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.<\/p>\n
A while ago I led a study using Philip Gulley\u2019s book, If God is Love<\/i>. In this book Gulley writes: \u201cI 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\u2019t know any homosexuals, but impossible to retain when my prejudices were confronted with reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a time when those words could easily have been my own. I don\u2019t know that I necessarily thought homosexuality \u201cabhorrent\u201d but I did believe it to be \u201ca sin\u201d, something that wasn\u2019t quite right. Over the years I\u2019ve come a long way from that way of thinking and it has been partly a result of my ever-evolving understanding of God\u2019s love but mostly it has been because of some very special friendships I have been blessed to enjoy.<\/p>\n
One young woman in particular has helped me understand that one\u2019s sexual orientation is simply part of one\u2019s 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\u2019s okay. After all, it\u2019s taken me a long time to reach this place!<\/p>\n
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\u2019s love? I simply cannot.<\/p>\n
What I can do is honor our friendship by continuing to advocate for the full inclusion of ALL people\u2026not just in the church I am blessed to serve, but also in the world in which we ALL live together. That\u2019s why I think it\u2019s time.<\/p>\n
Blessings,<\/p>\n
Pastor Andy<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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