As
I’ve often contended, there are two venues in which civil and sacramental
rights for LGBT people must be fought: the courts, and homophobic churches the
influence of which cannot be underestimated. In the latter venue, peaceful and
continual picketing during services of selected homophobic churches in each
city or jurisdiction, showing how their false gospel of exclusion is
antithetical to the Gospel of grace, faith, peace, reconciliation, and
inclusiveness, should be undertaken.
When
you hit, or threaten to hit, discriminatory institutions in the pocketbook, we
might reasonably expect them to tone down their hateful rhetoric and
discriminatory actions; withholding funds, such as removing churches’
tax-exempt status, can be a major way of gutting the homophobic rhetoric and
actions that exists in many, if not most, denominations and churches, because
those churches would then lack sufficient funds to bankroll the prevention of
equal civil rights as has hitherto existed. For the Roman Catholic Church and the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to give just two examples, to
enjoy tax exempt status is, in my opinion, a profound injustice!
I am
a Christian who is quite theologically conservative, and not only don’t I see
any warrant to prevent same-sex marriage, or justify any type of homophobia, in
the Bible, I am also adamant about the need for the separation of Church and
State.
Currently,
the Church and the State have become so enmeshed with each other that most
“conservative” churches extol as virtues Americanism, patriotism, militarism,
and capitalism. Indeed, most of the institutional Church is a handmaiden of the
State, and often parrots the ideology of the power elite in secular society,
and does so by calling it “biblical.”
Of
course, nothing could be further from the truth! If anything, the Bible,
particularly in the New Testament, subscribes to anything but capitalism, as
can be easily seen when reading Acts 2:44-45; Acts 4:32-37.
In
any case, it’s a profound tragedy that it’s quite likely that if you ask the
average person to say the first word that comes to his/her mind when the word
“Christian” is said, “Love” is not likely to be that word! We’re far more
likely to hear words such as “sin” and “discrimination,” thanks to the
perversion of the Gospel of grace (the only Gospel to be found in Christianity)
that exists in most of the institutional Church.
It
is crucial that discrimination, be it in the religious or secular arena, be
taken to the judiciary, and not pathetically taken to the public to win their
votes on this or any civil rights matter! And, we must do our best to remove
public funding of church and para-church organizations.
After all,
if clergy within denominations and churches really have faith in God to provide
for their needs, they don’t need tax-exemption to help fund their operation!
2 comments:
Jerry, one reason I believe that TGLB people reject God and the bible is because of the alignment of the church and state. The middle ages are a testament to that. Hating groups of people while calling oneslf a 'Christian reeks of hypocrisy.
Hi genevieve: It seems that increasing numbers of younger people are rejecting churches, largely because of many churches' rabid homophobia. Just like with Slavery and Segregation, the White churches were about the last institutions to accept integration, as they now are with LGBT people's civil and sacramental rights and full equality. Best wishes, Jerry.
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