During Lent our Core team has been making themselves available following each worship service to talk about this very question. I felt it was time I shared with all of you why I believe it is time for us to truly become a reconciling congregation.
A while ago I led a study using Philip Gulley’s book, If God is Love. In this book Gulley writes: “I once found homosexuality abhorrent and the idea of same sex marriages outrageous. That was when I was convinced sexual orientation was a choice and homosexuality a perversion. This opinion was easy to maintain when I didn’t know any homosexuals, but impossible to retain when my prejudices were confronted with reality.”
There was a time when those words could easily have been my own. I don’t know that I necessarily thought homosexuality “abhorrent” but I did believe it to be “a sin”, something that wasn’t quite right. Over the years I’ve come a long way from that way of thinking and it has been partly a result of my ever-evolving understanding of God’s love but mostly it has been because of some very special friendships I have been blessed to enjoy.
One young woman in particular has helped me understand that one’s sexual orientation is simply part of one’s DNA, just as I happen to be left-handed while most other folks are right-handed. Now I realize you might not see this the same way and that’s okay. After all, it’s taken me a long time to reach this place!
This same woman I mentioned has over the years become one of my closest friends and is one of the most considerate and caring people I know. She lives her faith every moment of her life and probably much better than I do. How then can I ever think of her as somehow not being worthy of God’s love? I simply cannot.
What I can do is honor our friendship by continuing to advocate for the full inclusion of ALL people…not just in the church I am blessed to serve, but also in the world in which we ALL live together. That’s why I think it’s time.
Blessings,
Pastor Andy