AND YOU THOUGHT YOU'D HEARD IT ALL

From Candace Chellew-Hodge at Religious Dispatches:

Despite having heard a lot of bluster from the religious right over the years, they still sometimes have the ability to say something so totally brand new, and patently offensive, that it just knocks the wind right out of me. Take this gem quoted in the Colorado Springs Gazette over the weekend in a story about the recent rash of gay teen suicides:

Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., said the rash September suicides by gays might be linked to the students believing they were born gay. “That creates hopelessness,” he said. “It is more loving and compassionate to say you don’t have to be gay for the rest of your lives.”

What would be far more loving and compassionate is for Sprigg and his compatriots to actually engage in a true act of compassion. “Compassion” literally means “to suffer with” or “suffer together.” We can only have compassion for someone when we understand, on a deeply personal level, what, exactly, is the other person’s struggle.

He said that?!!! Well, yes he did. In the name of compassion, no less, Peter Sprigg said that. As the author says, you thought you'd heard it all.

What makes the thought of be “being gay for the rest of your lives” such a horrible, shameful, terrible thought to even bear consideration is because Sprigg and people like him dedicate their entire careers to making the lives of gays and lesbians so incredibly miserable. They produce ridiculous studies full of lies that no reputable psychologist or social scientist would touch with a ten foot pole and when their scientific lies are exposed they play the religion card and say, “well, God didn’t create you gay.”

Just yesterday, included in the the readings from the Lectionary, which were referenced in the two sermons to which I linked, is the story of Ruth, the Moabite, the foreigner, the outcast, the despised, who - surprise! - was given the honor of becoming the great-grandmother of one of the greatest heroes in the Hebrew Testament, King David.

From another reading is the story of Jesus healing ten lepers. Lepers were only permitted in the company of other lepers, but Jesus allowed the lepers to approach him, and he sent them on their way telling them they would be healed. And all ten were healed, but only one returned to thank Jesus, a Samaritan, a twofold outcast, one of the despised that the Jewish people had nothing to do with. Jesus sent the Samaritan off again with the words "...your faith has made you well."

That Ruth and the Samaritan were amongst the despised by the people at the time was of no consequence to God's/Jesus' decision to mark them with favor.

Are there lessons in these stories from the Scriptures for us today about how we view and act toward those who may be numbered amongst the despised, the outcasts, the different, those who are not like us? May we claim that our compassion is godly, if it is offered with conditions attached?

Thanks to Cathy for the link.