"Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest"

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest.” What does this mean to the church? I know scripture isn’t the most common language one would find on a CHAMP blogspot :-) but there it is and here I am, a Christian and a proponent for social justice for all.  And I have some questions for my sistren and brethren in the church.

I spent the first 3 days of my time in Mexico City at the Ecumenical Pre-Conference where I appreciated some great dialogue with most of my time and energy engaging in discussions around gender, and specifically about patriarchy in the church and gender based violence. I was sad to note an absence of dedicated space on the program for LGBTQQI people and issues/dynamics particularly affecting queer folk, particularly given the early and continued epidemiology of HIV&AIDS as well as the continued proliferation of discrimination against queer communities and individuals.

How can we have an entire conference with dozens of sessions on all and sundry without dedicated space for LGBTQQI matters when we have sisters Sizekele and Salome, champions for HIV justice, murdered in South Africa just a year ago in a vicious hate crime? When we have Solomon Adderly Wellington, a noted gay HIV activist in the Bahamas murdered just this past May? When we have the President of the Gambia vowing to lob off the heads of gay people and criminalize any who offer safe harbor? When we have Steve Harvey, a gay HIV activist from the Jamaica Support Services slain in a country where there are more churches per capita than anywhere in the world? (Jamaica is my own country of origin, yet I’m embarrassed to say that I would warn away any of my queer friends from even visiting there, knowing that it may be at risk of life and limb.)

Where is the voice of the church on these issues? For all of my work with faith based groups, I have yet to see a high profile public statement by the church condemning and calling for an end to such heinous hate crimes.  Yet, I’ve seen much in the way of the church condemning same-gender loving relationships, which would indicate by the intensity of application of words, deeds, and attitude, that the church is more affronted by these acts of love than acts of hate. My purpose here is not to sway those in the church who find biblical basis to oppose homosexuality (It would take a whole separate blog, or a book at least to extol my open and affirming stance, even within and upheld by my Christian beliefs, of my queer friends) but it’s more to question some in the church on their relative application of biblical principles.  On this subject, I ask the church, what would Jesus do?

I’ll end by saying, on that subject, that I was at a conference at the Saddleback Church (Rick and Kay Warren’s Church) in 2006 and was pleased to see a session entitled, “Homosexuality and the Church: What Would Jesus Do?” and I went to that session eager to imagine that Saddleback, a clear leader amongst Evangelicals, was questioning the attitude of the church towards same gender loving people. What I found there was a panel of folks engaged in the “ex-gay” movement, as opposed to a workshop that would offer guidance on how the church can be a safe space that welcomes all, as hymn says, “Just as I am” and upholds justice for all, even within the range of beliefs. Yes, they have certainly gone way beyond many in even having such a workshop but I encourage them to take it a bit further.