I’ve heard Johnny Cash once said, “Being a Christian ain’t for sissies.” I’ve learned this is at least partially true, though in my experience, the quote would be better structured as this; “Being a Left-Wing Christian who endorses LGBTQ+ rights ain’t for sissies.” I made the decision to follow Jesus at a relatively young age, somewhere in Middle School/High School, since I had been Confirmed at Faith Lutheran Church in Bellingham, WA and Jesus’ message of love to all made sense to me. I didn’t realize, as I moved from Faith Lutheran to Bellingham Covenant and from High School to College, what the cost of Discipleship was.
It all began innocently enough, at least it was back in 2008. I had just read “The Shack,” where the message of loving your neighbor rather than condemning them was the central message, also, that you should show compassion to your enemies since you don’t know their story. Shortly after, one of my favorite singers, Miley Cyrus, tweeted her support for LGBTQ+ rights, saying, “God loves us all, gay or straight.” In 2009, I also saw The Laramie Project, a play about the lynching of a gay man in Wyoming. I watched helplessly as every Christian in this scene echoed the sentiment of “He got what he deserved” to various degrees.
I knew this was wrong, this was not the behavior God had called us to bring into the world. The idea that cold-blooded, hateful murder was justified was so at odds with Jesus that I decided to do all I could to drive this image, this message, from our world. With the message of love loud and clear, I decided to throw my hat in the LGBTQ+ ally ring. I didn’t realize at the time that I had just altered my life’s path and was now going to go down a route marked by loneliness, condemnation and cyberbullying.
Things seemed okay on this front for the first couple of years, most opposition seemed to be politicians or priests/pastors I didn’t know personally and had only heard of in the news. It wasn’t until I joined the early morning Men’s Group at Bellingham Covenant that my little, precious bubble would be shattered and showcase a pattern that has since become too familiar to me.
We were studying 1 Corinthians, a letter the Apostle Paul sent to Corinth, a city in Greece. Corinth was effectively the “Las Vegas” of its time, a place where people did what they wanted, when they wanted. It wasn’t uncommon for men to have sexual relations with multiple partners, both men and women, Greece was a hypersexual hotbed of people pleasuring each other. This, unfortunately, has led people to believe this letter condemns the LGBTQ+ community, specifically Chapter 6, where Paul lists various groups of people who will not inherit God’s kingdom and that it’s possible to be changed from these groups. However, I’ve been told the word Paul used that is often translated as “Sodomites” is literally “man-bed.” Giving the sexual activity in Corinth at the time, it’s more probable Paul was referencing sleeping with soldiers at war when you already have a wife or older philosophers seeking young men for pleasure. What is also noteworthy is that Paul says the behavior can be shrugged off. No LGBTQ+ person CHOOSES to be that way, it’s ingrained in them before birth.
However, when we got near this Chapter, the other men tore into the community. “I’m leaving this Church if we ever accept a gay couple!” one said. I was the lone voice of dissent. A week later, two of the men brought me to one of their friends, because it’s written “if three of you gather in My name, I will be there.” They proceeded to eviscerate me verbally, turning to the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and Leviticus 20:13, a verse behind so much hate, I have memorized it. “If a man lies with a man as he does a woman, they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them.” Any attempts for reasoning or finding a calming point were useless, I was yelled at, effectively called “Biblically illiterate” and a fool who was defending a community of drug addicts, “if it were natural, they wouldn’t be using drugs to numb the pain!” I have sense read a theory that drug use in the LGBTQ+ community is because they have to put up with this hatred just for being themselves. Honestly, I’ve been exposed to this level of anger so often, I’ve sometimes wished I had Marijuana or Cocaine to try to forget it all in an artificial euphoria.
There was some hope, still. My Dad, my Uncle Jon and his daughter Lauren encouraged me to not give up and keep fighting. I stopped going to that men’s group, but wasn’t the same at that Church, feeling like I had to act “cured” around those three and be careful what I said at all times. There would soon come more tensions, ultimately making me decide to leave it for Garden Street United Methodist, but that’s a story for later.
Very well said Daniel. Thank you for sharing your feelings.
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