Cries against homophobia
Submitted by Heather on August 20 1999 at 11:14:17
In reply to On being inflammatory Submitted by Jimf3 on August 20 1999 at 08:17:49
|
Boy, do I know the experience of feeling like a lone voice shouting on the boards – I can empathize. :) Perhaps we could go about this in a more positive manner; instead of the threads revolving around denunciatiations of the homophobia of individual members, perhaps we at CBF could all discuss positive ways for Christians to fight homophobia. I know we've had such discussions in the past concerning pedophobia. Just remember that this board is slow – except when you're posting, of course. :) As for the links, would you care to point me to any pro-gay organization that isn't dominated by gays? :) The Webmaster of that site is in fact a heterosexual pro-gay activist, deeply involved in the Presbyterian debates; he got involved in Bridges Across through Maggie Heinemann, who is also a heterosexual pro-gay activist, and Christian to boot. The Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance – the major site for information on pro-gay Christianity – is run by four Webmasters; the Christian Webmaster is heterosexual. And then there are the conservative Christians who are sickened by homophobia; they ought to be less quiet than they are. Heather [A speech by Tony Campolo, a Baptist minister who opposes homosexual behavior] There was a boy in my high school, named Roger. It's not really his name. I'm just giving him the name Roger. We knew he was gay and the day he was most at pain was the day of gym because after we played some games we had to go into the shower and he would never go into the shower with us. When we left the shower, we took our wet towels and would sting his body by whipping the towels at him. As we walked past Roger we would whip the towels at Roger and sting him and we thought it was great fun to see this queer dance under our taunts. We thought it was fun to work on him. I wasn't there the day they shoved him into the corner of the shower and 5 guys urinated all over him. But that night Roger went home and went into his garage and he hung himself. So all of us had guilt that I did not speak up and actually was part of those who hurt, who contributed to the death of a young man. And you say, you're a terrible person, I wonder how many of us, by words, by deeds, even without being aware of it have said things that have created pain and suffering. I'm appalled at the Christian community, just appalled. I see leading evangelists selling these, this tape called the Gay Agenda. I don't know how many of you have seen that. It's sold hundreds of thousands of copies and made huge amounts of money for evangelists who drive Mercedes Benz. They bother me. Because they show the gay community doing obscene things in San Francisco, horrible parades, masturbating in public, doing filthy things and they say, "This is what the gay community is really like. Don't be deceived. Those people that want to teach in your high schools, that want to live in your community. This is what they are really like when you're not watching them." I resent that for a very obvious reason. I wouldn't want anybody going down to Mardi Gras and filming the filthy behavior that goes on in New Orleans on Mardi Gras and saying, this is what Tony Campolo is like. This is what the heterosexual community is like. I would resent that. And that we sit back and let filth like that be perpetrated and that the anger and the hatred that those things create and all of it comes from the church. That's what scares me. It comes from the church. I don't know what we're else about, but we are not to be about creating hatred toward the Rogers of this world, whatever our views are. And I am a conservative on this issue. I believe that same gender sexual intercourse, I don't know how many times I have to say it to get it clear, that's not what is at issue here. What is at trial here is not homosexuality. What's at trial here is the church of Jesus Christ. Let me tell you one more story. I have a friend. He pastored a church up in Brooklyn. It was a dying community, a place w here everything was disintegrating. He kept himself fed and clothes and his family cared for by, by doing odd jobs, one of which was doing funerals for the local undertaker when nobody else would take them. The man was a saint and he didn't know it so I would call him and get great stories because he never used them. And I would always say, Jim, anything good happen that I can tell, any good story that, anything happen this week? He'd always say no. "What about Tuesday at 11 o'clock? What were you doing then?" "Oh," he said, "that was fascinating. The undertaker called me early in the morning because he had a man to bury who had died of AIDS and nobody wanted to take the funeral so I ended up taking the funeral." I said, "What was it like? He said, "About 25 homosexual men came and sat there. Never once, Tony, did they ever look up at me. The whole time I spoke their heads were down and they were looking at the floor. Never once did they ever make eye contact with me all during the funeral. We went out and got in some cars and we followed the hearse out to the cemetery, lowered the body into the grave. I stood on one side of the grave. These 25 some homosexual men on the other side. Standing there like statues, neither looking to the right or to the left, looking straight out into infinity. Never budging just sitting there, standing there rigid like statues. I read some scripture. I said some prayers. I committed the body to the grave. I said the benediction and I started to move – walk away, but they didn't move. They stood there as though frozen so I, I came back and I said, 'Excuse me, is there anything else I can do?' "And one of the men said, 'Yes. I never go to church. Used to go to church but I don't go to church. The only thing I really liked about church was when they read from the Bible, especially the King James. I like the King James. You didn't read the 23rd psalm. I thought they always read that at funerals. Could you read the 23rd Psalm?'" Jim opened the Bible and read the 23rd Psalm. Another man said, "There's a passage in the 3rd chapter of John about being born again. I like that passage." John read that. Then a third man said, "The 8th chapter of Romans, right at the end, that's what keeps me going." And Jim read to these homosexual men. "Neither height nor depth, neither principalities nor powers, neither things present, nor things to come, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing. And when he told me that, I hurt, I hurt, because I knew that these men wanted to hear the Bible but would never step foot inside a church because they are convinced that church people despise them. And do you know why they think church people despise them? Because church people despise them. I am not approving of homosexual behavior. I am disapproving of a church that has forgotten how to love people that Jesus will never stop loving. And if you don't like it, join another club but don't call yourself a member of the church of Jesus Christ for we are the community of lovers and we love all kinds of people with all kinds of sin and that's your good fortune and mine too, for where would we be without such a church. And I want it to be the church that Christ wants it to be. We are concerned because in this political climate there are politicians who are playing on the homophobia of people. They're tapping our deepest feelings and they're gleaning votes by playing on our hatreds and our fears. Perfect love casteth out fear. We can't let it go on. We've got to stand up. We've got to say, we have differences of opinion. I'm conservative on this issue. [My wife] is not where I am on this issue. We both hold to the word of God. We're not going to get divorced but here we stand together. We will not allow others to take away the rights and the dignities of human beings. We just won't let you do it. That's why when these referendums come up in state after state aft er state, we think that the Roman Catholic bishops were right when they said, we do not approve of this form of behavior but we will not allow anyone to take the rights away from those who are citizens of this country. Because I want to tell you something, after you say you can't live in my community, after you've said you can't teach in my school, after you've said you can't go to my church and after you've said you can't come to my college, after you've said all of this stuff – don't think for one moment it's going to wash when you smile that plastic smile that I see in the Christian community and say, "But we love you in the name of Jesus." You cannot exercise hatred and discrimination and talk about love in the same breath without coming across as a sheer hypocrite. So take your choice. Take your stand and be bold for Christ and say this, that whether we agree or do not agree on this issue, we will not allow discrimination and hatred and meanness to be directed at people who did not choose their identity, number one, and cannot choose to get out of an orientation as simply as those evangelists who preach so blithely suggest. We've just seen too many people hurt and we've just experienced too many people who have suffered. |