A Loving God for a “Chosen” Lifestyle by Melissa Ann Pink
This week I was in town most of the week (a rarity I know) and as a result I had the opportunity to read the local newspaper everyday. It is a notoriously bad piece of journalism but it does give you the local news and the local views, the latter of which is the basis of my blog this week. It seems that this week was time for the reoccurring battle of wits (they occur about 8-9 times a year and more frequently in election years) between the so called “liberal” thinkers and the narrow- minded Bible thumpers on the issues of acceptance and rights for those of us in the LGBT community (or as the latter group sets forth- those of us on the slow boat to hell because of our “chosen” lifestyle of perversion.)
The battle always starts out like this. Usually, someone in our community risks ridicule and intolerance like only can be found in rural Appalachia of West Virginia by writing a letter to the editor talking about rights for those who are gay, lesbian or possibly transgendered and that Christians should support these rights as an expression of love that is the centerpiece of Christianity (and in fact it is) and that people should support legislation that stops hatred, discrimination, intolerance including hate crimes and hateful speech. They argue they God created all of us and if so, he created those of us who are different because we are gay, lesbian or transgendered. God would not create such people if he did not love them and that Christians should love us too and you cannot love someone if you cannot accept them and believe they have rights as others do. Of course, the argument makes logical sense.
The next day or so is then full of the rebuttal letters. They urge right thinking Christians to only elect others who they as they do before those of us with no morality whatsoever take control of society and force our “ways” upon the rest of the world (Like I will not rest until the entire neighborhood is running around in the clothes and acting in the mannerisms of the gender opposite their birth gender) I know I wake up everyday working on this master sinister plot! They urge the defeat of legislation to prevent crimes against those of us in the LGBT community because it would restrict the preaching of their preachers to speak the word of God written in the Bible that we are an abomination of perversion that is condemned by God and unless we change our ways we are doomed to hell. (Yes it is a lovely place here in repressive West Virginia).These so called “Christians” argue that God did not make us gay or lesbian or transgendered and to contend such is affront to every “God fearing Christian” We chose this” lifestyle” (Yes I clearly remember this when I was around 10-11, I just decided that I needed to risk humiliation and retribution by sneaking off to wear clothes of the opposite gender and I freely elected to be transgendered. (Don’t get me wrong - love being transgendered as I have said many times and I consider it a gift to cherish and embrace in my life but I clearly do not remember anyone explaining my “options” to me and me choosing to be such at anytime in my entire life much less the early years of my life!)
I often wonder what these narrow minded Bible thumpers fear so much in their hate that they pass off as justified by an ancient document with some obscure short references in the even more ancient portion of this text which has been interpreted and written by men and altered through so many language revisions it makes your head spin. I have never seen how Christianity will fall flat on its ear if people of the LGBT community are afforded protections from hatred and violence and the same rights and privileges as all other citizens and human beings. In fact, I would venture to say that if all Christians embraced people of all sorts instead of only those who act and think the same as them and actually followed the teachings of the founder the faith to love all your neighbors (and you cannot love someone if you believe they must change who they are as a person to fit your way of thinking) then the Christian faith might actually grow and prosper.
Needless to say I expect the writings and rankling to continue here in southern West Virginia on these issues for many years to come but at least they make for interesting and sometimes funny reading over my morning coffee and breakfast cereal. However, they also explain why most of the girls down here live in repressed, darkly lit closets and isolation and an abundance of fear. Somehow I get the distinct impression that is not how a loving God would want people to live their lives!
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