Why should
anyone have to fight for the right to be true to who they are? As we face a big election that includes
alienating people for being who they are, LGBTQI, women, people of color,
immigrants or the poor are all being discriminated against openly. The argument that I hear the most, from those
who want to take our rights away, is religious based. This floors me. I have a degree in theology and have studied
the Bible and Jesus’s life in great depth.
Making people feel “less than” is not what Jesus was about, not
what his teachings are about and not what most forms of theology are
about. Anyone who twists the Bible or other
religious texts to discriminate against people and alienate people is totally
missing the point. Jesus was the guy for
the other guy. The guy who stopped
people from stoning the prostitute to death.
The guy who would rather hang out with the kind of people most churches
discriminate against today then the religious leaders of his day. To quote one of my favorite religious
authors Dr Peter J. Gomes from “The Good Book”, “In reading and interpreting
the Bible, the great temptation is to use it as the moral sanction for our own
culture.” The Bible has been used to
discriminate against groups of people since its inception. People used the Bible to justify slavery as
what God intended. Many believed slavery
and segregation were supported by scripture.
“When the missionaries came, they had the Bible and we had the land, now
we have the Bible and they have the land.” An early twentieth-century African
proverb says. I have always found it
interesting that a theology that teaches that our body is just a shell that
houses our spirit that will live on makes so many judgments about people
according to our shell. Does one’s
spirit have a vagina or penis? Does one’s
spirit have skin color? The hypocrisy to
say that God created us all in his image and then out of the other side of their
mouth say, but if your skin is dark, if
you have a vagina, or if you love someone I don’t approve of then you don’t
have the right to serve that same God as I, is appalling.
Folks, the
summary of Jesus’s message are LOVE, ACCEPTANCE, GRACE, KINDNESS and I don’t
see how discrimination fits into any of that.
I went to a Southern Baptist high school and college and then worked in
the ministry for a while as a youth and children’s pastor. I was raised in Christianity of the
south. I have a heart to help people and
where I grew up was the avenue most available to do the kind of work I wanted
to do. I knew there was a strong calling
on my life to help others. When I was a
youth pastor at a large church in Florida our church had a food bank where I
volunteered. One day two men came in who
had lost their jobs and were living in their car. These men politely asked for food. The head pastor thought they were gay and informed
them they could not have food unless they agreed to change their
lifestyle. This was a huge turning point
for me with organized religion. I
struggled with this and still do. Even if a person says they believe the Bible
literally, Jesus said “Feed my sheep.”
He did not say feed them if you like them, or if they do everything
right, or if they live according to the way you interpret the Bible, he simply
FEED THEM. What still to this day
boggles my mind is that the pastor thought he had every right, according to
God’s word, to say what he said to those hungry men. I walked out and never went back to that
church.
No one
should have to fight to be who they are, not because of the color of their
skin, their gender, their sexuality or sexual orientation. All
people deserve the freedom to be who they are and NOT be ashamed of it or feel
like they have to hide it to be safe or to be able to live a productive life. We are
far more alike than different and science has now proven this. Our DNA and genetics are so similar that the
differences between a white person, a person of color and Asian person, a gay,
a straight and so are so minuet that it is only 1 out of every 1,000 in our
nuclear DNA sequence that are slightly varied.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
This means for
ALL. But it has not always meant for
all, and it still does not today because all humans do not have the same rights
and opportunities. How long can we stand
for this? Yes, we have come a long way
from slavery, segregation, women having access to more opportunities, gays in
the military; we have a great deal to celebrate. We are also not there. Women still do not make the same for doing
the same job as a man on average. People
of color still do not make the same as a white person on average. Immigrants
are constantly told they don’t belong and yet we are all immigrants. Native Americans are still fighting for their
land and respect. Transgender unemployment is at 39% due to
gender variant discrimination. Same sex
couples still do not have the same rights as heterosexual couples to protect
their families. We cannot be complacent in our quest for EQUALITY for ALL.
Things we
can all do to make a help make positive change toward equality:
· Help campaign for those candidates
· Talk to those in your life about the
importance of Equality for ALL
· Speak up when someone says something
discriminatory
· Support organizations that are doing
work for Equal Rights
· Be kind to ALL
Finally,
what can you do today? We are standing at the edge of making history for
marriage equality another big step toward equality. If you live in one of the
four states (Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington) that are voting this
month for marriage equality, then please vote for marriage equality. If you
have friends and loved ones in those states, encourage them to vote for
marriage equality. Taking this step, will make it easier for us, as a country
to take the next steps.
