They aren't really concerned about Gay rights, they are concerned about trying to survive social change in a society which is more and more accepting Gays.
I am a happy gay man who is also a priest of the Episcopal Church. There have been many days that I wanted to run away from a very defective and hateful version of Christianity that, as a Baptist youth, I had to tolerate or be punished in the most severe way. I thank God I found the Episcopal Church as a young man, a church which in many places welcomes us, marries us, and ordains us as deacons, priests, and rarely and sadly, as bishops. Our former Presiding Bishop talked a good game about love, but somehow that meant almost never choosing gay men and women as bishops. It was and remains a bridge too far for even those among us who identify as “liberal.” Unfortunately
Texas - and many other places - do not accept us, and I doubt they ever will. One of my sisters lives there and despite her claims of being Christian, her hate is obvious. For that and her support of the hideous man we call president, I had to dismiss her from my life. Many of us have had to do the same to preserve our sanity and our identity as fully and completely made in the image of God, a God who loves all despite what the church may say. We have misused, abused and killed millions of people for thousands of years, yet a small light of love still shines. Perhaps it is our vocation to be a thorn in the side of the church to constantly remind them how far they are from the all inclusive love of Jesus.
I stay in the church because I firmly believe in the power of Jesus to love everyone and change the world. If our God does, we must. The passages you cite in the Bible are, more and more, dismissed as artifacts of a distant and largely irrelevant age. For that I give thanks.
I feel you overstate your case, but that is probably necessary as the dangerous times we live in. We will be the next group Donnie and his minions come after. They will happily put us in the concentration camps that are now active in southern Florida destroying both innocent people and a beautiful environment. Self proclaimed Christians- the vice president for example- have wrought this terror. They are unapologetic in their hate all the while proclaim their quite insincere “love” of Jesus. It sickens me.
I know that we must fight with love if we are to triumph over the cruel forces of patriarchal heteronormativity. Hate will not win the day.
I pray a blessing upon your vitally important work.
I am a happy gay man who is also a priest of the Episcopal Church. There have been many days that I wanted to run away from a very defective and hateful version of Christianity that, as a Baptist youth, I had to tolerate or be punished in the most severe way. I thank God I found the Episcopal Church as a young man, a church which in many places welcomes us, marries us, and ordains us as deacons, priests, and rarely and sadly, as bishops. Our former Presiding Bishop talked a good game about love, but somehow that meant almost never choosing gay men and women as bishops. It was and remains a bridge too far for even those among us who identify as “liberal.” Unfortunately
Texas - and many other places - do not accept us, and I doubt they ever will. One of my sisters lives there and despite her claims of being Christian, her hate is obvious. For that and her support of the hideous man we call president, I had to dismiss her from my life. Many of us have had to do the same to preserve our sanity and our identity as fully and completely made in the image of God, a God who loves all despite what the church may say. We have misused, abused and killed millions of people for thousands of years, yet a small light of love still shines. Perhaps it is our vocation to be a thorn in the side of the church to constantly remind them how far they are from the all inclusive love of Jesus.
I stay in the church because I firmly believe in the power of Jesus to love everyone and change the world. If our God does, we must. The passages you cite in the Bible are, more and more, dismissed as artifacts of a distant and largely irrelevant age. For that I give thanks.
I feel you overstate your case, but that is probably necessary as the dangerous times we live in. We will be the next group Donnie and his minions come after. They will happily put us in the concentration camps that are now active in southern Florida destroying both innocent people and a beautiful environment. Self proclaimed Christians- the vice president for example- have wrought this terror. They are unapologetic in their hate all the while proclaim their quite insincere “love” of Jesus. It sickens me.
I know that we must fight with love if we are to triumph over the cruel forces of patriarchal heteronormativity. Hate will not win the day.
I pray a blessing upon your vitally important work.