Is This Enough?

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]

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Phillip

Well, it may not be sufficient, but at least it’s something. I mean, I was pretty much kicked out of my church when it got around that I was gay.

Which, somewhat fortuitously, allowed me enough of an outside perspective to realize religion was not for me, but still . . .
Bruce

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.

Yep, that pretty much says it all right there. We’ll stop openly disparaging you but a lot of us still think your deviant sinners destined for hell. So if you come to our church, we’ll welcome you with open arms but don’t take it too personally that we think hurting yourself with your harmful “lifestyle” choices.

Great, they’ll love you to death with their caring and kindness. I can’t imagine any gay person not wanting to be a part of that.
Arlen

Let’s not let cynicism get the best of us. This is, without question, a positive step. It’s not perfect, it’s not ideal, but it’s motion in the right direction and that should be supported rather than ridiculed. Not all of the churches who sign off on this believe that homosexuality is cool with God, but many of them do; this statement builds bridges between communities with different stances on that issue and, God willing, may help those who “hate the sin” to think better of their judgment—which is exactly the goal that many of us have been working toward.
logan

personally i think this to be a very fair step on their part. i dont agree with their standpoint in the love the sinner hate the sin as i see no sin in being homosexual.

even so in their eyes being homosexual IS a sin. its a sin just as lying, cheating, and stealing are. do christians not have support groups where they try and “cure” those things too?

they are approaching homosexuality in a way that they think will help the person best.

they have the best intentions at heart, or is it only me looking for the brightside?

regardless, they are looking out as best they can for others and in no way forcing their curing on others.

i see no condemnation of the lifestyle nor blatant support.

its just an open invitation to agree to disagree and try and live through the differences.

just as what were trying to do in the middle east.
I like tea

Actually, Hemant, I’m pretty sure that the most conservative of Christians would not agree with this. Some of them like to beat the shit out of gays – they don’t want to be welcoming at all. And many fundies and conservatives are opposed to the whole notion of recognizing a GLBT community. Ridiculous, yes, but that’s how some of them are.

So is this a step in the right direction? Yes. But I certainly agree that it’s not nearly enough. In fighting bigotry, it’s okay to accept half-measures if it’s all you can get (we certainly took a lot of baby steps in the direction of equal rights for all races), but there’s no sense praising some bigots for being slightly less bigoted than other bigots.
julie marie

The conservative christians I know (and I know alot of them) would agree with this. The shit kicking brand is a small, but unfortunately noticable minority. What this shows them is that this attitude and behavior is NOT OKAY with their leaders. You’ve got to start somewhere–and I think this is a good start.