Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Another in a long line

I could write about the story that broke yesterday: Shane Windmeyer is the founder and executive director of Campus Pride, a gay activist group that has spearheaded a national campaign against Chick-fil-A for the millions of dollars it donated to pro-family organizations. Windmeyer’s work is deeply personal for him as he himself is a homosexual and “married” to another man. Last year, the owner of Chick-fil-a, Dan Cathy, reached out to Windmeyer. Nothing public. Just private conversations over the phone that led to several meetings and culminated in Cathy inviting Windmeyer to be his guest on the sideline at the recent Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
None of this was public until yesterday. Windmeyer revealed the unlikely friendship in a fascinating article for the Huffington Post. By Windmeyer’s own account, it’s clear that Cathy has been reaching out to him not as a publicity stunt or as a manipulative ploy.

But I won't. Not today. Today?

God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful. — Galatians 5:22 (CEV)

I could write about the story that broke yesterday: Leaders of two United Methodist agencies — United Methodist Men and United Methodist Board of Church and Society — welcomed news that the Boy Scouts of America is considering ending its decades-long ban on gay scouts and scout leaders. The proposed change would remove a national membership requirement dealing with sexual orientation and allow local charter organizations to decide. United Methodist Men promotes the use of scouting ministries and civic youth-serving agencies across the denomination. The Board of Church and Society advocates for the denomination’s social witness.

But I won't. Not today. Today?

God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful. — Galatians 5:22 (CEV)

I will simply say, without taking positions on any of the above other than what faithful readers will recognize as my positions I've taken in the past, that Jesus told us to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. When asked who their neighbor was, he told a story about a group of people who were looked down upon at the time of the telling of the story, and that group of people produced the hero of the story. In other words, all of us are our neighbors.

Seems to me if we keep that in the forefront, we're doing the Gospel. If people becoming friends despite their differences is news, we're missing the boat in some way.

The point of all this, I guess, is that daily there is news about our gay friends. I long for a time when stories about the love of Christians match the stories in the Gospels about the love of our creator. Maybe I'm looking at it all through glasses stained with Christ's blood, but I believe we can, really can, love each other. We, in my opinion, simply choose not to.

Am I perfect? No. A thousand times no. I admit it. I scream it to a forgiving heavens. That's all I can do. But in acknowledging my imperfections, I also reach out to the perfect one. I do not rewrite, or try to rewrite, that which names my imperfections. I'm a sinner in need of a savior. Thank God He sent one.

No comments: