Dateline: 06/05/98
Earlier this week I added what I believe is a cool, new feature to the site. Mike Montalvo has been collecting news, information and other various resources on the various issues surrounding the Boy Scouts (discrimination against gays, atheists, women....) and compiling them into a list. That list now resides on this site - and it includes a lot of interesting and important information.
Being the kindly soul I am wont to be, I thought immediately of a Girl Scout and Boy Scout web site I know, and let the webmasters of those sites know that of the location of the list, in case it might prove of interest to them or their visitors, and also asked whether they had anything/links to contribute.
I grit my teeth, anticipating rancor from the Boy Scout site and at worst a noncommittal response from the Girl Scout site.
Imagine my surprise, and dismay, when the Girl Scout site wrote back citing Leviticus. You know that passage ---
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Needless to say I was incensed. A vicious response to a business communication. (Oh, don't think I didn't respond with more accurate translations and interpretations of the passage --- and a pointer towards some references regarding same.)
I then steeled myself for the expected onslaught from the Boy Scout site.
And was quietly embarrassed when the response I did receive couldn't have been more welcoming and enlightened.
Which reminded me of a current thread on the Bulletin Boards here. "Erik" posted under the subject, "Young Gay Christians" as follows:
I have been out for 3 years now, from ages 17-20, and let me share something very interesting. It seems somehow that as the GLBT community becomes more upset with the larger portion of the churches in America, they become more upset with Christians in America. When I came out to my church in High School, I had to defend myself tooth and nail. Then, when I came out into my GLBT community I had to defend my Christianity tooth and nail. When will we start talking about the countless numbers of Gay youth who are in church groups and christian colleges? Someone needs to tell them that it IS o.k. to be a young GLBT christian. They are backed into the closet. Stuck in a paradox of Gay Spirit and Christian Spirituality. I have been pretty much alone for these three years as there are very few Young Gay Christians to date. And I know why there aren't any. Because the church pushes them away for being GLBT and we push them away for being Christian. When will it stop!
And he makes a good point.
Oh sure, there are many vociferous and negative so-called christians (and other religious as well, no doubt), but we all know that they are not speaking for anybody, certainly not any deity, but themselves. They crave power and position, and use us as their means to an end - much as they used to speak of the evil of the Equal Rights Amendment, and how it would create untenable situations such as [gasp!] coed bathrooms (which actually look like a lot of fun on Ally McBeal.
Some of us are not religious at all. Others are extremely religious, and many of us are religious in "our own way." (I fall into the latter category.)
Why do we always assume that certain people are "out to get us" and others are automatically "good guys?"
We spend a good portion of our time trying to get the message out to the general populace that our differences are not so substantial that we should be reviled, and within our own community that our various diversities should be celebrated, and should not further divide us.
Yet, how often do we assume or expect a reaction from an individual, based upon what group or groups they belong to?
Too often, I'm sure.
And how often are we wrong?
Often enough, no doubt.
So, let's be careful out there.
In Pride,
Deborah