Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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The family of God
Moving beyond division and embracing our differences helps us connect with our sisters and brothers. You may wish to recite this in your worshipping community or simply offer it as a prayer.
As the family of God,
we affirm that this is the place where we have no prejudice.
Under God, here we may be mothers, fathers, and children,
beyond the limits of genes and blood.
Here we are children
called to love as God loves:
as mothers would care for their own;
as fathers would protect their own.
Here, it is not our blood which holds us apart,
but the blood of Jesus which draws us together.
Here is our fulfillment, as we follow the one
who has mothered and fathered us.
From Courage To Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Copyright 2002 Geoffrey Duncan. Reprinted with permission.
Contributed by Duncan L. Tuck
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/the-family-of-god/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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How to Begin
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Worship
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Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
The family of God
Moving beyond division and embracing our differences helps us connect with our sisters and brothers. You may wish to recite this in your worshipping community or simply offer it as a prayer.
As the family of God,
we affirm that this is the place where we have no prejudice.
Under God, here we may be mothers, fathers, and children,
beyond the limits of genes and blood.
Here we are children
called to love as God loves:
as mothers would care for their own;
as fathers would protect their own.
Here, it is not our blood which holds us apart,
but the blood of Jesus which draws us together.
Here is our fulfillment, as we follow the one
who has mothered and fathered us.
From Courage To Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Copyright 2002 Geoffrey Duncan. Reprinted with permission.
Contributed by Duncan L. Tuck
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Encourage learning
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/the-family-of-god/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
We rejoice in our diversity
This call helps us center ourselves in God's presence to celebrate all of who we are.
One: In the name of the Creator who made us,
Many: We celebrate the goodness of our lives.
One: In the name of the Christ who came to set us free,
Many: We rejoice in our diversity of love and life.
One: In the name of the Spirit who sustains us,
Many: We challenge ourselves to grow and to dream.
One: God, in your presence we gather,
Many: Be among us now!
By Justin Tanis, From Courage To Love, Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Copyright 2002 Geoffrey Duncan. Used with permission.
Contributed by Justin Tanis
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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Encourage learning
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-rejoice-in-our-diversity/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
We rejoice in our diversity
This call helps us center ourselves in God's presence to celebrate all of who we are.
One: In the name of the Creator who made us,
Many: We celebrate the goodness of our lives.
One: In the name of the Christ who came to set us free,
Many: We rejoice in our diversity of love and life.
One: In the name of the Spirit who sustains us,
Many: We challenge ourselves to grow and to dream.
One: God, in your presence we gather,
Many: Be among us now!
By Justin Tanis, From Courage To Love, Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd. Copyright 2002 Geoffrey Duncan. Used with permission.
Contributed by Justin Tanis
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
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RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-rejoice-in-our-diversity/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
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Get Involved
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Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
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Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Gift of inclusion
Celebrates sexual and gender diversity as a blessing that enriches us all.
We are grateful for the gift of our lives and the gift of
others in our lives.
Each of us is created with dignity and worth.
We are called to love each other and to do nothing to
others that we would find hateful to ourselves.
We honor the many ways that people live and love.
We repent for the times when our faith traditions have
named lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
unworthy.
Love does not exclude. We are all worthy.
We suffer when LGBT persons are oppressed, excluded
and shamed by religious people who overlook the
fundamental call to justice in our scriptures.
True justice flourishes when we can live with
authenticity and integrity.
May we work to build a community where LGBT people
are celebrated as full and equal members, recognizing
their many gifts.
We celebrate sexual and gender diversity as a blessing
that enriches us all.
By the Religious Institute. © Religious Institute 2010 . Used with permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/gift-of-inclusion/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
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Get Involved
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Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
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Education
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Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Gift of inclusion
Celebrates sexual and gender diversity as a blessing that enriches us all.
We are grateful for the gift of our lives and the gift of
others in our lives.
Each of us is created with dignity and worth.
We are called to love each other and to do nothing to
others that we would find hateful to ourselves.
We honor the many ways that people live and love.
We repent for the times when our faith traditions have
named lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
unworthy.
Love does not exclude. We are all worthy.
