The “100Revs” Statement says this:
As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.
We ARE a group of Christian ministers who voluntarily and individually bring this apology.
We ARE NOT official representatives of our churches or denominations.
We ARE NOT making a statement on the biblical position on gay and lesbian relationships.
We ARE recognising the lack of hospitality, care and welcome that the churches have offered the gay and lesbian community.
At first, it seems pretty positive. It’s nice to see Christians apologizing for their treatment of the gay community, right?
And then you read it in more depth…
It’s very carefully worded. In fact, this is a statement even the most conservative churches could stand by. Love the sinner, hate the sin.
Which is the wrong way to look at it since there’s nothing wrong with being gay at all. Without admitting that, no one will (or should) look twice at this. There’s nothing here about giving gay people equal rights (including the right to marry) regardless of one’s religious views. There’s no condemnation of Christian programs that attempt to “cure” gay people.
It’s a nice first step. But this isn’t even close to fixing the damage religion has inflicted upon gay people.
I find it hard to take this statement seriously.
(Thanks to Grazatt for the link!)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]