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Historically
people of different faiths have not
felt welcome if they were gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender,
in mainstream
religious congregations. I've heard
story after story
of families
being torn apart by
churches that have preached hatred basically from the pulpit.
It has
actually pitted father against son, it has pitted mother against daughter.
Our stands on the LGBT issue has broken families apart. For some
pastors to put this aside and say, "I'm not going to talk about it because it's
too controversial,"
is
really not living out one's pastoral duty and authority because there are people in
the pews who are hurting deeply because of the stances our churches
are taking around LGBT issues.
To be religious person in the U.S. means you're the religious right and you're very
conservative.
That's not the case. There's a lot of us who are progressive and we don't believe
that really hateful dogma.
I think religious leaders need to open their doors wide
to include people from variety of perspectives. We so often learn so much
from our differences and from our diverse opinions and ideas. We have a
responsibility if if we want to go and heal the world and make things better.
Sit down and have a conversation with someone
that you may perceive different from you. Getto know them on an individual basis
and you'll be surprised to see just how similar and how alike your experiences are.
There is just so much
challenge that comes from
assuming anything about the person sitting next to you.
Really,
the way to go is to ask.