Serve Suffering Humanity
One of the things we all love about The Salvation Army is that we serve suffering humanity. But who are they?
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus gives us the greatest commandment: love God with everything we’ve got and love our neighbour as ourselves.
When asked “who is my neighbour”, Jesus spoke about the Samaritans. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews, and yet Jesus said to love them!
Love the GLBTIQ’s
In our modern day context another ‘Samaritan’ group that we often don’t think of as our neighbours are the GLBTIQ community.
No, that’s not code. The GLBTIQ community is the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer community. And I would suggest they are one of the most marginalised groups in our nation today.
Disagree? See the research below:
“Homosexual or bisexual junior high school and senior high school boys are seven times more likely than heterosexual boys of the same age to report suicide attempts.” (Nicholas J, Howard J [1998]. Better to be dead than gay? A study of suicidal behaviour in a sample of Australian gay and straight males aged 18-24.)
God Hates Fags?
What do you think about our gay brothers and sisters? Do you care about them? Do you care about the issue? Do you not really have an opinion either way?
The reality is that in the last 50 years, people (in particular people who claim to follow Jesus) have had some pretty mean and horrible things to say about the GLBTIQ community.
They picket with signs that say, “God hates fags”; “You’re going to hell”; “Got Aids Yet?”.
Really ugly stuff, hey?
I’m not trying to take a political or moral position here. I’m just trying to challenge you, as people who seek to follow Jesus, in your response to the gay community.
Changing The Attitude
For many years, I thought I had the ‘gay’ thing figured out. It was sin; clear-cut, black and white, and people who ‘suffered’ from it just needed to change. Overall, my attitude was incredibly un-accepting.
My thoughts were challenged when I started working in Surry Hills. The inner city of Sydney has the highest percentage of gay people living there, and I began to actually meet and connect with GLBTIQ people.
To further complicate matters, I befriended young people who honestly loved Jesus but had a same-sex orientation. Gay Christian? It didn’t make sense that these two words could co-exist.
Marching With 100 Revs
I was forced to begin re-evaluating what I thought and where I stood. It was in this spirit that, a few weekends ago, I decided to march in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras with a group called 100 Revs.
100 Revs marches to apologise to the GLBTIQ community for the awful way in which Christians and the Church have treated them and unfortunately, in many cases, continue to treat them.
In the midst of tens of thousands of people, I found myself carrying a sign that said, “Christians say sorry”.
In my opinion, the church’s position or a few Bible verses don’t trump what Jesus says is the greatest commandment — to love God and to love my neighbour, even if they are gay.
Jesus the trouble maker
After marching in the Mardi Gras I copped some criticism from certain people and groups. While I wasn’t worried about this, I realised that this was the first time I’d ever felt like I’d done something controversial!
It was out of this experience that I began to read the Bible with new eyes. And I realised that Jesus was a trouble maker! In fact he got in trouble all the time!
And he wasn’t on his own. Many of the key men and women we read about in the Bible got into all sorts of trouble for deciding to pick fights with the structures, systems and attitudes of their day that discriminated, enslaved and de-humanised people.
Ever been accused of being controversial?
In our pursuit of serving suffering humanity and working for justice there are going to be times when we need to be radical. There will be moments where we need to take a stand against injustice, even if it’s ‘the church’ that’s guilty of perpetrating it.
When I marched with 100 Revs in the Mardi Gras, it was to communicate a message of apology and humility to the GLBTIQ community instead of hatred and fear.
The attitude which has been shown to them is unjust and we responded by coming against those voices and speaking the opposite.
Jesus was often caught speaking out against injustice and oppression of people even when it landed him in hot water, and even when it was against the religious and spiritual structures of his day.
