Winning Some and Losing Some on a Summer Afternoon

This is my last week of vacation -- I go back to work next Monday after a lovely long time off with travel, family time and lots of R&R at home. Yesterday I got bit by the writing bug and decided to use some of my leisure time to dust off a piece I've posted before ... Top Ten Questions about Jesus, The Bible and LGBT People ... and update it for the current election cycle.

I posted it over on the Huffington Post -- you can read it here -- and then got back to the "To Do On Vacation" list. Now, the piece is hardly "going viral" ... but I knew it must be garnering some readership when I started getting hate mail ... from both rabid anti-LGBT Christians who accuse me of leading people to the Lake of Fire and from rabid atheists who are sure they'll change my mind if they point out that the Bible has inconsistencies.

Then there was this. I just went to check my email between loads of laundry (Item #7 on Today's Gay Agenda) and found these two emails quite literally back to back in my inbox.

Aloha Rev. Susan:

I just read your post on the Huffington Post site about the "10 questions...." Your answers and understanding are so clear and easily understood that I would like to share them with my members/friends/allies in our weekly newsletter.

I am currently pastor of Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church on the Big Island of Hawaii. We are a small community with a big heart. While I recognize that most of those who will read the newsletter already have some of the information you so clearly state, it is such a blessing to have it all laid out in such a logical and useful form. Prayers that you will be able to continue shining your light of compassion and understanding.

Love and blessings,
Rev. Dr. William H. Knight

And:

To Susan Russell,

Where do I start? You so casually dismiss plain biblical teachings to validate your sinful life. 2 Peter 2 talks about the depravity of false teachers, speaking of evil things that they don't even understand. Those who have a heart trained in covetousness, and are accursed children, carousing in their own deceptions, those who have forsaken the right way. These Peter says are wells without water. You Susan if you don't repent will perish in your own corruption. You stated that Jesus never said anything about the homosexual. Well He did in fact do so in Matt 19:5f when He said, "have you not read, He who made them in the beginning made them male and female and for this reason a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, together being one flesh." This is the sexual relationship that Jesus taught. But lets remember, or don't you believe that all of the writers of the Bible were inspired of God, they didn't write what they wanted to, they were directed by God Himself. Does 1 Corinthians 6 mean nothing? You are twisting scripture to your own destruction. Teaching the doctrines of demons. It's clear, the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Unless they repent and are washed. The saddest part of this is, how many souls will be lost because of what you teach?

May God grant you the time to repent. 

Jeff Richardson
Aurora, MO.

As my friend and mentor Liz used to say all the time, "You win some and you lose some ... but you always dress out!"

And anybody who is tempted to think for a nanosecond that the work of dismantling the homophobia that infects the church and afflicts the world is even close to over just drop me a text, tweet or email and I'll be happy to give you a little reality check on why we keep dressing out. Seriously.

More later. Cheers!