I am someone you may never meet. I’m not on your list of friends. I don’t go to your church. I have never sat next to you at a PTA meeting nor have I sung next to you in your choir. I don’t identify politically as you do. I don’t shop at the same grocery store. I don’t see you at a ballgame or jog past you in a park.
Someone You May Never Meet
To you, I don’t count. You turn your head when you see me. You avert your eyes. I avert mine too. I don’t want to be hurt by you.
To you, I am dangerous. I hear your silence and your murmured words. I do not bow to brow beating. I listen because I want you to accept me.
To you, I am repulsive. I represent the decay of society. I remind you of what you do not understand. I want to help you understand but I frighten you.
To you, I am lost. I should turn away from sin. I have no bitterness toward you.
Cropped and Blurred to Protect the Innocent
To you, I am a homosexual. In one fell swoop I have been labeled and dismissed. I too am a person beloved by God.
To you, I have an agenda. You judge me from the moment you learn a single illuminating fact about me.
I have no agenda except to love and be loved.
Go ahead. Cast the first stone.
Wondering,
I have been giving your comments some thought and while I was doing some soul-searching, I came across this quotation in a book I am reading now by John Shelby Spong titled Why Christianity Must Change or Die.
“I cannot serve…God or this revelatory Christ except by seeking to build a world in which all barriers to full humanity for every person have been removed. That is why, for me, no prejudice can ever be allowed to exist within that entity that has come to call itself “the body of Christ.” For any prejudice, whether it be based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, cult, or ritual purity, is finally nothing but a dagger aimed at the very heart of this gospel that rises from the life of Jesus.” (p. 133)
He said it so much better than I ever could have.
John
Wondering,
I am not sure we will see eye to eye on this. Perhaps we should agree to disagree.
God bless you on your journey!
John
John,
If someone opposes homosexuality it does not mean they are judging people. They are judging homosexuality. You said they are unloving and unChristian. It may be true in some cases, but overall that is an accusation and causes much judgment against those who support what the Bible teaches. You say you don’t want to be judged but you are judging others.
Wondering,
Hello and thank you for your thoughtful post. I appreciate a diversity of opinion and thought on this website as I believe that dialogue is important to understanding one another.
By no means do I mean to imply that I am pure. Left to my own devices, I am capable of the most heinous deeds.
But if you had lived the life of someone outside the power structures of society/the world, I believe you would have greater understanding about that which I wrote. It is impossible to communicate this to you, however, unless you have experienced it yourself.
At one point in my life I was the chief “stone-caster”. I attended Bob Jones University, the most fundamentalist school in the country, and if you did not believe as I did, I considered you inferior.
I acted and spoke from the truth that I thought I knew. Unfortunately, I hurt many people in the process with my judgment and bitter words.
I was coming from a place of fear. I feared that there was more to the world than my narrow frame of reference suggested. Every time my world view came into question, I reacted with hostility and sometimes vehemence.
So, yes, I have cast stones, and I am still capable of it today.
Do I believe that I am casting stones in this post? No. And God help me if I am somehow mis-guided. But I believe there is a difference between speaking truth and casting stones.
The truth is those who judge gay/lesbian/bi/transgender people are unloving and ultimately un-Christian in my opinion. I am certainly no theologian but my theology suggests that God has a place at the table for all of us.
I am no better than anyone but I am certainly no worse either. My words here, I hope, do not cause unnecessary division. My desire is to bring people together–to understand our common bonds.
Thank you for your post.
John
To “Wondering” … the stones were flung long ago, and continue to pelt those who honor honesty and integrity. Your post says so much more about YOUR intollerance, than it does of John’s reality (and intelligence, by the way). Pity on you! You’ve simply tossed another stone. Bravo!