LONDON (Web Desk) – The Church of England is under immense pressure to support gay marriage after it has been legalized in the US by a Supreme Court decree.
The Church of England still holds that marriage is between one man and one woman, but it is under pressure to change as its governing body meets in York this week. Members of all kinds of churches, from Pentecostals to the Vatican, suddenly have to decide where they want to be on the rainbow.
On the other hand, the challenge to those who find themselves on the winning side now is not to crow, not to condemn faith just because a few people use it to justify their bigotry, and to understand that not everybody who has a faith is against them.
Sally Hitchiner takes it further, asking them to forgive.
So, her group gave out leaflets at Pride, saying: “We’re sorry if anyone has ever told you that God doesn’t love you. God loves everyone.”
The Reverend Sally Hitchiner has an answer that is breathtakingly audacious. “We can’t move forward until lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people forgive their oppressors. That is the big challenge facing the LGBT community. We are never going to reach Utopia until we all get there.”
Franklin Graham, who inherited his position as one of America’s leading evangelists, says “God could bring judgement on America” over this – which brings to mind the day in 1993, when his father, Dr Billy Graham, said he thought Aids was God’s judgement on gays.
This is the bad end of the rainbow, where the hate lies on all sides.
Some gay-rights activists make no secret of their hatred for believers and have taken direct action, particularly in the States. They have disrupted services, broken stained-glass windows and called for churches to be stripped of their charitable status.
“The fear is that people who are not like us are going to force us to be like them. That is on both sides, and it is what we have to overcome now,” says Sally Hitchiner, who has experienced it both ways.
The chaplain at Brunel University campaigned for equality long before she was accidentally outed in a television interview, and founded a movement called Diverse Church for LGBT young people.
She was also among the hundreds of Christians taking part in Pride last weekend in London.
“Too many easy statements get made. The non-religious get the message that God hates fags. The Christians hear that you can’t be gay and have a faith. Neither of those things is true.”
Courtesy: The Independent
