I think its time for a different approach. Gay kids in evangelical households are 8x more likely to kill themselves than their LGBT peers in more accepting homes. We can sit back and delight in the suffering of our enemies, or we can try to do something to overcome in the last communities that stand in our way of equality: conservative, Christian, mostly southern communities. In the last few days since I published my piece, Ive heard enough hate, received enough threats and been called enough names to last me several lifetimes. Ive been accused of self- promotion, profiteering, using this cause to promote a Republican agenda, working as a straight operative, being a Jew for Hitler, not caring about other worthy causes ... the list goes on and on. But Ive never had such clarity about anything in my life. The deep divide between the LGBT community and the Christian community is only causing more tragedy! Im truly sorry to those who I have offended, but I believe this is the right thing. This is the approach taught to me and all Christians by the One who came to redeem us. This is my free expression of the practice of my faith and my right to assemble others to raise our voices together. Its the same approach that Dr. Martin Luther King preached on in his public sermon November 17, 1957: That’s it. There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet. Jesus discovered it centuries ago. Mahatma Gandhi of India discovered it a few years ago, but most men and most women never discover it. For they believe in hitting for hitting; they believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; they believe in hating for hating; but Jesus comes to us and says, This isn’t the way. Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must [love]. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 07:04:03 +0000
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