Repentance for sin is a fundamentally important issue in the Christian faith. We are all called, generally and collectively, to repent for our sins. From time to time, I get a very direct and personal challenge in a comment here at QTC, to repent for my own sin, the one that (allegedly) cries out to heaven: the sin of homosexuality.
I do not deny that, like everyone else, I am a sinner, and admit it regularly, in every Mass, “I have sinned through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”. I’m not going to get into full confessional mode here, and announce the details of my sin, but I will declare what is not included – “homosexuality”. Loving a man is not sinful, but hatred is. This is why, when I am challenged on-line for my supposed sin of homosexuality, I sometimes remind my challengers that homophobia is a sin, for which repentance is due.
Last year Symon Hill, a British man who had previously been a prominent religious campaigner against homosexuality, made a very public contrition, and embarked on a march or repentance to atone for that sin. Along the way, he stopped at numerous churches along his route, preaching not against homosexuality, but against homophobia. He is far from alone.
In the US, Kathy Baldock, who describes herself as “a straight Evangelical Christian walking a path with my God and striving to follow the examples of Jesus”, is passionate about making atonement for this sin. She is heavily involved in promoting dialogue between church and LGBT communities, and keeps an informative and active blogsite / e-zine on the subject (“Canyonwalker“). One of her innovative activities is to attend Gay Pride Parades, publicly offering “Straight apologies”. This is how it began, some time before SF Pride, 2008.
I could picture an idea and needed to make it work. Once at home, I searched my dresser for a white tee shirt , got out some blotter stamps and went to work on the tee shirt.
I spelled out “Hurt by Church? Get a Straight Apology Here” on both sides, big. Big enough to be read at a distance. And big enough to make me feel completely exposed in a crowd. No hiding in crowd on this one.I go to SF Pride each year to be with and work with my GLBT brothers and sisters at FIC (her local church). I help at a water booth they staff at Pride on Saturday and in information booth on Sunday. But, mostly I walk around wearing my tee shirt and feeling more naked than the truly naked people. There are quite a few folks who have no clothes on or no tops or wear only very skimpy clothes. But, try strolling with the “Jesus bulls eye” on your front and back. This Jesus, the One who many think is the driver behind the anti-gay nastiness that has been hurled at the gay community. Even I get tempted to cover up my shirt in crowds.
Kathy Baldock, with t-shirt
Scary, yes, but she has continued to offer her apologies at gay pride parades, right around the country. (She also sells the t-shirts, to spread the message further).
It’s beginning to seem that apologies are springing up everywhere. Last week, we had one from Cardinal George. Since then, I havecome across two written apologies, from columnists at the Huffington Post.
John Shore is a straight married journalist, who has written several books about Christianity, and also writes specifically about Christianity and LGBTQ people at LGBTQNation, Dan Savage Dan Savage has called John ”America’s preeminent non-douchey Christian.” In his piece at Huffpost, he describes a dream, in which he is standing in a vast church, and at the lectern finds a parchment, carrying the words:
To All Gay Persons:
We write you from down upon our knees, our hearts so filled with contrition they are like stones whose weight we cannot bear.
For a grievously long time we have treated gay people in a way that we now understand brings nothing but shame upon the God we purport to emulate. With bilious fury have we systematically maligned, denigrated, condemned, cursed, shamed, and bullied you literally to death.
For no reason beyond animal ignorance we have tried to obliterate you: to rob you of your identity, crush your self-worth, destroy your hopes, turn you against yourself. We have harnessed our almost unimaginable power to bring to you the singular, unceasing message that God finds you reprehensible.
Shamefully, we have turned the way you love into the way we hate.
And for that we now know that it is we, and not you, who deserve hell.
-read the rest at An Open Letter from Christians to Gay People
Last month, the African American writer and blogger Monique Ruffin wrote at Huffpost that Gay is the New Black, in which she reflected on the contradiction she saw in her own family and local congregation between the assumption that homosexuality was inherently sinful, and the people that she knew, and came to know were gay (including her uncle, and some of the people leading the church services).
