Rainbows: It Ain’t Just About Skittles Anymore

Last week, you couldn’t miss the whole landmark ruling about gay marriage that took the country by storm. Most of my friends had a lot to say for / against the whole thing. Facebook was dotted with rainbow colors across profile pictures, and you couldn’t miss the hot debates some Christians (and non-religious homophobes without the sense God gave a rock) ended up in. It was also noted that I remained neutral. Like the whole Caitlyn Jenner thing, I don’t make snap judgements based on the flow of opinions going on around me. I have to think about things first, before I decide if I want to chime in or not, and what I want to say. I’ve seen some of my fellow Christians get slaughtered while others took a hard stand, got attacked, back-tracked, and are now being treated worse than before they caved. Yikes.

Here’s my take on all of this.

I don’t give a crap if someone is gay or not. For the non-Christians, their only sin is rejecting the Lord, and the gay thing doesn’t come into play at all. For the Christian gays, that is between them and God. I love who I love, and if I only loved people who were living lives in line with God, I would be the loneliest hypocrite on the face of the earth.

My feelings about this are well documented. I wrote about my stepson Cole, who has had more tragedy in his one young life than anyone else I’ve ever met,  being gay (How Important is Sin When You Love Somebody?, #ThisBlogWantsToStopTalkingAboutCaitlynJenner, Salvation Deal-Breakers), and why I felt like the church has erred big time when it comes to people who struggle with this particular sin.

And yes. I do think it is a sin. But, like all the rest of the ways to mess up the Law, including my own particularly foul – flavored set of sins, that is between God and His child.Unless you are that child, butt out.

I have no part in any of it, except to love all men the way He loves me, as best I can. I live in a glass house the size of Texas.It is difficult enough for me to make it through a day without judging, gossiping, losing my temper, worrying, lashing out the list goes on and on… no need to add judging the status of people’s eternal destinations to it when I can’t even get a good grip on my own bullshit.

It is not a sign of cowardice or shame or guilt to refrain from joining in with the multitude of voices all shouting opinions when things like this start flooding the media. I’m not ashamed of the Lord, His statutes, or my adherence to them. I know in some circles I’m considered simple, stupid, fanatical, un-hip, archaic, a hate-monger, and a million other derogatory things. While it is true, I can be un-hip (you should see me dance), the rest is just not true. I’m not simple or stupid. I’m not fanatical or have any desire to spread hatred.

The real mind-twister is, I’m none of these things people often accuse me of,  because of my belief in the Lord. My natural tendencies as a human being are to be judgmental about people different from me; to be arrogant about my own opinions, and deride those that don’t match mine. To think I am more valuable than someone with a lower IQ than me, or who makes less money. I can be an angry person, even now, and my PBOL days showed all too clearly how quickly I’ll throw down in a bar fight over nothing important, spreading my own kind of hate and anger about life in general. I’m woefully human.

I was a fool that was saved out of my foolishness by the grace of Someone who had mercy on me. It would be ridiculous of me, nothing more than a court jester, to assume I have any authority to rule over anyone else’s life, and that includes gay people.

 

I don’t make a big deal about my opinions about gays, or my love for those in my life who are gay, or my religious stances about hot button topics, not out of cowardice or shame, but because I see people as defined by so much more than whether they are gay or not gay; whether they are Christians or not Christians; whether they are boys, or girls, or both, or neither. I don’t care. I think Jesus sees us as complicated, understands what we are capable of and what we are not, and when it’s time to address something in ourselves that needs to be changed, and when it is not time.

I love the gay people in my life, not because I want the world to see me waving my rainbow flag, but because they are people who needed me once upon a time, or who make me laugh, or come through for me as a true friend whenever I need one. They would have been my friends even if I had no idea what their sexual preference was, and I give them the respect of loving them because they are whole people…. not defined by any one flaw or asset; not simple, stupid, or evil. Just my friends and my family, the same as all  the rest of them whose sexual preferences are also none of my business!!

That’s my take on all of this, for what it is worth. I love you, my patchwork quilt of family and friends. Thank you for loving me back. 🙂

 

~ Bird