Barneyisfat

My great-great grandmother was Frances Greenleaf Knapp. Her cousin was John Greenleaf Whittier, famous Quaker poet. Whittier was rather famous for saying, "we are not shakers!" whenever people misunderstood his faith.

I started reading up about the Shakers. There are 4 of them left. Four. They are praying for more converts, but their radical life of celibacy prevents them from birthing more Shakers. New Laws forbid them to adopt - so they have to wait on converts. They get about 70 requests a year from people who want to join them, but most are rejected because they aren't serious enough about their relationship with God, rejection of sin, or reliance on a communal lifestyle. They are praying for new converts, they get about 70 "applicants" a year - and yet almost all are turned away.

I am almost sure that if a black lesbian showed up at my church with an application for membership we would immediately reject her application. We would explain to her that there are churches more suited for "her kind," I imagine. She can go to a black church or a Metroplolitan Community Church if she wants to continue living in sin. I doubt strongly we would accept her as one of us and allow God to convict her in her sin issue. I personally don't have a problem with a devout Christian confronting another devout Christian about a sin issue in his or her life. I have huge problems when a Christian judges a non-Christian for his or her sin ... and even bigger problems when we outright deny fellowship and membership to someone who is openly living in sin.

Landa Cope said something that suprised me and that I didn't believe. She said that every gay man was abused as a child either sexually or physically. This suprises me and I didn't believe it. I've checked with all of my gay friends and it holds true in my circle of friends. Now, I realize that a lot of people are molested or beaten as children without becoming gay ... but, I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe gay people don't choose their orientation. Maybe the actions of others dictate the orientation of a person. (Nothing revelatory ... just a new thought for me.)

So, I think about these things and I remember that at one point we discriminated against black people. We differentiate our discrimanation of homosexuals from our discrimination of blacks by qualifying that homosexuals choose their lifestyle. If they don't choose their lifestyle ... well, then we are just repeating history. I don't want to ever tell my grandchildren that I didn't learn my lessons from the past. I want them to know that I was a progressive Christian and that I fought for equality for all humans.

Again with these lofty ideals that I can't live up to. I'm not going to stop trying, no sir.