If My Son Is Going To Hell, Then So Am I

As a parent myself, I cannot comprehend those who abandon their child when they discover that the child is LGBT I simply cannot understand how one could be so warped to do such a thing. I was fortunate and my parents never wavered in supporting me for a moment - which is one of the reasons why I established a scholarship in their memory and in honor of Hampton Roads Business OutReach (see the link on the right column of this blog). Queerty has a heartfelt column written by a woman with a gay brother and a slightly effeminate, possibly gay,son. Here columns demonstrate how anti-gay religious based bigotry is driving more and more individuals from the institutional church and religion in general. Here are some column excerpts:

I used to like going to church. My entire youth and early 20s was spent at church. I was there once, often twice a week, learning how to be a good Christian, playing broom hockey, taking gently worn shoes to kids in Mexico, singing “My God is an Awesome God” by the campfire and turning Bible verses into SNL-worthy skits.

But, then there’s that not-so-little matter of my religion not accepting members from the LGBT community. It’s a community that I live with and may be raising.

The other night, as I lay in bed thinking about religion, God and C.J, it came to me. If C.J. is going to hell, then I am too.

In Leviticus, not too far from the whole a-man-should-not-lay-with-another-man verse is a verse about not tattooing your body. I guess that tattooing verse wasn’t for real, but the same sex verse is super for real. . . . if there is leniency on some of God’s laws, but not all, I’d just like a breakdown of what we are taking seriously and what we aren’t.

I often think to myself, “God doesn’t make mistakes.” My gay brother is not a mistake. My gender-creative son is not a mistake. A friend sent me a verse from Psalms that says that “God knitted us in our mother’s womb.” I like that. God knitted C.J. (with rainbow-glitter yarn) in my womb.

My son is a miracle, knitted by God. If Jesus died on the cross for people’s sins, he died for C.J.’s sins too. I’m demanding it. . . . . I wonder how God and his followers could hate the person my sweet redheaded jokester may grow up to be.

I truly feel this woman's pain. Pain so needlessly caused by religious based bigotry based on chosen ignorance and hatred.

Bigots/Hypocrites at Apostles Lutheran Church Vote to Leave ELCA

I have previously written about St. John's Lutheran Church in Roanoke, Virginia, which is moving towards leaving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ("ELCA") over the issue of partnered gay clergy. These folks insist on blindly literally applying a handful of Bible passages construed to condemn modern day same sex relationships while ignoring a host of other Bible passages which, if applied literally, would disturb their self-centered little lives. Now the hypocrisy and bigotry has moved closer to home as Apostles Lutheran Church in neighboring Chesapeake, Virginia (pictured above - Pharisee in chief, Pastor John Dooley is also pictured), has voted to leave the ELCA. I can only wonder if these modern day Pharisees allow divorced members in the congregation, wear blended fabric clothing and violate countless other Bible provisions which if applied literally would make life difficult. As I have stated over and over, if the Bible must be construed literally as the anti-gay bigots contend, then they must apply ALL of the Bible in the same manner. Otherwise they are hypocrites and modern day Pharisees - it's really that simple. Sadly, new stories fail to confront this issue and demand an explanation of the selectivity of what these people decide to apply literally to harm others. Does it cross the minds of these anti-gay bigots how history will perceive them as equivalents of the Southern Baptists who broke from the national church so that they could maintain slavery? Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Apostles Lutheran Church voted Sunday to quit the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America after the denomination's approval of co-habitation for gay clergy. The Chesapeake church's separation reflected its members' belief that the ELCA was increasingly moving away from Scripture as the standard for church life, said the Rev. John Dooley, senior pastor. The vote was 65-8. Apostles has nearly 400 members.
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Dooley said Apostles, at 370 Johnstown Road, was the first of the 15 ELCA churches in South Hampton Roads to leave since the denomination's national assembly acted. For years, gay ordination and same-sex relationships have been a hot-button topic in the ELCA, as well as the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church.
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Apostles has joined Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ. The group has 249 congregations, many formerly in the ELCA. Apostles is the only member church in Virginia. It could be joined by St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Roanoke, which has scheduled a January vote on leaving the ELCA.

Minneapolis Church Votes to Leave ELCA

UPDATED: This afternoon I had the occasion to talk with an ELCA pastor about the parishes voting to leave the ELCA because of it recent vote to accept partnered gay clergy. This pastor was saddened by such moves and agreed with me that the intellectual dishonesty of those who seek to literally apply arguably anti-gay Bible passages while ignoring many more Bible dictates was appalling. Indeed hypocritical. The other things that this pastor pointed out were (1) that 90% of ELCA parishes will feel zero impact from this move since no parish can be forced to accept a partnered gay pastor and (2) by leaving the ELCA or withholding money from the national church body, the main punishment falls on mission work and other worthy charitable work. Thus those "punished" are not even those with whom the homophobes are upset.

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Roanoke, Virginia, apparently does not have a monopoly on modern day Pharisees within the Evangelical Lutheran Church - now an ELCA parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota has voted to split from the national church over the recent vote to allow partnered gay clergy and to give recognition and ministry to committed same sex relationships. As I have asked in prior posts, are the good members of St. Paul Lutheran Church applying the same literal biblical application to all other passages in the Bible as they say should apply to anti-gay passages? I suspect we know that answer - of course not, only the gays get special mandatory literal application of a few Bible passages. I suspect St. Paul's has any number of divorced and remarried members and that countless other Bible passages are ignored when found to be inconvenient for the heterosexual members of the parish. In short, the homophobes at St. Paul's are hypocrites and bigots like the ones at St. John's in Roanoke. Here are some highlights:

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A Minneapolis church is just the third in the nation to vote to leave the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In a bold move over the weekend, St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church of Minneapolis voted overwhelmingly to leave the ELCA in protest over last month's vote to allow the ordination of gay clergy members who are not celibate. It was the first of two votes required to make the move.

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We're profoundly saddened by this. We really didn't want to leave a denomination we've been a part of and various predecessor bodies for 130 years," said Pastor Roland Wells. Pastor Wells said 96 percent of his congregation voted to split from the ELCA.

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So far that church in Minneapolis is one of only three in the country to begin the process of leaving the ELCA. The other two are in Arizona and Virginia.

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It is always easier to hang on to one's bigotry than to open one's mind and consider that past ways of thinking were in error. Some people just seem to have the need to have someone to look down on and condemn to stroke their own egos and sense of self-righteous. History will not be kind to St. Paul's when the day comes when their action makes them akin to segregationists of the 1960's.