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A rather unusual event recently took place in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Fort Washington, Md. Several ministers of black churches met with members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community -- and formally apologized for what the organizers described as the church's judgmental attitude toward individuals who experience same-sex attraction and their loved ones.
Although a sincere apology is often the first step to restoring a fractured relationship, our culture has made public apologies into a performance art, characterized by carefully scripted PR creations and only token acknowledgments of actually having done wrong.
It was with this skepticism that I attended the forum at Carolina Missionary Baptist Church on Feb. 19, billed as an opportunity for people to express their thoughts and feelings in a safe environment. Anthony E. Moore, pastor of Carolina, moderated the dialogue and stated up front that the forum was not intended to be one in which the church took a theological position on homosexuality. My pastor, Keith Battle, attended on behalf of Zion Church, and other sponsoring churches included Pilgrim Baptist Church in D.C. and New Vision Church in Bowie, Md.
When I arrived, someone was recounting what it has been like to be born a man while feeling, and ultimately living, like a woman. The speaker explained that she turned to prostitution and drugs after experiencing rejection from members of her family and church. She said that eventually she came back to church, committed her life to Christ and started to translate her pain into purpose.
There were similar stories throughout the two-hour forum, all with one common theme: The church, the one place that should represent the epitome of love, was often the most uncaring and unsafe place for these individuals when they were at their most vulnerable. Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks, the openly gay pastor of Inner Light Ministries, a nondenominational church in Washington, bluntly declared that "the most dangerous place for a gay and lesbian person is the black church."
Attitudes are bad but judgement is good. We must speak the truth in love. It is far better to be judged now than later. This is exactly what the writer missed and what made the article so sad to me.
Attitudes are bad but judgement is good. We must speak the truth in love. It is far better to be judged now than later. This is exactly what the writer missed and what made the article so sad to me.
Perhaps you should go back and read the Bible. Specifically the passage where Jesus tells people to "Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged". If you have trouble finding the pericope, please let me know. I will post the reference and the EXACT text in English, Hebrew, Greek and whatever other language you might be capable of reading.
That's amazing. I actually went to one of the churches listed a few times. They didn't get that I was gay--they just thought I was a guy. But I'm glad to know they are making steps to mend past wounds.
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