Another New Neighbor

Apparently our neighbor has been dying to meet me since he moved in next door. So much so that he has invited himself over for coffee this morning. This should prove interesting.

I’m not exactly sure what to expect from someone so aggressive about meeting us because we are “family.” To clarify, he’s also gay. Now, when I think of family, I think of, you know, my family and really close friends, not random strangers who share the same sexual orientation I do. The term may make more sense where gays are ostracized and hidden code is necessary to ensure one’s safety, but here in the Pacific Northwest? Not so much. From what my husband has told me, he’s from San Francisco, arguably the gayest city of them all. I don’t know. Maybe they have a close-knit community or something, but here we just sort of blend in to the rest of society. Hopefully he won’t be clingy and get all stereotypical on us.

Pinterest Comment Wars

Apparently leaving a comment on a pin that you Like can lead an entirely new adventure. This adventure will henceforth be known as The Pinterest Comment Wars.

Clicking through Pinterest (http://pinterest.com) the other day, an online pin board like one would use when trying to plan a party menu or decorate a home by tearing out recipes or ideas from magazines and putting them together, I clicked that I liked a certain pin I found humorous. I left a comment because the few other comments seemed a bit ignorant and didn’t think anything of it. Within a day, it was war.

Argument after counterargument over Biblical interpretation, Hebrew and Greek words that have been grossly mistranslated, and responses that didn’t actually respond to the previous comments ensued. It was exhilarating. I love debating and I’m glad I got to do it with a couple of people who write well so I didn’t have to translate their words. I don’t agree with their answers or their logic that it’s okay for them to pick and choose which parts of the Bible to continue to follow while at the same time proclaiming the whole works as the word of God, but in the end we all agreed that we would never change each others positions and thanked each other for the conversation. A few minutes later, the original pinner deleted the pin, which made me sad because I felt we had all opened up a subject well worth studying.

The Unification of Church and Gay

The rash of recent suicides from bullied teens who either were gay or perceived to be such has pretty much made it obvious that we need to have an LGBTQ support group at our church. Hopefully sometime in the next couple weeks we’ll be able to make that happen.

Yesterday, my partner talked with our church’s social justice cheerleader (a nickname given to her by our pastor) about getting together this week to discuss what we can do to start up a group within our church. While PFLAG is a great option, we feel that our church should have a group for members and visitors. But what the goal of this group will be I’m uncertain, hence, the reason we are going to have a meeting. Most of the time when you hear of churches discussing the issues around homosexuality, it is primarily focused on “saving” them or trying to convert them to the heterosexual lifestyle. Our church is focused on welcoming everybody, regardless of who you are.

About ten years ago I wrote an article about the origins of homophobia, most of which stemmed from religion, and the fact that the basis for this hatred was off of mistranslated words. Further research led me to believe that even taking what is currently accepted as a suitable English translation from the original Hebrew and Greek, still doesn’t warrant the kind of outrage and bigotry associated with the Religious “Right’s” attack on homosexuality unless they also attack menstruating women, children who refuse to be prostitutes because their parents told them to be, or anyone who wears a cotton/polyester blend shirt. Go ahead and read Leviticus… it’s fun. I just find it interesting that there weren’t any words for homosexual in the Old Testament and the two words used in the New Testament, “pornea” and “akatharsia” (which translate as fornicate and uncleanness) have nothing to do with homosexuality. And mind you, this wasn’t for a lack of words in the Greek language to describe gays, because there were roughly 45-50 different words to choose from at the time the New Testament was written.

I think it is time for some healing to begin. I think it is time for churches to realize that marginalizing a minority will only alienate them from mainstream society. But not only that, marginalizing any human being sets a precedent that intolerance, hatred and bullying are accepted, which as a Christian, goes against the core values of the faith. I think it is time for so many churches who have used their platform to spread hate to turn it around and spread love instead. Seriously people, what would Jesus do?


The Vancouver United Church of Christ website:

http://www.vanucc.org/

Pride

While working the Portland Pride booth for the United Church of Christ Central Pacific Conference yesterday there were quite a few surprised people to see so many churches there, not in protest but in support of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered & queer) community. The most often question we got was, “How does that work?” Something tells me we should’ve prepared for this.

I guess that the difficult part for people to understand is that our church is not a gay church, we simply hold the belief that all people are welcome to come as they are, who they are, and wherever they are on life’s journey. Trying to explain that the church we belong to is mostly gray haired grandparents and that they are the most welcoming, friendly people you could ever ask to meet also seems to surprise people. But the biggest part is that so many of these individuals are where we were before finding this church… skeptical of the agenda. Of course, once we finally went to a Sunday worship service we instantly knew there was no hidden agenda, just a friendly congregation of a diverse group of people.

Getting back to the question, “How does that work?” I find that it is best to address the roots of most churches bigotry about the unknown and unfamiliar, which is that we are all human and humans make mistakes. If that doesn’t work I always go back to the original arguments I’ve held for years is that people tend to pick and choose which parts of the bible they want to believe. For the old argument that homosexuality is a sin because it says so in the bible, first I explain the translational errors that easily occur and if that doesn’t work ask them if they eat lobster, play football or wear cotton/polyester blends because some of those are punishable by death in that same book (Leviticus.) For those who urge legislators to vote against equal rights for marriage because it will lead to incest and polygamy, I again refer them to the same bible, which quite plainly encourages both. After all, if it wasn’t for incest how else would the human population have grown? I mean, Adam and Eve were the first humans and Cain had to have kids with somebody and while the bible doesn’t supply the answer it is arguably his sister he procreated with because that’s all that would’ve been available… or his mother. I usually let them decide which they’d prefer.

So, how does that work? Jesus. The gospels show that Jesus didn’t turn anyone away, and as a Christian church wouldn’t it make sense to follow the teachings and examples of Christ? Yes, this stance makes us an outcast in the wider church world, but we have a saying in the UCC that God is still speaking. It doesn’t make sense to us that God just stopped talking two thousand years ago because that is when the last books to the bible were written. We also don’t claim to know all the answers. We welcome opportunities for inter-faith discussions. We celebrate diversity in all its forms because in doing so we celebrate God’s creation and evolution of those creations. We are a place where anyone can feel like they’ve come home.