Sunday, April 29, 2007

Using religion to justify prejudice and ignorance is wrong.........

As it is written in James 1: 26, it is written "If anyone amongst youthinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives hisown heart, that person's religion is useless." Many of our TGActivists do not understand this. It is this verse and other like itthat can do more damage to the religious right than charts.Believe me, I have met many like you. You still assume that we sharethe views of those you dislike. That is not the case.

Currently, I serve as a member of the Diaconate and I am a former Chair of Christian Education for Edenside Christian Church. I see people everyday who are without faith, many of them GLBT young persons. African American and Caucasian, more so Caucasian. Am I PREJUDICE ? I desparately tried not to be guilty of such a sin. Many times, I've had to pick up the emotional wreckage suffered by these young people. I know of many young people who were tossed from their homes because they were "different", and that difference didn't fit with their family's view of the Bible or oftheir family's clergyman. The worst part of this is that the very people who use the Bible to hurt others are the very people who should instead be using the Holy Word to comfort the sick and bring rest to the tired, as Jesus Christ did - repeatedly.

In Mark 9:38-42, Jesus talks about people becoming a stumbling block by using their own personal prejudices that turn people from Him. Inother words, any parent who professes faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and uses the heavy-handed tactics of abandonment, ridicule, scorn, and disapproval is completely wrong. According to Jesus, it isbetter if that person were never born. Their fate awaits them forcausing their kids to turn from the Word.

In Matthew 7, the Sermon onthe Mount, Jesus speaks in chapters 1-15 about hypocrisy; saying onething and doing another. That's exactly what our friends(?) JerryFalwell and Pat Robertson do every Sunday. They profess love andcompassion, yet they are more preoccupied with who's making thelargest contribution to the Christian Coalition or Liberty University than caring for the young person dealing with a race, gender or genderidentity, sexual orientation, or other personal issues, whether it be their child or not. I cannot tell you how many times I have held these children in my arms who have been in tears, heartbroken, wrenching myrobes because of the insensitivity of a few who call themselves Christians, but who don't do what Christ would do.I am deeply ashamed of these New Jack Christians who spend their time comparing the newest editions of the Bible, instead of interpretingand understanding what the Lord is really saying in it. I think Paul said it best in Corinthians 13 when he speaks of the true meaning oflove; it doesn't mean sex, it doesn't mean self-worth, it means compassion, caring, forgiveness,charity, and faith in things seen and unseen. It is a foundation that life itself should be built from. To take that away from anyone in the name of a personal ideology is asin. People are programmed to be ignorant and taught to hate that which they don't understand; children are not born that way, it is learned behavior.

I do not condone this and nobody should tolerate it. Sometimes, it takes something happening in one's own family to make us change and accept that which we have not known before. It is my hope and prayer that you understand this journey we AfricanAmerican community take in the effort that will provide a bulwark against those who would use the word of God to justify their own personal prejudices and hatreds.

My Prayer for all of us is that the Lord bless you doing this year. May the Lord also bless you and your faith, in this, your personal journey.
Amen.
Dawn J. Wilson

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