Ten Things I Wish More People Knew About the Church

This morning as I sat fiddling on Facebook, unwinding after a long overnight shift, I ran across this picture in my newsfeed, posted by a friend. Now, I've seen dozens of these kinds of things over the last few years, and I generally ignore them. But for some reason today, I felt compelled to respond.

Maybe it's because the author bills this list as "Ten Things I Wish the Church Knew..." Which Church is that? The one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church? The Church that includes dear friends of mine who also happen to be gay or lesbian? The Church that a friend of mine stuck it out in, even through the years when he couldn't be officially rostered because he was in a committed same-sex relationship? The same Church that now recognizes both his gifts for ministry AND the gift of the publicly accountable relationship he and his partner share?

Maybe it's the Church full of little old blue-haired Lutheran ladies, in the backwoods of Minnesota, who told me, in effect, that they didn't think the Jesus they knew would cast anybody out of the Church?

Maybe it's the church full of fumbling, bumbling, stumbling sinners and saints that regularly breaks my heart but has also quite literally saved my life?

I don't know, but for whatever reason, I felt compelled to share this list, which I'm calling, "Ten Things I Wish More People Knew About the Church":

1) We're not all the same.

2) A lot of us actively support completely equal rights for all human beings, including the full inclusion of members of the LGBTQ community.

3) This support can be found among both the clergy and the laity, at the personal, congregational and denominational level in many denominations.

4) This support has cost us dearly. Many of us have been called apostates, heretics and worse, and have people we love dearly who will no longer speak to us, because of this support.

5) Many of our denominations have hemorrhaged members, congregations and funds over the last decade because we even dared to raise the question of the place of gay and lesbian people in the family of God.

6) We have taken this stand of conscience anyway, not because we see any possible benefit to ourselves, our congregations or our denominations, but because we believe with all our hearts it is simply the right thing to do.

7) To say that "it is no longer your personal view when you're bothering someone else with it" seems to imply that it is okay for the church to speak out publicly on questions of social justice as long as we agree with you. But then, the people who disagree with you would say the same thing. Should the church then fall silent? I think Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Corrie Ten Boom, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Theresa, Father Greg Boyle and thousands of other faithful Christian witnesses who laid it all on the line to fight injustice and suffering in the world would beg to differ. I know I do.

8) Lots of us don't make the Leviticus argument, either for or against. The issue is a lot deeper for a lot of genuinely honest, thoughtful, non-closed-minded and non-bigoted people that you think. Talk to some, and you might see what I mean.

9) Tarring and feathering all Christians because some are homophobic is really not much different than what some Christians do in lambasting all members of the LGBTQ community because some members of that community engage in sexual behavior that is risky and hurtful (and would be equally risky and hurtful if it were engaged in by heterosexuals).

10) Prejudice is prejudice, and it's wrong no matter who holds it. When Jesus forbade judging, that included you, too.