We suffer when LGBT persons are oppressed, excluded
and shamed by religious people who overlook the
fundamental call to justice in our scriptures.
True justice flourishes when we can live with
authenticity and integrity.
May we work to build a community where LGBT people
are celebrated as full and equal members, recognizing
their many gifts.
We celebrate sexual and gender diversity as a blessing
that enriches us all.
By the Religious Institute. © Religious Institute 2010 . Used with permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/gift-of-inclusion/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
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Get Involved
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Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
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Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
In the presence of God
Being fully present in each moment of the worship opens the potential for awe, joy, splendor and wonder. This brief Call to Worship reminds us to expect something transformative.
One: Just a taste of something wonderful.
All: Only a glimpse of something magnificent.
One: Just a glimmer of something holy in something so ordinary.
All: Yet, enough to know we are in the presence of God.
One: Enough to cause us to stop and stare in awe,
All: Enough to stir our hearts in wonder,
One: Enough to set our feet to dancing
All: And to prompt our voices to protest and praise.
By Reconciling Congregation Program From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, Copyright 2000. Reprinted by permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/in-the-presence-of-god/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
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Worship
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
In the presence of God
Being fully present in each moment of the worship opens the potential for awe, joy, splendor and wonder. This brief Call to Worship reminds us to expect something transformative.
One: Just a taste of something wonderful.
All: Only a glimpse of something magnificent.
One: Just a glimmer of something holy in something so ordinary.
All: Yet, enough to know we are in the presence of God.
One: Enough to cause us to stop and stare in awe,
All: Enough to stir our hearts in wonder,
One: Enough to set our feet to dancing
All: And to prompt our voices to protest and praise.
By Reconciling Congregation Program From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, Copyright 2000. Reprinted by permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/in-the-presence-of-god/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
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Worship
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Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
All one body
We bring the full expression of who we are to worship celebration so we can connect with one another and with God. This Call to Worship beautifully invites us to voice it.
Voice I: We are the body of Christ!
Voice II: The hand clapping, toe tapping, heart pumping, mouth tasting, arms embracing,
Voice III: Justice seeking, hymn singing, love making, bread breaking, risk taking
All: Body of Christ!
Voice I: Baptized by one Spirit, we are members of one body.
All: Many and varied in gender, color, sexuality, age, class and ability, we are members of Christ’s beautiful body.
Voice II: None of us can say to another, “I have no need of you.”
All: For only together can we find wholeness.
Voice III: None of us can say to another, “I will not care for you.”
All: For we are connected like muscle and bone. If one suffers; we all suffer. If one rejoices, we all rejoice!
Voice I: Thanks be to God who in Christ has made us one.
All: Let us worship God!
By Ann B. Day From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright © 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Used with permission.
Contributed by Ann B. Day
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/all-one-body/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
All one body
We bring the full expression of who we are to worship celebration so we can connect with one another and with God. This Call to Worship beautifully invites us to voice it.
Voice I: We are the body of Christ!
Voice II: The hand clapping, toe tapping, heart pumping, mouth tasting, arms embracing,
Voice III: Justice seeking, hymn singing, love making, bread breaking, risk taking
All: Body of Christ!
Voice I: Baptized by one Spirit, we are members of one body.
All: Many and varied in gender, color, sexuality, age, class and ability, we are members of Christ’s beautiful body.
Voice II: None of us can say to another, “I have no need of you.”
All: For only together can we find wholeness.
Voice III: None of us can say to another, “I will not care for you.”
All: For we are connected like muscle and bone. If one suffers; we all suffer. If one rejoices, we all rejoice!
Voice I: Thanks be to God who in Christ has made us one.
All: Let us worship God!
By Ann B. Day From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright © 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Used with permission.
Contributed by Ann B. Day
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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Employment
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Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
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Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/all-one-body/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Call to Worship
Refine Your Search
Church SeasonsChristmas & Epiphany (1)
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Resources in "Call to Worship"
Come all who are blessed
Call to Worship, Worship
An invitation to worship and acts of justice in the world.
Light of Epiphany
Call to Worship, Christmas & Epiphany, Church Seasons, Worship
Our light shines even brighter as we work for justice in the world.
