IT IS LONG PAST THE TIME

LOUIE CREW, founder of Integrity writes

It is long past the time that the church should abandon superstition about homosexuality and about lgbt persons.

SUPERSTITION
1. credulity regarding the supernatural.
2. an irrational fear of the unknown or mysterious.
3. misdirected reverence.
4. a practice, opinion, or religion based on these tendencies.
5. a widely held but unjustified idea of the effects or nature of a thing.

Concise Oxford Dictionary, 8th Ed., Copyright 1991 Oxford Univ. Press

1) God is not sitting in heaven waiting to see whether Ernest and I kiss or hold hands, nor should reasonable persons shudder in fear of divine retribution if they allow the Church to respect us.

2) It is irrational to believe that Ernest and I have mysterious powers that can destroy heterosexual marriage. Evidence shows that heterosexuals are imaginative enough to do that quite well on their own.

3) The church misdirects its reverence when it treats heterosexuality or even marriage, as an icon. Jesus never married, but spiked the wedding punch as his first recorded miracle. Only one of his 12 disciples had a named spouse. St. Paul counseled against marriage except as lust control. For over 1,000 years the church allowed only the lowly laity to marry, but not the clergy. It is a stupid abuse of power to deny lgbts access to the sacrament of marriage and then condemn those who do not maintain lasting relationships.

4) In the last two decades forces within the Anglican Communion have required condemnation of homosexuality as a communion-breaking, gospel-defining issue. Even if one considers homosexual behavior a sin, Jesus was always compassionate about sins of the flesh, but not about sins of the spirit -- pride, hypocrisy, legalism, judgmentalism.....

5) Some believe that tolerance of homosexuality has been the cause of the fall of many civilizations. When a tornado hit a tiny Georgia town where we lived, an Anglican bishop snorted in the Birchite paper, "Would one expect God to keep silent when homosexuals are tolerated?" What utter nonsense! If, like Lot, you throw your daughters to marauders, don't blame lgbt persons.

Superstition, especially when Scripture seems to endorse it, is sometimes practiced by otherwise reasonable and skilled people. On the HoBD list several well credentialed and otherwise competent Christians routinely insult lgbt colleagues and condemn us believing that God makes them do it.

There is a fool-proof cure for anti-lgbt superstition: Love your lgbt neighbor as you love yourself.