1. I’ve said it before, but I need to say it again, to reassure all my straight peeps out there. I know that some of you are now wondering, even agonizing: “Is it possible for me to be both straight and Christian? Can I be a practicing heterosexual and a faithful disciple of Jesus at the same time?” Let me just say that though there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary in the Bible and in the world out there, I for one believe that, by God’s grace, it is possible. Don’t believe the naysayers: straight people are beautiful and loved deeply by God.
2. To my queer peeps: remember that not only are we God’s beloved, we are Christ’s own forever and ever – and we are called to lead. Our joy, our awe at God’s beauty, our assurance in Jesus Christ, our Holy Spirit courage and call – the General Conference didn’t give us these things, and so the General Conference can’t take them away!
3. God made us all a promise, and we are heirs – recipients, participants, full-sharers, ministers – according to that promise. So don’t turn back to the margins, or the liminal edges, or the shame of the shadows. No. Live from Christ the Center: cast vision, risk, bless those who need a blessing, bind folks in love, evangelize! And let’s plant a million new Gospel-inclusive churches where people meet Jesus and love has no asterisks and lives are changed. Because we can. Because we are heirs, and so we are free.
LGBTQ or straight, whatever decisions we make in the aftermath of the horrible decisions of this week, I pray that God will help us find, shot through our anger and grief, the space to make our discernment from a place of Christian freedom.
As for me, I’m going to try to take each day as it comes, to keep doing the work that is mine to do, that I’ve been sent to do, and to surrender my life over and over again to the Love Who Excels All Loves, who is the Joy of Heaven Come Down, even Christ our Lord.
May his peace be with all y’all.
Recovering Control Freak 