FEATURE Baby-ventures Christianity and the LGBT Community It's time for the gay community to take it's rightful place in the House of God May 09, 2007 Baby-ventures was approached by a minister from the NG Church to arrange a workshop and brainstorm ways to start building the bridge between the gay community and congregations such as the NG Church. Because the NG Church had harsh words against the gay community for a very long time, we were very sceptical of the meeting. Their particular congregation is very proud of their small group of gay people that worship every Sunday and became since, part of their community. They lost a huge portion of their regular church-goers due to the congregation opening their doors to the gay community. But they stuck to their decision to "integrate the gay community into the church"; as they call it. We left with the new hope that inside the "cold walls" of certain church congregations, are people that fight against a majority of others to "make things right". Unfortunately religious bigotry has been ingrained in our society and might take another generation to make an about turn. It has always been accepted that the scriptures are clearly speaking out against homosexuality but unfortunately, as my quest for our place in Christianity has lead me to believe, those scriptures have been miss-translated or miss-interpreted to fuel the absent-minded bigotry. The Metropolitan Community Church of Indianapolis in America has launched an advertising campaign to highlight these "Clobber" passages as miss-interpretations and show them for their true meanings and show that homosexual people have every right to be a Christian as has any other person. Hopefully this trend will follow through to other churches and congregations and the bigotry that most of us have experienced will come to an end. Over the decades religion has paid an integral part in societies and politics. As an example the Romans only converted from Paganism to Christianity as it was a very popular religion at the time and the emperor wanted to save the people from the crimes against believers. And then it was changed to and from several times after that. From then onwards History is full of examples of religion being used as a reason for atrocities, bigotry and even evil. Just look at examples of cults or suicide sects. In just the last two hundred years the Bible, the infallible word of God, has been used to explain slavery and racism, to keep votes away from women and, especially recently the bible has been extensively used against homosexuals and the arguments against same-sex unions or marriage. As parents many same-sex couples struggle with the idea of raising their children in gay only churches. Parents should provide a balanced upbringing for their children. Taking the right away from our children to join a church due to its parents' sexual orientation, should be enough to "march the streets". Baby-ventures will take hands with this congregation and strive to start the slow process of rebuilding the damaged path to the front door of the church. We invite you to familiarise yourself with the campaign and misinterpreted scriptures against homosexuality and the Holy Bible. See the website, www.wouldjesusdiscriminate.com Religion - My Pride, My Sword – by Desmond Hopkins When many homosexual people, like me, hear the words "religion", "Christianity" or "the bible says", it sends cold shivers down the spine or sometimes recall horrific images of prejudice, hatred and bigotry. The funny thing is that most homosexual people, myself included, had been brought up in religious households or were maybe heavily involved in religious activities. Why is religion such a sore point for us? What is the cause of this prejudice? "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" – Matthew 7:7 For many, the door will not be opened, but slammed shut. Many will ask, but will be persecuted, ridiculed and shunned before getting anything. This seems to be the fate of any homosexual person dealing with religion in today's society. Unfortunately, it was made clear from a young age that being gay is a sin and one must repent, turn from it and pursue righteousness. Turning to scripture and religious help I was told I could be cured if I focus on spiritual matters and ignore other things, thus I immersed myself in church activities, became involved in youth and later Sunday school teaching. I was part of the song, drama and outreach group. Religion was my distraction, hobby, my life. All my life I have heard the clobber passages condemning my sexual orientation as demonic, sinful and not the thing for a Christian. My friend was exorcised in an attempt to "cure" him of being gay, another bashed up by homo-phobic guys. I was chased out of a church congregation I was almost entirely involved in and publicly humiliated in front of so-called friends because I was gay. I was born this way. I tried to deny it, tried to "fix" it, but after 20 years of living a lie I was not being fair to myself, my friends and to my relationship with God. All I could think of was how the one who created me was also the one that was rejecting me for being gay, or so I was taught. Many people, like me, were born and raised in religious households. Grew up in Sunday school, learning of all the great stories and characters in the bible, wanting to be brave like David, strong like Samson or walk with Jesus. We were also taught to pray for people who were not Christians, who were not religious, or who believed or lived differently to us. I was so religiously indoctrinated by scriptures and sermons that I believed whole-heartedly I could help "save" my gay friend and my pagan friend, ultimately doing this I could save myself from my own battle inside. My problem was that all the "evidence", the scriptures were pointing fingers against me and the rest of my friends. The church doesn't accept me, God doesn't accept me and neither does Jesus. Or so I thought. A church society in America has launched an advertising campaign to highlight the misquoted and misinterpreted scriptures, so that all people, gay and straight could share in the love and grace of God… We want to thank Desmond Hopkins for his valuable contributions to this article. Send your comments to Lisa or visit www.baby-ventures.za.net Related features Baby-ventures: SA GLBT parental rights and the ProBono.Org What is the history of the Metropolitan Community Church?