One day after the horrible “Nashville Statement,” I was glad to find this article in the Huffington Post, describing numerous defenses of LGBT persons (in and out of the Church) by Christians, including signing statements that both denounced the Nashville Statement and strongly affirmed LGBT people. I looked up the “Christians United” statement mentioned in the article and I loved it, so I signed on (since I am a Christian in a pro-LGBT congregation, and the father of a bi-sexual daughter and uncle of a gay nephew) and was pleased to find numerous friends among the early signers.
There is also a statement by a group calling itself “The Liturgists,” which is, in some ways, even stronger in exposing the misuse of Scripture in “The Nashville Statement,” such as the ways it was used to justify slavery, bans on interracial marriage, genocide, and war. (I could add other misuses, but I need to keep this diary short.)
I knew that such statements would be forthcoming. What delights me, as a liberal and progressive Christian, is to find how organized the response is and how quickly it came!
I urge DKos readers/members to read the HuffPo article and the statements in response. I urge this especially to those whose only exposure to Christian faith is from the U.S. Religious Right, the politicized fundamentalists who have far too much influence on U. S. politics. They no more speak for all of us Christians than the Taliban or Isis speak for all (or most) Muslims.
It is tiring to have to say constantly, “That’s a distortion of what we believe.” (I completely empathize with a statement that used to appear at the top front page of the website of the Muslim Peace Fellowship, “Whatever atrocity has just been committed and whoever has claimed responsibility, we denounce it!”) It hurts to have people like the signers of The Nashville Statement constantly drag my faith through the mud and then to find so many of my fellow liberals and progressives say, “Yep, that’s what they’re all like.”
Of course, for LGBT folk, such exhaustion is a luxury, an example of my privilege as a straight, white, (Southern, Christian) cis-male. They have to deal with bans on military service (in the midst of endless wars that others simply watch on TV), stupid laws on which toilets they can use, “religious liberty” laws to protect the rights of caterers to discriminate, limelight-seeking county clerks who want to refuse to do their jobs without quitting or being fired, and constant threats of violence, often violence inspired by “religious” leaders such as the authors and signers of The Nashville Statement. Especially for those without my privilege, I am glad that these responses are both strong and came out very quickly. I expect more to follow. It’s time to marginalize the Religious Right and take away its megaphone.