Last week, she posted a follow-up piece, in which she reported on countless personal conversations on the subject she has had with Christians since. Many people have assured her, she says, that “I love gay people, I just don’t approve of their lifestyles.” She counters this argument by pointing out that gay people should not need the “approval” of Christians.
To say that Christians don’t approve of a gay person’s lifestyle is to assume that approval is desired or required in order for a person to be gay. When did love have to start asking for approval? Love, by its very nature, is an expression of allowing and acceptance, not approval or control. To love is to allow, surrender, and trust. Today I speak for the little girl I was growing up in church, reading the Bible, loving Jesus, and being taught to disapprove of people due to their sexual orientation or sinful lifestyles. Has it occurred to any Christians that the high rate of suicide and depression among gay teens might be influenced by an experience of disapproval?
She recounts some of the advances made recently in the secular world, and laments that too often, the response from church people is the reverse of the clear command of scripture, to love. And so she concludes, with a strong statement of personal solidarity with the LGBT struggle for full inclusion and equality:
I simply stand to say I will no longer participate in the dehumanization of gay people. I will be silent no longer. My silence, and yours, regarding the mistreatment of gay people, is the problem. And the solutions are spiritual. They lie in our willingness to take responsibility for our treatment of, and beliefs and feelings about, gay people — and all people. We are responsible for our thoughts, projections, and actions toward others. When I hear someone like Ms. O’Donnell pleading for an end to hatred, when I witness her vulnerability and pain, I ask myself, “How have I contributed to her suffering?” And when I witness the self-righteousness of a Rick Perry, I look within for my participation in this denial of the value of all people. In our churches we might begin questioning the validity of scripture and how it influences our relationships. If Jesus the Christ is our greatest example of love and life, it’s time we begin asking ourselves, “How did Jesus transcend all manner of hatred? How did he love? How did he live?”
Read the rest at Occupy Christian Oppression
These four individuals mentioned, Symon Hill, Kathy Baldock, John Shore and Monique Ruffin, are part of a much broader process that we as queer Christians should be aware of, and give thanks for. Biblical scholars (evangelical as well as those of more “liberal” background are finding that the old assumptions that scripture teaches against same sex relationships are unsound. Many straight theologians, from all denominations, are following their queer colleagues in arguing for new thinking. Some denominations now provide for the ordination of openly gay or lesbian, partnered pastors and bishops, others are preparing to do so. Without fuss or publicity, many same-sex couples are finding that they are able to be married in church, or to hold a service of blessing for a civil union. And just like the four examples I quoted, there are numerous straight allies appearing in all denominations, in all regions of the world.
A common thread running through many of the specific instances, is that straight changes of heart begin when they are able to contrast the abstract messages they hear about “homosexuals”, with the real w0rld examples of living, breathing people in their own families and congregations – just as Monique Ruffin did. The lesson for us as queer Christians is clear: to enable this change of heart, we must ensure that our straight colleagues in church are able to meet and interact with real, sane queer Christians, in church.
It can be a scary prospect, to come out in Church, where we have encountered or expect to encounter hostility, but we must do it – as far as we are able.
Related articles
- Christian Walk of Repentance, for Past Homophobia.
- Evangelical Ally: Kathy Baldock, “Canyonwalker”
- New Books Explore Homosexuality and the Church
- Queer Inclusion in Church: Evangelicals Ask, “What Would Jesus Do?”
- The Decline of Religion Based Homophobia.
- Beyond 10-A: The Wellbeing of LGBT Persons In Our Church (mlp.org)
- Prominent “Ex-Gay” Leader Tells Truth about Conversion Therapy: Doesn’t Work, Perverts the Gospel (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- A Christmas Message of Hope . . . from Uganda (thewildreed.blogspot.com)
- African Religious Leaders Standing Against Anti-Gay Oppression: Naomi Abraham Reports (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
