by Claudia Windal

Created on: January 14, 2009

No church should teach that homosexuality is wrong. Countless Christians have been placed in conflict between the teaching of Christian churches and the discovery that they are homosexual. Imagine a young woman going out to a movie with several classmates. One of the males slips his arm around her in the theater and she realizes that she would rather be held by the other woman in their group! Imagine then, the emotions, the doubts, the questions and thoughts going through the young woman's mind. She asks herself if she might be gay and if this desire for another woman is wrong. If it is wrong, what should she do? Who in the world might she talk to about this? Will her parents disown her? Will God stop caring about her?

Both our sex and our sexuality are gifts from God and are ours at birth. Christian churches need to change their approach to the various manifestations of sexuality and focus instead on the need for love, respect, communication, and responsibility in relationships. These expectations are rooted in the gospels and are applicable for all manifestations of sexuality. To teach anything other than this is to demean, punish, and distance those who are homosexual from the church and possibly from God.

I believe that it's amazing that a large number of us who grew up with the church teaching that homosexuality is wrong, have survived and continue to embrace the Christ (let alone, still attend church). I accepted my homosexuality during my second year of seminary. Despite a small group of gay male students who supported me, I had no one else with whom to talk. The seminary barely tolerated gay men and the ordination of women was still controversial. The idea of a lesbian priest would certainly do nothing for me personally, spiritually, or vocationally.

Despite learning that my bishop was gay, I found that I could not share my sexual orientation with him. I told the priests who sponsored me for ordination several hours after I had been ordained. I don't think it was a surprise to them, but techincally, the didn't know and couldn't condemn me because of the "wrong" and "sinful" relationship in which I lived.

One of the most damnable things that Christian Churches can say to homosexual folks is, "Hate the sin but love the sinner." I have friends who simply walked away from much loved parishes after being told this. Jesus the Christ was about love. Sacred Scripture has no recorded words of Jesus condemning homosexuality (in fact, he did not ever mention homosexuality). The words of Jesus speak for themselves; we have no authority putting words in Jesus mouth or attempting to manipulate his words and teachings because we do not condone homosexuality.

Let Christian Churches stive to not reinvent Jesus and his message.

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