Humility or Hypocrisy?

This Saturday (November 1), TheCall ministry will occupy Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California in prayer and fast for the “deliverance of the homosexuals.” Lou Engel will deliver a chilling message that is rooted in untruth, intolerance, and spiritual violence. I received an email last week from someone connected to TheCall; I was told that this Saturday, TheCall will extend an invitation to the “homosexuals” to come forward and they will wash our feet as an act of love and peace.

The image of Christ washing the feet of the disciples in John 13 is very moving. It is the ultimate display of love, grace, and humility—TRUE humility. After Christ washes the feet of the disciples he tells them: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (v. 14-15). Jesus says to repeat this humble act; however, he does not say to do “what” he did but “as” he did. The disciples are to pass on the same teaching that Christ has done by conveying as he has, both in word and deed, the selfless love of God. The community Jesus has brought into being is to manifest the love of God that he has revealed through serving one another with no vestige of position or superiority.

I don’t disbelieve that Lou Engel and TheCall mean to reach out in love; although loving they have taken an abusive and spiritually violent role. They do not recognize the happiness and peace in my life and the lives of other LBGTQs, instead they seek to invalidate the faith gay and lesbian Christians have in Jesus and the journeys we have been on. Because of the messages they teach, they stand over the LGBTQ community in the position that their Christian walk and idea of sexuality are morally and spiritually superior. Their position and their messages are incongruent with the teachings of humility and selfless love because they seek to belittle the progress and journeys we have experienced as LGBTQ Christians.

Let’s LEARN what it means to be a Christian: it’s about a man who spoke love, not tolerance, but acceptance. The idea that we should “love the sinner, but hate the sin” is two-faced and spiritually violent. Let’s compare how many times the Bible attempts to discuss homosexuality to the number of times the Bible teaches us to care and love for our neighbors. Tell me about the Jesus you serve! The Jesus I know didn’t walk around saying “Oh no whore, can’t help you! I’m against prostitution!” I serve the Jesus who talks about love and grace. I understand spirituality and I understand the grace and kindness behind being selfless in my love.

Before you pull out your water basins I challenge you to look into your hearts and to look at where your actions come from. Instead, why don’t you take time to come out to our level and stand vigil with a community that advocates for love, equality, and true humility? Humble yourselves and step into our shoes to understand our journey. That is servant leadership, that is grace, and that is love.

Thanks Peterson for some guidance on this.

Childhood Brainwashing?

Over the past couple of months I've been doing as much as I can to raise opposition to Proposition 8 in California.  That has included volunteering at the phone bank for "No On 8" and just reaching out to friends and family to spread the word.  But for every bulletin I post on Myspace about Prop 8, I am met with resistance...by a thirteen-year-old.

My thirteen-year-old cousin has really enjoyed challenging me on my beliefs, interpretations, and opinions on politics.  However, he shares information with me that I've heard before, because I used to be in the same place he was at his age.  But he disregards that and chooses to put down my marriage and call me a sinner.  This is the last message I received from him...

VINCE AT LEAST 75% OF PASTORS AND CHURCHES THINK GAY MARRIAGE IS WRONG AND IT IS. GUESS WHAT I JUST TURNED SOME ONE WHO WAS GAY INTO A STRAIGHT MAN HE WAS MY NEIGHBOR, I TOOK HIM TO CHURCH AND HE FEELS WRONG THAT HES GAY SO I CHANGED HIM AND I SHOWED HIM THE PAPER I MADE THAT I SENT TO YOU. I'M PRAYING FOR YOU AND HIM. I THINK GOD IS USING ME TO CHANGE GAYS. I ALREADY CHANGED ONE AND I CAN CHANGE 2 MORE.

I was left speechless.  There are so many things wrong with this message.  Where does a thirteen-year-old get the idea that God has chosen them to "change the gays?"  Not to mention that he thinks he's been successful in converting at least one person and has the power to change more.  I politely responded that I tried reparative therapies and they don't work and that using guilt to push someone back into the closet is not the same thing as converting them to heterosexuality.  But what are church leaders teaching young people today?

It is not okay for a junior high student to believe that God has given him superpowers to make people straight--it's not okay for anyone to believe that.  Granted, when I was that age, I believed that homosexuality was wrong and I would voice that, but I never thought I could change gay people; but I also never thought it was fixable, I just thought they were out of luck and were destined for hell.

It is disturbing that there are church leaders that would be very proud of this young man's efforts.  Churches are using dangerous indoctrinating messages to turn children into mini-reparative therapists.  That is a scary abuse of religion.

Response to TheCall

As I was walking about the campus of San Diego State University, I saw loads of posters that caught my attention.  They were for TheCall California.  I was intrigued so I went home to check out their website.  

