Dundee next week to do a talk to a LGBT group up there. Should be interesting. I happened to mention it on FB (as I would, being the sort to update their status way too often). Anyway a friend came back suggesting that my status was about sex and that you see is too often the problem with LGBT stuff, particularly when Christians are thinking about it. It is not about sex.
I conclude my talk by saying, "Be aware you matter and have choices. Your journey will be unique to you, as all spiritual and life journeys are. God loves you as you are and wants what is best for you individually and as part of his body here on earth. He loved you enough to die and rise again for you, he made you in his image and he knows you totally.
Whether you are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, straight or whatever God loves you totally....he did not make a mistake in making you! Part of how he made humans was by giving them a free will, that means you have the choice of whether to go to church or not, whether to remain in the same church or not, how to use the sexual orientation he has given you. God is a relational God of love who wants you to be safe, and fulfilled and using all the gifts he has given you to the greatest good. That applies whether you are a Christian or not, whether you are gay, straight, lesbian, trans or questioning."
This safety thing I think is important, as is the fact it all transcends being an LGBT issue. Most of you will be aware there have been a spate of gay teen suicides in the US. This Huffington Post article gives some details and includes a really good You Tube clip about it getting better. The two young men in the article talk about how they have been accepted and loved by families of strong faith.
The fact is both straight and gay kids are getting bullied and cyber-bullied...often because of messages which come to children and teenagers in crude form from the adult world.
Sarah Silverman in this You Tube, (which does contain strong language), makes the point about where kids are getting the anti-gay messages from, but equally we could consider where they are getting size and other messages from. One of the choices we have is to start promoting positive messages and messages of hope to our young people. I know many churches choose not to identify as "affirming" or "inclusive" because they are worried about the message they will be sending, particularly to other Christians and churches who don't see the world as they do or because of worries about whether this will be a sign of "wrong theology". The fact is that it is often what we don't say which sends out a message to0.
In addition to what we say what we sing can send out messages aswell. One of my favourite Christian songs is All Are Welcome by Marty Haugen, which sends out exactly the right messages to people about church and God's love. That's the final You Tube clip I'll leave you with.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM6xbW1DZyM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMBywWSpUeU[/youtube]