"For the Bible Told Him So"

I do not have time to be irate, shocked, appalled, or mobilized into "blogificating" about anything today! I've got piles of my own work next to piles of covering-for-my-vacationing-colleagues work -- sitting right next to the piles of getting-colleagues-ready-to-GO-on-vacation work. And a sermon for Sunday.

But then I got this email. And it was entitled, "Did you see this?"

So of course I opened it.

<---- And here's what I saw. OMG

Bilerico blogged the story yesterday ... and The New Civil Rights Movement blogged on it here today ... and included this YouTube clip of the guy -- Larry Adams -- who made the sign for a NOM rally in Indianapolis:



There you have it. He "used to be confused." But now he's not. And now that the Bible cleared it up for him, he has a solution to "the problem."

OMG

The Courage Campaign is doing a great job of tracking the NOM "tour" and I applaud all the activists out there with their signs and cameras and videos capturing what's going on.

But as I looked over the posts ... the comments ... the photos and the videos, I couldn't help thinking: Where is the church? Where's the organized outrage of people of faith watching their Holy Scriptures exploited as weapons of mass disinformation? Where's the witness to the congregations, clergy and people who support gay and lesbian couples -- celebrate their love -- bless their relationships -- lobby for their equality?

I know where some of them are. They're over posting on the Episcopal HoB/D (House of Bishops & Deputies) listserve going back and forth about what it means to "love the sinner but hate the sin."

Yes, really.

The last time I checked there were 26 posts on the topic. And while that compelling dialogue consumes (once again) leaders in the Episcopal Church, the message LGBT people are getting through the media ... the blogs ... the signs at the rallies and the interviews on YouTube ... is that the Bible tells people to kill them -- not that it tells them that Jesus loves them.

No wonder Jesus wept.

So here's my advice to my Episcopal colleagues in Christ: Give It A Rest. We are a people of God who managed to figure out how to be both catholic and protestant in the 16th century -- we can certainly figure out how to be both gay and straight in the 21st century.

And while we're figuring it out, let's spend more time worrying about those strangers at the gate yearning for a spiritual home and not knowing the "welcome" sign includes them and less time having the same arguments with the usual suspects -- who we know we have as much chance changing their mind as they do ours.

If we sit silent while the Larry Adams of the world speak for Jesus then shame on us. Shame on us.