Celebration and Praise
Call to Worship, Worship
We celebrate and praise God out of the richness of our experience with God.
In-betweens too
Call to Worship, Worship
Come as you are and welcome others as they are.
Opening sentences
Call to Worship, Worship
These beautiful opening sentences remind us to embrace the freedom granted to us in faith. You may wish to use this resource as a Call to worship or a recited prayer.
The family of God
Call to Worship, Worship
Moving beyond division and embracing our differences helps us connect with our sisters and brothers. You may wish to recite this in your worshipping community or simply offer it as a prayer.
We rejoice in our diversity
Call to Worship, Worship
This call helps us center ourselves in God's presence to celebrate all of who we are.
Gift of inclusion
Call to Worship, Worship
Celebrates sexual and gender diversity as a blessing that enriches us all.
In the presence of God
Call to Worship, Worship
Being fully present in each moment of the worship opens the potential for awe, joy, splendor and wonder. This brief Call to Worship reminds us to expect something transformative.
All one body
Call to Worship, Worship
We bring the full expression of who we are to worship celebration so we can connect with one another and with God. This Call to Worship beautifully invites us to voice it.
About
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Our team
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Contact us
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Share resources on sexuality & gender
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Donate now
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/call-to-worship/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Church SeasonsChristmas & Epiphany (1)
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Resources in "Call to Worship"
Come all who are blessed
Call to Worship, Worship
An invitation to worship and acts of justice in the world.
Light of Epiphany
Call to Worship, Christmas & Epiphany, Church Seasons, Worship
Our light shines even brighter as we work for justice in the world.
Celebration and Praise
Call to Worship, Worship
We celebrate and praise God out of the richness of our experience with God.
In-betweens too
Call to Worship, Worship
Come as you are and welcome others as they are.
Opening sentences
Call to Worship, Worship
These beautiful opening sentences remind us to embrace the freedom granted to us in faith. You may wish to use this resource as a Call to worship or a recited prayer.
The family of God
Call to Worship, Worship
Moving beyond division and embracing our differences helps us connect with our sisters and brothers. You may wish to recite this in your worshipping community or simply offer it as a prayer.
We rejoice in our diversity
Call to Worship, Worship
This call helps us center ourselves in God's presence to celebrate all of who we are.
Gift of inclusion
Call to Worship, Worship
Celebrates sexual and gender diversity as a blessing that enriches us all.
In the presence of God
Call to Worship, Worship
Being fully present in each moment of the worship opens the potential for awe, joy, splendor and wonder. This brief Call to Worship reminds us to expect something transformative.
All one body
Call to Worship, Worship
We bring the full expression of who we are to worship celebration so we can connect with one another and with God. This Call to Worship beautifully invites us to voice it.
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We praise you God for you have made
A prayer of appreciation for the creative intentions of God.
We praise you God for you have made
A world of such variety;
A world of color, light and shade,
Of varied sexuality.
We come as ones who love you, God,
In many different frames and ways.
Indulge us, help us find a place
To share your loving, daring days.
We hold each other, hold us now
And never, ever let us go
God, give us generosity
That we may share the love we know.
Amen.
By Andrew Pratt, Courage To Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community, Compiled by Geoffrey Duncan, The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland 2002.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-praise-you-god-for-you-have-made/
Many Voices
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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We praise you God for you have made
A prayer of appreciation for the creative intentions of God.
We praise you God for you have made
A world of such variety;
A world of color, light and shade,
Of varied sexuality.
We come as ones who love you, God,
In many different frames and ways.
Indulge us, help us find a place
To share your loving, daring days.
We hold each other, hold us now
And never, ever let us go
God, give us generosity
That we may share the love we know.
Amen.
By Andrew Pratt, Courage To Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community, Compiled by Geoffrey Duncan, The Pilgrim Press, Cleveland 2002.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-praise-you-god-for-you-have-made/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Sending forth
Conclude the celebration by pronouncing blessing upon all, and especially the newly married couple.
Example 1:
God the Creator, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that you may so faithfully live together in this life, that in the age to come you may have life everlasting.
Amen.
Example 2:
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord’s countenance shine upon you and
be gracious unto you. May God bless you all the days of your life and grant you peace.
