A Tragedy That Never Should Have Happened

I saw this on Ellen on Friday while I was working in my classroom (the kids were off on Friday).



This is something that as a parent, a teacher, and as a human being I find heartbreaking. I'm pretty sure I haven't talked about it on this blog. I don't expect people to agree with me on the extent to which people deserve to be treated equally; I know there are members of my own family whom I love who don't agree, and I find it really sad that we can't even discuss the subject, because as the bumper stickers point out, HATE IS NOT A FAMILY VALUE. This has kept me up some nights in the past when I've received forwarded emails from the American Family Association. It is groups like these that make me cringe, that make people think all Christians are intolerant, that all churches are full of bigots.

I know I am not the only person who thinks churches should be more accepting, but I sure don't hear many calls for tolerance in the media until one of these stories happens.

I don't understand why is is so hard for people to imagine themselves in someone else's moccasins. If I were gay, I would want to be treated like a human being. I wouldn't want to feel like I had to hide my real self. I wouldn't want the torments of my life to be the punchline of daily jokes. I wouldn't want to feel like my life was worthless.

Why in the world would anybody choose to be persecuted like homosexuals are in our society if it were as simple as making a choice? This makes no sense to me. I just can't imagine that this is something people choose--why would they choose to be picked on, discriminated against, treated like pariahs, if it weren't something deep within them they felt was out of their control?

And what made me realize all this was becoming a mother. What if it were my child? How would I want him or her to be treated?

And once I was a teacher, I learned that the teen suicide rate for gay teenagers is 10 times that of straight teenagers.

And if the question is What Would Jesus Do?, the answer is, He would associate and
befriend the outcasts of his society. And who in our society is more like lepers than the gay members of our communities?

When I joined the church I'm a member of now, I was under the impression that it was more inclusive than it actually seems to be. I knew at the time David & I were looking for a church that many churches were torn on this issue, but that some churches accepted gays, even as ministers. And I knew this was not the case in the church I grew up in, though I have memories of a certain minister my family knew that HAD to be gay.

According to what I've read, the Book of Discipline clearly states that "homosexual persons, no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth." Supposedly church doctrine affirms that all persons, both heterosexual and homosexual, are included in the ministry of the church and can receive the gift of God's grace, but they are not treated equally to heterosexual people.

However, in our church, women are treated equally, which is different from the churches that both David & I came from. This might be why I thought others would be treated equally, too.