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In the last few months we have read in these Web pages
about faith and hope. Now at 'long last' we come to love. Not a bad
qualification, that - 'long lasting' love. In fact if we are to
succeed in our endeavors to become fully accepted as whole human
beings it may have to last 'for ever and a day'.
Many of the contributions in these pages are directed to our
Christian brethren on the far right, and rightly so. As such we have
a lot in common with them; in general, our faith. But, specifically,
our hopes and our faiths are somewhat different. Our hopes are,
often as not, a desire for a world free of oppression of homosexual
people. Theirs are more often concerned with the next world
rather than this.
Our faiths are also quite diverse. In essence they are based on
different interpretations of the Bible. The Christian Church has
always had problems with biblical interpretations. Almost
invariably, re-interpretation has been the result of changes in
society. As such, this is a pity, as it should be the other way
round. The Church should be forming society, not society the Church.
A case in point is the debate on whether women should be allowed to
participate in the administrations of the Church. In my country,
Norway, it has taken about thirty years to turn it around and this
has only happened as a result of pressure from society. We used to
have a large majority who meant that they could interpret the Bible
to mean that women should be kept out of the Church's ministries
whilst a vociferous minority interpreted the Bible to the contrary.
The opposite is now the case. The debate on women's rights and
equality finally reached the Church and it's now only a small
minority who would dream argue the toss about the ability of women to
preach in our churches.
The subject of gay rights is at about the same stage as it was for
women's rights thirty years ago. The question is 'will it take
thirty years to turn it around for us'? And what is more to the
point 'do we have the patience to wait that long'? We 'hope' so!
We may even have the 'faith' that God will cause it to happen. Thirty
years was too long for Mathew Sheperd -what about us ?
We will manage to wait the time it takes only if God's love for us is
matched by our love for him and, just as important, if we love our
Christian neighbors. But we have to take it a step farther. A lot
of the oppression of homosexual people may be inspired by the
Christian Right but it is more often than not perpetrated by
non-Christians; people who have long since given up the pretence of
practicing any form of Christian faith. Their opposition to
homosexuals is purely based on a perception that our
gayness is abnormal and, deep down, they still believe that it is
something that could be changed at will. Like the handicapped we
are a minority who are 'fair game' for persecution. Not only that, we
gay men appear to be a threat to the heterosexuality of our
persecutors. Like the Jews and unwanted pets we deserve to be put
down.
Hitler had a solution for us and the Jews. In fact the recent
attacks on homosexuals seem to coincide with a resurgence of
anti-Semitism. We must fight this tendency until we are able to
convince people that we just as normal as they are. And of our
weapons, "the greatest of these is love". We must be patient for :
Why do we believe that we will succeed in the end ? When people
refuse to listen to our pleas and it appears that God is ignoring our
prayers, what guarantee do we have that love is the ultimate weapon
in our battle for recognition ? The answer is that love :
If we are ever in doubt of the justness of our cause; if we are ever
in doubt as to whether our interpretation of the Bible is correct;
if we are ever in doubt as to whether the Old Testament condemns
homosexual behavior or not, then we must test our beliefs and our
doubts against Jesus' great commandment from the New Testament :-
Gay people are not about to disappear from the face of the earth. We
have always been here and will always be here. God loves us as he
loves everyone who believes in him.
But why is love so important ? We can cite our faith and formulate
our hopes but :
Love is the greatest gift of all, greater than both hope and faith !
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The Inner Voice of Love : A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom by Henri J. M. Nouwen by C. S. Lewis
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