Amen.
Example 3:
God the Creator, the Christ, the Holy Spirit bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord
graciously with his favor look upon you, and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and
love that you may so live together in this life that in the world to come you may have life
everlasting.
Amen.
Contributed by Reverend Mary Kraus
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/sending-forth-2/
Many Voices
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Sending forth
Conclude the celebration by pronouncing blessing upon all, and especially the newly married couple.
Example 1:
God the Creator, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord mercifully look upon you, and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace; that you may so faithfully live together in this life, that in the age to come you may have life everlasting.
Amen.
Example 2:
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord’s countenance shine upon you and
be gracious unto you. May God bless you all the days of your life and grant you peace.
Amen.
Example 3:
God the Creator, the Christ, the Holy Spirit bless, preserve, and keep you; the Lord
graciously with his favor look upon you, and so fill you with all spiritual benediction and
love that you may so live together in this life that in the world to come you may have life
everlasting.
Amen.
Contributed by Reverend Mary Kraus
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/sending-forth-2/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Going forth in confidence
Journeying with the grace and guidance of God calms us.
As we leave this place,
we leave knowing that we are God’s own children.
All that we have and all that we are is a sacred trust from God.
From this moment on, let us live with gratitude for who we are and commit ourselves to honor each person as a beloved child of God.
May the blessing of the God of ALL:
the One who creates,
the One who redeems,
and the One who sustains,
go with us and guide us every step of the way.
Amen.
By Reverend Wes Jamison.Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/going-forth-in-confidence/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Going forth in confidence
Journeying with the grace and guidance of God calms us.
As we leave this place,
we leave knowing that we are God’s own children.
All that we have and all that we are is a sacred trust from God.
From this moment on, let us live with gratitude for who we are and commit ourselves to honor each person as a beloved child of God.
May the blessing of the God of ALL:
the One who creates,
the One who redeems,
and the One who sustains,
go with us and guide us every step of the way.
Amen.
By Reverend Wes Jamison.Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/going-forth-in-confidence/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Sending forth
In Christ we experience our wholeness, we are a new creation. As you have received God’s grace, go now and dare to reach out to others...
In Christ we experience our wholeness,
we are a new creation.
As you have received God’s grace,
go now and dare to reach out to others,
To help others reconcile and make new.
And the presence of God, who is our Creator,
Redeemer and Sustainer, will go with you.
From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church. edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright © 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Reprinted by permission.
Contributed by Kelly Turney
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Encourage learning
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/sending-forth/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Sending forth
In Christ we experience our wholeness, we are a new creation. As you have received God’s grace, go now and dare to reach out to others...
In Christ we experience our wholeness,
we are a new creation.
As you have received God’s grace,
go now and dare to reach out to others,
To help others reconcile and make new.
And the presence of God, who is our Creator,
Redeemer and Sustainer, will go with you.
From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church. edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright © 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Reprinted by permission.
Contributed by Kelly Turney
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Our team
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Contact us
Encourage learning
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/sending-forth/
Many Voices
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Sending Forth
Refine Your Search
WorshipPrayers for Various Occasions (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Resources in "Sending Forth"
We praise you God for you have made
Prayers for Various Occasions, Sending Forth, Worship
A prayer of appreciation for the creative intentions of God.
Sending forth
Sending Forth, Worship
Conclude the celebration by pronouncing blessing upon all, and especially the newly married couple.
Going forth in confidence
Sending Forth, Worship
Journeying with the grace and guidance of God calms us.
Sending forth
Sending Forth, Worship
In Christ we experience our wholeness, we are a new creation. As you have received God’s grace, go now and dare to reach out to others...
About
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Our team
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Contact us
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Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/sending-forth/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Sending Forth
Refine Your Search
WorshipPrayers for Various Occasions (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Resources in "Sending Forth"
We praise you God for you have made
Prayers for Various Occasions, Sending Forth, Worship
A prayer of appreciation for the creative intentions of God.
Sending forth
Sending Forth, Worship
Conclude the celebration by pronouncing blessing upon all, and especially the newly married couple.