Personally, I'm intimidated a bit by crusades and such, all goes back to my first encounter with Promise Keeper conventions.  But my goodness, this is a crusade to "save the homosexuals" on a very large scale.  I am sure that many organizations will be responding to this very large event in the area.  I am in the process of networking to see if we can get a group of people that are willing to stand in vigil lines outside of the stadium.

I am not opposed to prayer, but what is being prayed for is something completely unnecessary.  This event demonstrates an abuse of religion and spiritual violence.  As a follower of Jesus Christ and his ministry, it's time to turn some tables in the temple.

This event is lead by Lou Engle, you may remember him from the movie Jesus Camp.  Engle is describing this a battle between "light and dark." He says that 

This is a time to resist mightily the spirit of peaceful coexistence and apathetic resignation in the face of this prevailing darkness.

It is messages like this, that suggest that LGBTQ individuals are less than normal.  These messages suggest that we are the root of all evil.  These messages are dangerous to the LGBTQ community.  Words lead to action.  By calling this a spiritual war between good and bad and designating the gay and lesbian community as "bad," Engle is sanctioning and condoning violence against the Queer community.  

The Marriage Debate

As many of us know, one of the last bastions of discrimination against the lesbian and gay community are at present not allowed to marry.  By governments not sanctioning same-gender marriages, they are voicing that do not recognize love that is shared by two consenting adults that want to proclaim their love with one another.

There are many couple rights that are not awarded to gay and lesbian partnerships, both big and small.  To allow gay couples to marry would enable them to take advantage of the various fiscal benefits accorded to married couples in general.  Gay couples at this time are unable to claim their spouses on their tax returns.  As a college student, I am forced to list "single" on my financial aid (FAFSA) application, because the federal government aid will not recognize my marital status.  Many universities, including my own, will not recognize gay couples as "independent students" even though it is granted automatically to straight married couples.

It is completely inaccurate to perceive marriage merely as an institution for child-raising purposes.  For one, there are many married couples today that do not have any children, nor intend to.  Likewise, there is increasing number of children that are being raised by single parents today.  Furthermore, there is psychological evidence and studies that have proven and continue to argue that being raised by two fathers or two mothers is just as healthy as being raised by one mother and one father--as long as the child's well-being is in mind and cared for, there is no argument for why that child cannot have a healthy and viable family life.

Civil unions and domestic partnership registrations are not equivalent to marriage.  They do not grant similar rights, nor are they treated the same way.  Equality means that we share the same civil rights and liberties as our neighbors, not a generic brand of the real thing.

Marriage in this country is also not a Christian institution, as marriage is granted to non-Christian straight couples all the time.  The debate over marriage is not a moral issue, this is a civic issue.

Somehow I'll Make a Man Out of You

How many of you have heard that song from the Disney movie Mulan, "I'll Make a Man Out of You?" I feel like that song represents an interesting part of my ex-gay experience. I've been visiting San Diego State University for the past two weeks (my husband is a student here) and they've been having Greek Week, which is a time for students to find out about the fraternities and sororities on campus and then perhaps rush for them. There was one fraternity that really caught my eye, Alpha Gamma Omega, SDSU's only Christ-centered fraternity. So I decided to check out some of the things they do. They do: Worship Night, Wakeboarding, Beach Football, Broomball, and then "Bigger or Better" (I'm not sure what that means exactly).

Their activities they have planned really got me thinking about gender roles and how they could possibly be trying to re-assert their masculinity by these activities. I was taught through my reparative therapy counseling sessions that men engage in these activities not to necessarily "butch" ourselves up, but because sports are a natural way for guys to connect with another.

Because I was told that my father did an inadequate job raising me to be a "man of God," I was assigned to male mentor in the church.

For us guys in the program they partner us up with straight male mentors, particularly men who are a little older, overweight, and balding. Well, the therapeutic theory behind this is that they believe that these guys will serve as less of temptation for us. But I have a little confession to make. I find those guys kinda hot. --Chad, Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House

My male mentor's job was to pretty much be the good Christian example that my father wasn't. We went out to play catch at the lake, we went to go see action flicks at the cinema, and like every good Christian "dad" he took me to a Promise Keepers convention where I was supposed to learn how to become a "man of integrity." From my mentor I was supposed to receive constant reaffirmation for the good things I did that were representative of an authentic "man of God."

However, through my attempts to "reconnect with my masculinity" I ironically began to feel like less of a man through the activities that I was doing. I felt like masculinity was being defined for me. I always knew that I was a feminine guy. I had heard that since I was a small boy and I had learned to accept it. But my male mentor didn't know how to respond to that. He had 2 sons that were older than me and I'm sure he was just doing what he done with his sons when he raised them. Eventually he had starting feeling like he was doing something wrong as a leader, but then changed his mind to the belief that there was just more that was wrong with me.

So as these fraternity brothers play their beach football and tackle one another with no shirts on, I wonder if they do so because they too believe that sports are just the natural way for men to connect with one another.