What a difference a year makes. Time to come out!

I cannot believe it is over a year since I wrote on this blog!

I said in my last post I would say why it had been so long since I had written - & now it's even longer. The short version is our congregation voted to close the church. This was a painful decision and some of us are still feeling the effects. Without going into  detail, and certainly without blaming anyone we found we could no longer come under the denomination we had been under for some 15 years and we could not face going through what needs to be gone through to become an independent congregation. There were many factors and to cite any one of them would be unfair to all involved. I still work for the denomination in another role, I love the people I work with and love the pastors, leaders and all who are part of the denomination, all are delightful and gracious people. I understand where they come from and why; I spent most of my Christian life in that space. I appreciate their loyalty to God and each other and to me.

However, I came to the realization that to continue as a pastor within a denomination that states that homosexuality is a perversion meant that I would be called to speak and live without integrity. As a follower of Christ and a pastor (even if I no longer work officially in that role I still do this), I believe that my personal and public life must uphold the same values. I realized that my relationship with the the triune God showed me that God is far more gracious, far more loving, far more merciful and exceedingly more understanding that we think. I found due to my education doing a Masters of Divinity that the current interpretation of key scriptural verses used to 'gay bash' is a relatively recent interpretation. As theologians I find that we are expected to take a historical-critical exploration of scripture yet often we throw those findings out because they do not align with our current evangelical protestant theology, we disregard the phenomenological aspects of scripture when they don't align with our modern 'scientific' mentality and ignore scientific and sociological findings when they don't align with our limited ideas of God, humanity and creation. I am saddened by the way some Christians throw out critical thinking as they think it is a threat to faith and saddened by how many people throw out faith as they think it is a threat to critical thinking.

For me I found there is a threat if we employ critical thinking with our faith - we loose faith in our limited ways of doing church and find a deeper faith in God and discover ways to be church. It is a scary journey, for some deeply held beliefs have to go out the window because they are not based in relationship with God, not correct interpretation of scripture and have nothing to do with what Jesus actually said or did.

I know writing this will make some scream heretic if they read it. But that is what the Pharisees basically thought Jesus and his motley crew of disciples were, so I am in good company.

The Church has for the past 1700 years or so been preaching exclusivity - women, Jews, then black people, divorced people, and more recently gay, lesbian, transsexual people along with anyone who was otherwise unacceptable in their view; these were excluded from certain positions, told they were less than human, not acceptable to God unless they changed themselves. This was not what Jesus did, he said to excluded, the marginalized, the oppressed, as well as the ordinary men, women and children "come, follow me, be included in the abundant life of God". As for the religious people he constantly showed them how they missed the point, forgot the heart of the matter. That is part of what got him killed.

So I have come out!

I am an ally to my GLTB friends, family, children, and acquaintances. Christianity and sexuality are not at odds with each other - EVERY human being is made in the image of God whether we can see it or not. This means to treat anyone with disrespect is to disrespect God, to hate anyone is to hate God. Ironically it is also being disrespectful and hateful toward yourself.

May the Lord have mercy on us and may we begin to love each other unconditionally as God love us.