Going forth in confidence
Sending Forth, Worship
Journeying with the grace and guidance of God calms us.
Sending forth
Sending Forth, Worship
In Christ we experience our wholeness, we are a new creation. As you have received God’s grace, go now and dare to reach out to others...
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/sending-forth/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Welcome to the table
All may dine here in assurance of God's love.
So many of us know the pain of rejection at the hands of family, friends, and faith communities.
There is no rejection at this table, for we welcome all to Christ’s table as God has welcomed us.
Come, for this table is open to all.
By Rev. Wes Jamison, Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/welcome-to-the-table/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Welcome to the table
All may dine here in assurance of God's love.
So many of us know the pain of rejection at the hands of family, friends, and faith communities.
There is no rejection at this table, for we welcome all to Christ’s table as God has welcomed us.
Come, for this table is open to all.
By Rev. Wes Jamison, Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Resources in "Eucharist"
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Eucharist, Worship
All may dine here in assurance of God's love.
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How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
When someone claims they “know what the Bible says,” learn from this 6×9 card how to respond in a way that respects LGBT Christians and creates an opening for dialogue.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.
Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Attachments:
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_2
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_1
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/how-to-respond-bible-lgbt/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
When someone claims they “know what the Bible says,” learn from this 6×9 card how to respond in a way that respects LGBT Christians and creates an opening for dialogue.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.
Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Attachments:
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_2
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_1
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
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RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/how-to-respond-bible-lgbt/
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Don’t Blame It on the Bible
Most Americans who oppose gay rights and same-sex marriage justify their opposition by turning to the Bible. But does the Bible really condemn homosexuality? Ironically it never answers that question conclusively. In fact, the biblical basis for the demonization of homosexuality is very thin and, ultimately, not at all decisive.
Oddly enough, the notions of homosexuality that are so deeply rooted in American culture and law are based upon a surprisingly small number of biblical passages. If progressives are to successfully address the supposed divinely sanctioned circumscription of gay Americans’ constitutional rights, it is crucial that they understand the biblical arguments that gay rights opponents use to justify their resistance. What follows is a brief primer on what progressives need to know about what the Bible says — and does not say — about homosexuality.
The concept of “homosexuality” is new, not biblical
First, it is important to recognize that the peoples of biblical antiquity had no idea of homosexuality as identity, orientation or lifestyle. The term “homosexuality” was not even coined until the latter half of the 19th century. In fact, the first use of “homosexual” or its cognate in any biblical translation in any language did not occur until 1946 with the Revised Standard Version.
The Genesis story of Sodom and Gomorrah: Sins of pride, sloth, and selfishness.
As for the Bible, its first supposed condemnation of homosexuality is the well-known Genesis story of Sodom and Gomorrah, from which we get the term “sodomite” and “sodomy law,” the latter of which criminalizes same gender sex, even between mature and consenting adults.
In Genesis we are told that a group of men insisted that Lot send out to them his three male visitors (whom the crowd didn’t know were angels) so they could sexually abuse them (Genesis 19:4-9).
Even the most cursory reading of this text reveals that it neither states nor implies that the men in the offending crowd were anything other than heterosexuals; we are simply told that they sought to humiliate and gang rape Lot’s guests. Yet from this somehow it has been derived that the crowd was comprised of homosexual men and that homosexualitywas rampant in Sodom. The inescapable conclusion is that the use of the term “sodomite” as a signifier for a homosexual person has absolutely no basis in the Bible — none. This is crucial to recognize because much of the homophobia plaguing the world today can be traced to this tragic misunderstanding.
This has resulted in the wrong-headed conclusion, now widely accepted as biblical truth, that Sodom was destroyed as punishment for the “sin” of homosexuality, an interpretation that doesn’t actually seem to have actually entered Christian discourse until medieval times — a full millennium after the final form of the Bible was canonized.
However, the Bible itself tells a different story, that long before the crowd clamored for Lot’s guests, God had already condemned Sodom as “wicked,” an apparent catch-all phrase for all types of transgressions (Genesis 13:13).
