MCC churches in North Texas have put slogans like these on billboards in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Which has annoyed the hell out of Bible-believing Christianists. But perhaps it will make some people stop and examine what it is they really believe, and consider whether their thinking is consistent and compassionate, which is always a good thing.
Would Jesus discriminate?Your Head Trucker spent many years reading and studying and researching the Scriptures on this point, looking desperately for a loophole, a window of hope that God loved me too. And that search will run you crazy - and I do mean crazy - after a while. Because that Bible was written down by straight men to serve their purposes and their view of the world and of God.
The early church welcomed a gay man.
Jesus affirmed a gay couple.
Ruth loved Naomi as Adam loved Eve.
David loved Jonathan more than women.
I don't have time today to go into all this deep subject. And I don't want to step on anybody's toes, who have found a way to interpret the awful homophobic passages differently. But it is true beyond any doubt that Jesus himself is not recorded as saying anything at all about same-sex love, one way or another.
And after many years of trying to reconcile the truths I was taught in church with the truth within me - the goodness and rightness of my own identity and feelings and nature - I finally came to realize that God, if God exists, is much bigger than the Church. And much bigger than the Bible.
I haven't renounced my belief in Christ; I'm an Episcopalian-on-hold as I've explained before. But to make a short conclusion, here's where I am now: God is above all things and beyond all things; yet God is also very small and very close. God is that light of goodness and peace inside you and me and everyone; anyone can be in touch with it, you don't need creeds and scriptures and rituals to find it, and you don't have to go searching in some holy place.
It's already there inside you; and in a certain sense, you are the holy place yourself, the temple, as it were, of spirit. And so am I, and so is every man and woman, though we can blind ourselves from perceiving it.
And that inner light is God, and God is Love. It's important to pay attention to it, and not just our feelings and thoughts and bodies: it's part of those things, but something else too. More than that I can't say. But that helps me.
What helps you?
