Recently in homophobia Category

There have been reports of child molestation by church leaders. Firearm discharge inside churches seems to be on the rise.

With these and other recent events, any organization would do well to examine their security policies. Yet for churches, we might well consider the theological basis of our choices.

For Christians, there is the example of the one who walked with lepers, the lame, adulterers, prostitutes, people with boils, the demon possessed, women with chronic bleeding, and tax collectors. Yet we also have a duty to protect those who are vulnerable.

How do we live grace and faith in God's protection, while caring for those around us?

I sometimes wonder whether I have early-onset Alzheimer's disease. I forget a lot of things, and I seem to remember things that never happened, or were never the way I remember them.

This might be one of them.

I seem to remember a time when places of worship were held sacred, even by people outside the faith. I seem to remember a time when people respected these places even when those people did not believe at all.

I'm really tired of settling. I'm not interested in incremental rights. I'm not willing to support a candidate who talks out of both sides of his - or her - mouth, speaking on one hand of "protecting marriage" from gays and at the same time "supporting gay and lesbian people" with domestic partnerships or civil unions.

Pat Boone tells a fairy tale about how sex education turns kids gay, gives them aids, and watches them die, as reported on Good As You.

Maybe he's trying to get back in the good graces of the far right after his heavy metal album.

     In tales of a pop icon, we learn who the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, supportive, and questioning people are. Some see these people as the enemy, trying to destroy society. If you read the article, you might realize these are real people who are experiencing real harm.

     "Who is my neighbor?" is a question often asked. Jesus told a story about two religious leaders who passed by a man - who had been beaten, stripped naked, and left for dead - for fear that they would become ritually unclean and have to turn back to Jerusalem to be cleansed. An outsider, someone who was considered to be "the wrong kind of people", was moved by compassion and stopped to help the man - even paying for his stay at an inn to recover. The question Jesus asked was "who was the neighbor to the injured man?"

     We all have the choice of being strangers or neighbors. May we be moved by compassion to choose to be neighbors.

     I was part of an online discussion where one of the participants equated two ideas:

• Calling those who oppose homosexuals "homophobic"
• Calling homosexuals "moralphobic"

     So let's examine this. In the first example, people are opposing homosexuality. The term "homophobia" implies fear of homosexuals. Might there be other reasons to oppose homosexuals, other than fear? If there was no fear of harm from homosexuality, what other reason could there be? I will admit I am at a loss here, but perhaps a heterosexual reader can enlighten me.

     In the latter example, homosexuals are opposing... well, no. Homosexuals don't oppose heterosexuality, heterosexual marriage, or celibacy. And homosexuals in general do not oppose morals, although the set of morals they embrace may not include "sex is only for a married man and woman". In fact, many homosexuals want the responsibilities of the bonds of marriage. That hardly seems to be a fear of morals.

     But perhaps I'm missing the point. If I am, I hope someone will explain it to me, and to my female partner of nineteen years.