What did Sodom’s wickedness entail? Ezekiel explains that it was not sexual sins, but rather “pride, excess of food [that is, for greed and unwillingness to share], … prosperous ease” and because it “did not aid the poor and needy” (16:49-50). The prophet Jeremiah gives the same general reason (23:13), as does Jesus (Matthew 10:14-15). In fact, biblical references to Sodom and Gomorrah overwhelmingly cite the issues of unscrupulousness and domination of others as their fatal transgressions; there is little if any mention of any kind of sex.
The inescapable conclusion is that the use of the term “sodomite” as a signifier for a homosexual person has absolutely no basis in the Bible — none. This is crucial to recognize because much of the homophobia plaguing the world today can be traced to this tragic misunderstanding.
However, if anyone is hell-bent on believing that the abusive crowd was really homosexual and that the entire Sodom narrative is divinely sanctioned and literally true, then they must also accept that the Sodom narrative also gives divine approval to sending daughters out to be gang-raped. One just cannot be a biblical literalist only when it suits one’s case.
Deuteronomy & Leviticus: Meant to protect the Israelites from surrounding cultures
There are only two other direct references to male-on-male sex in the Old Testament, one in Deuteronomy and one in Leviticus (interestingly, lesbianism is never mentioned in the Old Testament). The context for these Old Testament references is the Israelite’s immigration into the land of Canaan, whose society already had well-established religious customs. As newcomers, there was much pressure for the outnumbered Israelites to assimilate into the Canaanite religious orbit, so laws and instructions were sacralized to prevent it.
One of the religious practices the biblical commands sought to keep Israelites from adopting was the ritual of male Canaanite priests honoring goddess figures by dressing like women, taking on social roles associated with women and, in some cases, even having themselves castrated. Another alarming practice was male and female Canaanite ritual temple prostitution, apparently for the purpose of appeasing their gods of fertility. The Israelites were forcefully admonished to avoid these practices: “None of the daughters of Israel shall be qedeshah (literally “a female holy/consecrated one” — that is, a temple prostitute) — “nor shall any of the sons of Israel be qadesh” — a male temple prostitute (23:17).
It is with this backdrop of Canaanite temple practices that cross-dressing by Israelites is declared an “abomination” (Deuteronomy 22:5). It is also in this context that the following commandments are issued: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22); and, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:13).
These pronouncements have the appearance of timeless biblical laws, yet they were explicitly codified — with little sense of the complexity of human sexuality — to protect Israelites from seduction into the more powerful alien cultures that surrounded them. One of the most telling statements that the primary purpose of these pronouncements was to ensure that Israelites cleave only to the God and religion of Israel is this : “You are to be holy” (qadosh, “set apart”, i.e., from the practices of other societies) “as I myself (God) am holy” (Leviticus 19:1-2).
But again, if anyone chooses to accept the Bible’s denunciations, even prescriptions of death for “a man lies with a male,” then what about other biblical commandments that prescribe murder for disobedient children, for those who have sex during a woman’s menstrual cycle? What about the commandments to stone to death adulterers (although a man could only commit adultery against the wife of another, never against his own), and the execution by stoning of women raped in the city, with the logic that if their rape was “legitimate” (shades of Rep. Todd Akins!), they would have been sure to scream loudly enough to be rescued? There is no leeway for picking and choosing. Again, either you are a biblical literalist or not.
As for the Old Testament, that’s it for references to same gender sex. Not a word in Proverbs or the Psalms. The biblical prophets rail against every social and moral transgression in Israel, yet not one of them says a word about same gender sexuality. In fact, the Old Testament talks much more about adultery, incest, even about having sex with animals than it even alludes to same gender sexual intimacy.
So when considered in proper social and historical context, we find no unambiguous condemnations in the Old Testament of what we today call homosexuality, and no mention at all of lesbianism. But what we do find is the story of the love between David and Jonathan.
In Samuel appears the holy love between Jonathan and David
In the first of two biblical texts attributed to the prophet Samuel, we are told that “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David … and Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul” and that Jonathan sealed their covenant of love by giving gifts to David (1 Samuel 18:1-4). Later, David and Jonathan are described as “kissing each other and weeping” at their separation (20:41).
After Jonathan’s untimely death, David cries out to him, “Your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:20).
