On judging others...

"This is a difficult topic, Maxwell, and I have some questions, as well as, some thoughts. Okay?        
Say you have two people who are in love with one another and want to get married. They want to make a commitment to love, honor, and cherish one another. They want to share in a covenant of love and faithfulness with one another. And they dearly want God and their community to be their witnesses in this celebration. Both of these people are Christians, and to the best of their abilities, they each love God with all their heart, soul, body, and strength. And the fruit of this love for God is shown in their love for their neighbors as they do what they can to feed and clothe the poor, help the orphans and the widows, stand up for the downtrodden, and be a voice of love and reason against any injustice. These acts of kindness are for the neighbors they know and for the neighbors they don’t know. All in all, it would seem, any church in America would welcome these people, who willingly love God and walk out their faith by loving others, to be joined in matrimony…

as long as they were heterosexual.

So here are my questions, Maxwell. Why does it matter to the “church” if these two people are heterosexual or homosexual?

In light of the above description of this couple, why does it matter if they are a man and a woman, two men, or two women?

And if perchance, one or both of the homosexual people in this relationship wants to be ordained, how is that a bad thing?

I mean, they love God, they love their neighbor, and they desire to be in a committed and covenant relationship with one another. Are not all of those things desirous in a pastor or, for that matter, in a human being?

I hear your heart, Maxwell, and Father Gene’s, too, in saying, “there is only us, and we are all a mess."

I, too, stand with you in regards to this. God knows that other than Jesus, there are no perfect people.

However, I find in my church community of choice, I also stand on the outside of the church looking in.

I stand on the outside of a marriage covenant.

I stand, holding in the balance, either betraying the traditions of the church or betraying myself.

I find that in the diversities of these weights and balances, what really matters to me are three things:

loving God and being loved by God,
loving my neighbor -  no matter what,
and loving another soul and being loved by them.

In the scope of eternity, I ask you, what else matters?"


The above quote is a comment I posted on a Facebook thread many years prior to marriage equality. The topic is still relevant today in regard to gays and lesbians being accepted within ministry in most denominations.

It seems to me, until the heterosexuals within power in any church can put a stop to any and all sexual atrocities perpetrated by heterosexuals, within or outside of a ministry, they have zero rights to point a finger at homosexuals and label them deviant in comparison to heterosexuals.

No doubt, there is sin committed by homosexuals... just as there are sins committed by heterosexuals.

Falling in love with another heterosexual or homosexual adult is not a sin. However, in either case, if either of these persons use their power, whether it be physical, emotional, or spiritual to harm another, than that is the sin in which we should show our concern.

Within the context of adult relationships, it is not about who we love; it is about how we treat the one we profess to love.

Any person, no matter their sexual orientation, can bring either a blessing or harm to others... whether they are in relationship with the other or not.

When leaders within the church use their authority to label who, in their opinion, is deviant or outside of God's original intent or they take it a step further to say who is outside of God's love and grace, they have made the outcast and they have wounded the outcast.

In their words and in their actions, they show that they are, in fact, the ones who have perverted the name of a loving God. For the outcast will always be dear to God's heart.

Here's an honest question... do these leaders not think they have any sin in their lives?

For in the scope of God's holiness in which they are trying to protect, one single sin committed by a human, makes him or her a deviant.

We are all sinners.

I'll confess to you that I am a sinner. However, one of my sins is not the fact that I love another woman.

Before judging, remember...

When we find stones in our hands or judgemental words crossing our lips, they are a sure representation of sin as well as pride in our hearts.

Words can wound as surely as stones.

We should all remember, we will be judged in the same way we have judged.