I believe that before we can begin to bless our persecutors we really
need to understand what they are saying and also exactly what is
reported in Scripture of God's requirements for all people. Basically
our persecutors would have us believe that our sexuality is not a
God-given gift, but a perversion of what they consider to be the only
right and proper sexual expression, viz. heterosexuality. Because of
our refusal to deny this part of our nature, we are considered to be
sinning, and therefore not able to access the gifts of God or claim a
relationship with Christ. To back up their arguments they quote
portions of the purity laws given to the early tribal Israel, and also
the words of Paul, an apostle, yet one who was schooled as a rabbi, and
therefore whose opinions were based on his narrow experience within the
Jewish culture, and whose words have been taken out of context and used
to brand us as abominations.
Perhaps we could start our search through Scripture with the lectionary
reading for 9th September - Deuteronomy 30: 15-20: "See, I set before
you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you
today to love the Lord your God, to walk in God's ways and keep God's
commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the
Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are
drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you
this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long
in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day
I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before
you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you
and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God,
listen to his voice, and hold fast to him."
It seems very clear that all people are commanded to love God, walk in
God's ways, and keep God's commands, decrees and laws. For those who
choose to turn away from God the curse is there, such will be
destroyed. What are God's ways, decrees and laws, so that we may hear
what God desires of all people? Jesus, God incarnate, just as clearly
defined what God expects from us. In Matthew 22 verses 36 to 40 his
words are reported: "Master, what are we to consider the Law's greatest
commandment?" Jesus answered him, "'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind.' This
is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'Thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' The whole of the Law and the
Prophets depends on these two commandments."
In John 14 verses 15ff we find Jesus expounding to his friends and
disciples this love, linking it with a promise. "If you really love me,
you will keep the commandments I have given to you and I shall ask the
Father to give you someone else to stand by you, to be with you always.
I mean the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, for it can
neither see nor recognize that Spirit." In verses 20 and 21 he
continues: "When that day comes, you will realize that I am in my
Father, that you are in me, and I am in you. Every person who knows my
commandments and obeys them is a person who really loves me, and every
person who really loves me will themselves be loved by my Father, and I
too will love that person and make myself known to them."
In The New Testament In Modern English, translated by J.B. Phillips
(author of Your God Is Too Small etc.) we discover the fifteenth chapter
of Luke's Gospel commences with the sentence "Now all the tax collectors
and "outsiders" were crowding around to hear what he had to say."
Perhaps this sentence appeals to me because I see the GLBT community as
the "outsiders" who have been denied our rightful place in our churches
and our society by those who would condemn and judge us. Even today we
may be found, despite what our detractors claim, "crowding around to
hear what he had to say". Why? Because we are assured that we are
included in those in whose hearts Christ has come to dwell. We are
loved by God incarnate, who continues to make himself known to ALL who
believe in him and keep his commandments.
Do we keep Christ's commandment to love God and to love and serve our
fellow humans? Do our detractors, or are they so convinced of their own
self-righteousness that they fit the claim by Jesus that there is more
joy over one sinner whose heart is changed than over ninety-nine
righteous people who have no need for repentance? Let us share the
words of the prophet in Amos Chapter 8 Verse 4: "Hear this, you who
trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land" ... To those who
deny our Christian experience we could reply, "Our needs and our
spiritual hunger continue to be invalidated by you, unless we accede to
your demands that we deny our God-given sexuality." For some people
spirituality can be defined as access to God. This involves the removal
of all humanly constructed barriers, so opening up the door to God's
living presence to us.
When we hear voices of those who condemn us I wonder do we consider the
following questions:
Let's look at what forms this persecution has taken. Primarily our
relationship with God is denied. Our place in churches and many other
organizations is denied. Barriers are erected which are designed to
prevent us claiming our places as true daughters and sons of God and
co-heirs with Christ. On flimsy grounds, no more reasoned than the
arguments offered to support the continuance of apartheid and slavery,
and on Bible texts quoted without reference to new scholarship but based
on tradition rather than God's laws, we have been condemned. We have
been isolated, tortured, killed and disgraced, all in the name of
Christianity, whose roots and basis are love.
What has this persecution done to us as individuals and as a community?
Many in the GLBT communities equate Christianity with pain, prejudice
and persecution, and turn their backs on the source of all love and
light, Jesus the Christ. For those of us whose experience with Jesus
has been intimate and ongoing, the persecution we have known has caused
us to rethink our faith. We have needed to strip away any archaic
cliches and get to the bare bones of our interaction with Jesus, with
his commandments, his promises and his infilling. When churches have
denied us our place we have needed to develop scholarship techniques of
our own so that we may delve more deeply not only into Scripture but
also the recorded experiences of others who have grown through trials.
We begin to bond more closely one with another as we share our spiritual
experiences. In fact we begin to exemplify that loving that Jesus
commanded of all who choose to follow him.
A rare example of this concerned loving can be found in the January 2001
edition of "Let's Talk": - "When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot
down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to protect it.
They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then they
launch out with another formation to catch up with the rest of the
flock. If we have as much sense as geese we will stand by each other in
difficult times, as well as when we are strong." To those glbt
Christians whose relationship with Jesus is an ongoing, moment-by-moment
experience, caring for each other, financially, physically, emotionally
and spiritually is simply part of daily life. They have been so loved
by God that their loving is not contained within any boundaries for it
knows no limits.
In all of this where does the command, to love even those who persecute
us, fit? If we are honest, we will admit that through the trials caused
by the attitudes and beliefs of our tormentors, we have grown much
closer to God and to each other. As Daniel knew, even in the most fiery
of all furnaces there we find God standing firmly with us. Just as the
angels shut the mouths of the lions who would devour the young princes
of Israel, so God's angels stand between our eternal souls and all the
attacks that are made upon us. Should we condemn or hate these people
for providing us with opportunities which we can use to receive
blessings as we have been drawn even closer to God, and have found
incredible strength in our relationship with our Creator? Should be
want to strike out at people who by their attitude have caused God's
love to spill from our lives so that it illuminates the paths of those
around us?
I believe that herein lies our capacity to bless, for since we have
found God's blessings poured out upon our lives as we recognized God as
our source of all, we cannot withhold sharing these blessings with our
detractors. These people have been the means by which God has refined
our lives so that we may be perfected reflections of Christ's love. Let
us not be distracted by the words they use, nor focus on their
accusations. Instead let us be ever mindful of the two commandments
Jesus gave to all those who would follow him, that we love God and one
another, so we may be found to be among those who truly belong to
Jesus. May we continue to lift up our persecutors into God's presence
and bless them. We truly want these people to know the deep, sustaining
love of God that we experience. They have driven us by words and blows
into the sheep-fold, and we have found Christ waiting there for us.
When were we ever asked about our Christian experience?
Have they ever paused to dialogue with us?
On what grounds is it argued that we cannot be GLBT and have an ongoing
relationship with God if these people have never heard of our daily walk
with God?
All Rights Reserved
Back To The Table of Contents
Visit the Whosoever Bookstore
Or search Amazon.com for books related to GLBT people and Christianity.
Other Articles By Rev. Vera I. Bourne:
Also In This Issue:
Speak No Evil:
A Look at James 4:11-12