Here we have a biblical story of a great love between two men that is said to be even dearer to them than the love of women. Would this love be considered any less beautiful, would it descend from sacred to profane, become worthy of disgust or even of death, if we were to learn that the physical contact between Jonathan and the messianic figure David went further than mere kissing?
It is a worthy question, because the biblical narrative of the love between David and Jonathan attests — in sacred scripture, no less — that love between two men can be as deep and as holy as any other love.
Paul speaks of heterosexuals exchanging “natural” acts for ”unnatural” ones.
When it comes to the New Testament, the most significant passages thought to specifically condemn homosexuality are found in Romans and First Corinthians. In Romans the apostle Paul writes, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving due penalty for their error” (1:26).
There is nothing in the words of Jesus that gives even the smallest sense that one will be judged by what goes on in the privacy of one’s bedroom.
Contrary to widespread misinterpretations, here Paul’s focus is not homosexuality, but “dishonorable passions,” lust, orgiastic acting out, folks just “freaking,” as they say in the street.
Paul explicitly speaks about heterosexuals exchanging what is “natural” for what is “unnatural.” That’s why he calls their passions “unnatural,” because they are doing what is unnatural for them as heterosexuals; for gay people, on the other hand, sexual intimacy with members of their own gender is not unnatural, it is purely natural.
Like everyone else in antiquity, Paul had no concept of homosexual identity or orientation; no other idea of human identity was available in his world. So what he could only have been condemning certain unidentified over-the-top, lustful sexual actions by heterosexual people.
Therefore Paul’s condemnation of “unnatural lusts” cannot be used as a biblical support for condemning same gender love and intimacy; indeed, he is not describing love at all. But notice that here Paul has made an argument from nature, declaring what is natural and what is not. If opponents of equal rights for gay Americans accept Paul’s argument from nature, why can’t the recent insights of modern science be taken similarly seriously that sexual identities evolve in early childhood and, in a yet undetermined percentage of gays, seem to have genetic origins?
Paul’s meaning can’t be known
In First Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul further writes, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes (malakoi), sodomites (arsenokoita), thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers — none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Malakos, the term translated as “male prostitute,” literally means “soft” or “effeminate,” and is thought by many scholars to refer to male child prostitutes who, of course, rarely assumed that role without coercion; or perhaps it refers to pedophiles. The meaning of arsenokoitai, the term variously translated as “sodomite” and “sexual pervert,” is not fully clear to us today, but it does seem to refer to some form of homosexual relationship, possibly exploitive in nature. Perhaps here malakoi refers to youths who are sexually used and arsenokoita to the men who use them, though we can’t be certain.
In the final analysis, however, no one can say with absolute certainty or integrity what Paul actually means in this passage.
Jesus said not one word about homosexuality
Finally we come to the Gospels. Nowhere in any of the four Gospels does Jesus speak even one word about homosexuality. What he does say is that the two paramount commandments — those that must be obeyed — are to “love your Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength … and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
But how can you love your neighbor as yourself if you would deny your neighbor — any neighbor — the happiness and social acceptability of their love and the opportunity to sacralize their committed spousal relationship in the eyes of God that you treasure for yourself?
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that the primary way each of us will be judged as worthy of eternal life, as he puts it, is not by whom you share intimate love, but instead by whether or not we have lived justly, if we have tried to serve those in need and labored to establish justice in the land.
There is nothing in the words of Jesus that gives even the smallest sense that one will be judged by what goes on in the privacy of one’s bedroom.
And what is traditional marriage in the Bible?
Speaking of bedrooms, the term “traditional marriage” is often used to challenge the very notion of gay marriage. Yet the Bible speaks of a number of kinds of marital relationships without condemnation and without presenting any of them as “traditional.”
•There is polygamy, concubinage (“shacking up” or a woman on the side, in today’s parlance).
•There is Sarah’s urging of Abraham to impregnate their slave Hagar,
•Jacob marrying the sisters Rachel and Leah simultaneously and impregnating the female slave of each to boot.
