Well I'll Be Damned!

by Ray Weatherwax
May, 2006

In my April diatribe (for The Meta Ball) I ranted on about how not much has changed in the Church since Martin Luther challenged the Church to reform. But, since I wrote that rather cynical and pessimistic article, I have witnessed a minor miracle! I have actually seen that Canadian church named after Martin Luther live up to its reputation as a "reforming church" by reforming just a little bit.

Why, there was the sweet smell of needed change in the air! At least one congregation challenged the authority of its ruling body by proclaiming "To hell with you! We're gonna have a gay intern". And by Jupiter, they now have one! That's the minor miracle I witnessed. I attended the installation of the gay intern, and the big celebratory party afterward, and for just a few hours that day God was in God's heaven, and all was right with the church. Just for those few hours sexual orientation was not an issue.

Why was this installation of a gay intern a minor miracle? Well, first of all because the Lutheran Church of which this congregation is a part, has declared that homosexuality is a sin. That means that our bishops will not ordain gays or lesbians or transgendered or bisexuals because all of this is sinful. By welcoming a gay intern, this little congregation challenged the establishment. You see, the next step from internship is ordination as a pastor, and the Lutheran Church won't allow that. So, he'll have to be ordained somewhere more friendly. And to add insult to injury, this courageous little congregation introduced the gay intern's husband. Whoa!

If you've read this far, then you must be saying out loud, "Why is the Church so hung up on sexual orientation?" Simple answer! It's because of the Bible. There are about eight or nine passages in the Old and New Testaments that prohibit homosexuality. So, the Church has used the Bible as a weapon to beat up on gays and lesbians. At least, the literalists have done that. But if literalism isn't good enough for you, and you use some of the scholarly tools available to serious students of the Bible, you soon find out that those famous eight or nine passages don't really say what society thinks they say.

For example, the well known passage from Leviticus that says "a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman", study shows, really is a prohibition warning Jewish men of the time not to enter pagan temples and become involved in the fertility rites of which heterosexual and homosexual prostitution is a part.

Or Sodom and Gomorrah! We all know that story, don't we? The two strangers (really angels) went to Lot's house in Sodom, and the men of the city surrounded the house, demanding that the two strangers come out so that they might "know" them. Sure, the Hebrew verb "to know" can also mean "to have sexual intercourse with", but it also means simply "to become acquainted with". There was a rule in ancient times that a visitor to a city needed to register with the city fathers. Maybe that's all it was - these two guys hadn't registered, and the concerned citizens wanted to know who they were. And even if the crowd's intentions were of a sexual nature, it would have been homosexual rape, and that should never be condoned, any more than heterosexual rape. What makes my mind boggle in this whole Sodom story is the fact that it says right there in the Bible that Lot threw his two daughters to the crowd in order to save his two guests. (Lot didn't even know they were angels at that point). No literalist or fundamentalist has ever condemned Lot's treatment of his daughters, and that's the act that should be condemned.

In the New Testament Jesus says absolutely nothing about homosexuality. Paul is the one who mentions it in his letters, but the prohibitions are directed at homosexual prostitution and rape, and rightly so! Bottom line is that nowhere in Scripture is there a prohibition or condemnation of a loving, faithful, monogamous same-sex relationship. If there is a sin, it lies with those literalists and fundamentalists who have used the Bible as a club to beat gays and lesbians over the head.

There are two types of Bible-readers in the Church - those who believe that every word in the Bible is the Word of God, and those who diligently search for the Word of God amid all of those words of people that were written at different times and different places over thousands of years. Tragically there are more literalists in the Church than seekers of the truth. Isn't it amazing that the Christian Church proclaims love of neighbour, even of enemy, and in the same breath condemns some people because of whom they love!

So, a little congregation stepped out of the box and welcomed a gay intern into their midst. May God bless them! It's a good thing burning-at-the-stake is out of fashion.



Taken from The Meta Ball. Used With Permission.