Then last Tuesday happened. I got argumentative...I got righteously indignant...it happens from time to time. (Though quite frequently as of late)
It is so difficult for me to be passionate, to love the things I believe in wholeheartedly and feel sure that they have some value to the world, and also be gracious towards others. I don't know exactly why it is that way, perhaps it is that ideas sometimes become such a part of my identity that I feel an urge to defend them. Or maybe I just get self-esteem from "feeling" right. I don't know, but I think about it a lot and hope to grow in that area.
Another fellow, who I have confidence is a caring, compassionate person, and I had some disagreement about the gay/lesbian thing. It's (in my opinion) an argument we just shouldn't be stuck on in the church, and I feel like it hurts people and pushes them away from God. For the record, I tend towards the side of thinking there is nothing wrong with loving whoever you want to love. How you love people seems like more of an issue worth wrestling with than who you can and cannot love. But I know a lot of really loving people who have been so kind and gracious with me who are absolutely certain that being gay or lesbian is just plain wrong, and I don't think I'll ever convince them otherwise. It's like a litmus test thing with some folks (myself included, I tend to get pretty judgmental with people who think there is something morally wrong with "gay thing," its a convoluted mess of judgmentalism). But I've been thinking this week that maybe the conversation about what is and is not sinful is the wrong conversation. Especially when I looked back through the Gospels, and realized Jesus virtually never gives a straight answer to anything. He does tell stories that change our perspective on those issues though. So, I put my thinking cap on and starting working on my own modern day parable. And so, for your consideration, the tale of the Gay Life-saver (credit to the Good Samaritan for inspiration).
In Five Points, on a certain night, there was a waiter walking to his car after a busy night serving food to hungry patrons. On his way through an alley, a group of men ambushed and robbed the waiter, and beat him savagely, leaving him badly bruised with no shortage of broken bones.
Now a minister and his family happened to be leaving a local church after a late evening worship service, and saw the waiter lying in the street. The minister wanted to help, but he was afraid to bring a stranger into his van with his wife and kids. So the family went on their way, praying some compassionate person would help the man.
Not long after this, a member of another church was leaving a long and difficult budget meeting, which he had been chairing as he was a prominent leader in his congregation. He saw the waiter in the street, but was so tired and mentally exhausted that he told himself "surely someone else will help." So he passed by, careful to avoid looking at the waiter, as this might have made him uncomfortable.
A few minutes passed by when a local artist and his long-term boyfriend passed by after leaving a local art show. Though they were carrying thousands of dollars of the artist's work, they were so moved by the plight of the waiter that they immediately dropped everything to help. The artist put the man in his own car, and drove him to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he found out that the man had no health insurance. The artist told the attending doctor to put him down as the responsible party, and send him a bill for whatever care was needed. He and his boyfriend left the hospital, after making sure the waiter's needs were being attended to. Until he was discharged, they visited every day to see how he was doing and keep him company.
Now, I ask you, who was righteous when it mattered most?
This is fantastic, Phil. I'm serious. Really made me think. Not necessarily because I was against gays, but really putting into perspective a stigmatized group doing the right thing. Really, good job.
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