Thursday, February 08, 2007
A Christian, A Sinner, and a Homosexual
A Christian, a Sinner, and a Homosexual
By Fred Wemyss
[I wrote this in the spring of 2000, posted it on my website of the moment and, two days later, feeling I had been harsh on the parishioners of my church, took it down. A few weeks later, on a trip to San Francisco, I went into an internet cafe, searched my name and was astonished to find someone had copied my essay and preserved it in cyberspace. I made a copy of it on the internet cafe's printer (even though I had it on a folder in my personal computer) and am now posting it on the net again. A few years after I wrote it I did take up my priest's offer to become a reader.]
A Christian, a sinner and a homosexual walked into a bar one day and discovered they were the same person.
I told my parish priest I was gay and he said this: "Here is the Episcopal Church's view: There are mortal sins and there are venal sins. Being gay is a sin. But it is not as bad a sin as false pride or genuine lack of charity." He then reiterated an offer he'd made about six months before. Would I like to be a reader at Sunday services?
If the parish were made up of people like my priest I might have taken up the offer to read. The reality is that I'm not certain the members of the parish would be particularly happy with an openly gay man reading scripture to them.
Do I feel compromised in this? Yes, I do, most of the time.
You're going to want to know what runs through my head when I think about being both Christian and gay:
First of all, my being a Christian does not mean I'm without sin. Society certainly accepts heterosexuality far more easily than it does homosexuality. Nevertheless, the heterosexual person's concept of God is no different from the homosexual person's concept of God. God is pure. No human being is pure.
Each of us, praying in church, is asking for God's help.
Anybody, praying in a church, is also wondering how he or she measures up to the other people who are praying there. 99 per cent of people who stay away from church are doing so because they feel that the other parishioners do not or will not accept them. Of that 99%, the same percentage are gay as make up the gay population of the world. Gay people are not alone in feeling that organised religion has abandoned them. Furthermore, by no means have all gay people rejected organised religion.
My duty as a Christian is to follow Jesus and tell others about Him. In a house of worship, people express their common faith in God. I choose the phrase, "common faith," because that which is common is disdained in our Darwinian culture. What I have in common with the other people in my parish is my belief in God. I do not go to church in order to chastise my fellow church-goers for their views. I am not there to persuade them of the justice of any cause. I am there to join with them in prayer.
Are they intolerant of gay people? Yes, most of them are.
A church can influence society. Through much of history, churches have been agents of oppression. It is obvious that at this point, the church has little sway in American political matters, despite the tremendous noise it makes. At the same time, it is clear that the church has more sway than it did twenty years ago. George W. Bush talks about Jesus as often as he can. He knows the voters. I don't want him in office. Nevertheless, a unified, polically conservative church is preferable to a liberal, divided one. When a church collapses, freedom is virtually impossible.
It is a profoundly conservative institution, and a human one, susceptible to apathy, zealotry and corruption. I would do little to change it by walking away from it.
My priest said, "Being gay is a sin." I disagree with that. He offered me a place of visibility, and I did not take him up on that. Nevertheless, I haven't left, and God has something to do with that. So did my parish priest.
By Fred Wemyss
[I wrote this in the spring of 2000, posted it on my website of the moment and, two days later, feeling I had been harsh on the parishioners of my church, took it down. A few weeks later, on a trip to San Francisco, I went into an internet cafe, searched my name and was astonished to find someone had copied my essay and preserved it in cyberspace. I made a copy of it on the internet cafe's printer (even though I had it on a folder in my personal computer) and am now posting it on the net again. A few years after I wrote it I did take up my priest's offer to become a reader.]
A Christian, a sinner and a homosexual walked into a bar one day and discovered they were the same person.
I told my parish priest I was gay and he said this: "Here is the Episcopal Church's view: There are mortal sins and there are venal sins. Being gay is a sin. But it is not as bad a sin as false pride or genuine lack of charity." He then reiterated an offer he'd made about six months before. Would I like to be a reader at Sunday services?
If the parish were made up of people like my priest I might have taken up the offer to read. The reality is that I'm not certain the members of the parish would be particularly happy with an openly gay man reading scripture to them.
Do I feel compromised in this? Yes, I do, most of the time.
You're going to want to know what runs through my head when I think about being both Christian and gay:
First of all, my being a Christian does not mean I'm without sin. Society certainly accepts heterosexuality far more easily than it does homosexuality. Nevertheless, the heterosexual person's concept of God is no different from the homosexual person's concept of God. God is pure. No human being is pure.
Each of us, praying in church, is asking for God's help.
Anybody, praying in a church, is also wondering how he or she measures up to the other people who are praying there. 99 per cent of people who stay away from church are doing so because they feel that the other parishioners do not or will not accept them. Of that 99%, the same percentage are gay as make up the gay population of the world. Gay people are not alone in feeling that organised religion has abandoned them. Furthermore, by no means have all gay people rejected organised religion.
My duty as a Christian is to follow Jesus and tell others about Him. In a house of worship, people express their common faith in God. I choose the phrase, "common faith," because that which is common is disdained in our Darwinian culture. What I have in common with the other people in my parish is my belief in God. I do not go to church in order to chastise my fellow church-goers for their views. I am not there to persuade them of the justice of any cause. I am there to join with them in prayer.
Are they intolerant of gay people? Yes, most of them are.
A church can influence society. Through much of history, churches have been agents of oppression. It is obvious that at this point, the church has little sway in American political matters, despite the tremendous noise it makes. At the same time, it is clear that the church has more sway than it did twenty years ago. George W. Bush talks about Jesus as often as he can. He knows the voters. I don't want him in office. Nevertheless, a unified, polically conservative church is preferable to a liberal, divided one. When a church collapses, freedom is virtually impossible.
It is a profoundly conservative institution, and a human one, susceptible to apathy, zealotry and corruption. I would do little to change it by walking away from it.
My priest said, "Being gay is a sin." I disagree with that. He offered me a place of visibility, and I did not take him up on that. Nevertheless, I haven't left, and God has something to do with that. So did my parish priest.
# posted by Fredwemyss @ 12:47 AM 