•For his part, without criticism or a tinge of judgment Jesus speaks of serial polygamy, called Levirite marriage, which holds that if a man dies childless his widow was to engage in sex with his eldest brother to impregnate her in the name of her dead husband. If the eldest brother died without giving her a child, she went on to the next brother, then the next, then the next, until she became pregnant or ran out of brothers.
In that none of these marital arrangements are condemned or even treated as exceptional in the Bible, they contradict the notion that there is one particular “traditional” type of biblical marriage. There are, of course, cultural notions of traditional marriage that hold sway in many societies, including our own, but they are just that: cultural traditions, not biblical traditions.
So does the Bible really condemn homosexuality — and gay marriage by extension — as sinful? As we have seen, the evidence is far too ambiguous and open to dispute for anyone to claim with integrity that it does.
That is why the Bible cannot and must not be used to deny to gay citizens the full measure of the constitutional rights enjoyed by other American citizens. To do so is not only unconstitutional. It is a real biblical sin.
Obery M. Hendricks, Jr.,Visiting Scholar Department of Religion & Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. Dr. Hendricks is author of ‘The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church and the Body Politic’ (Orbis, 2012). The article originally appeared in Huffington Post reprinted with permission.
Attachments:
ohendricks
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Share resources on sexuality & gender
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/dont-blame-it-on-the-bible/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Don’t Blame It on the Bible
Most Americans who oppose gay rights and same-sex marriage justify their opposition by turning to the Bible. But does the Bible really condemn homosexuality? Ironically it never answers that question conclusively. In fact, the biblical basis for the demonization of homosexuality is very thin and, ultimately, not at all decisive.
Oddly enough, the notions of homosexuality that are so deeply rooted in American culture and law are based upon a surprisingly small number of biblical passages. If progressives are to successfully address the supposed divinely sanctioned circumscription of gay Americans’ constitutional rights, it is crucial that they understand the biblical arguments that gay rights opponents use to justify their resistance. What follows is a brief primer on what progressives need to know about what the Bible says — and does not say — about homosexuality.
The concept of “homosexuality” is new, not biblical
First, it is important to recognize that the peoples of biblical antiquity had no idea of homosexuality as identity, orientation or lifestyle. The term “homosexuality” was not even coined until the latter half of the 19th century. In fact, the first use of “homosexual” or its cognate in any biblical translation in any language did not occur until 1946 with the Revised Standard Version.
The Genesis story of Sodom and Gomorrah: Sins of pride, sloth, and selfishness.
As for the Bible, its first supposed condemnation of homosexuality is the well-known Genesis story of Sodom and Gomorrah, from which we get the term “sodomite” and “sodomy law,” the latter of which criminalizes same gender sex, even between mature and consenting adults.
In Genesis we are told that a group of men insisted that Lot send out to them his three male visitors (whom the crowd didn’t know were angels) so they could sexually abuse them (Genesis 19:4-9).
Even the most cursory reading of this text reveals that it neither states nor implies that the men in the offending crowd were anything other than heterosexuals; we are simply told that they sought to humiliate and gang rape Lot’s guests. Yet from this somehow it has been derived that the crowd was comprised of homosexual men and that homosexualitywas rampant in Sodom. The inescapable conclusion is that the use of the term “sodomite” as a signifier for a homosexual person has absolutely no basis in the Bible — none. This is crucial to recognize because much of the homophobia plaguing the world today can be traced to this tragic misunderstanding.
This has resulted in the wrong-headed conclusion, now widely accepted as biblical truth, that Sodom was destroyed as punishment for the “sin” of homosexuality, an interpretation that doesn’t actually seem to have actually entered Christian discourse until medieval times — a full millennium after the final form of the Bible was canonized.
However, the Bible itself tells a different story, that long before the crowd clamored for Lot’s guests, God had already condemned Sodom as “wicked,” an apparent catch-all phrase for all types of transgressions (Genesis 13:13).
What did Sodom’s wickedness entail? Ezekiel explains that it was not sexual sins, but rather “pride, excess of food [that is, for greed and unwillingness to share], … prosperous ease” and because it “did not aid the poor and needy” (16:49-50). The prophet Jeremiah gives the same general reason (23:13), as does Jesus (Matthew 10:14-15). In fact, biblical references to Sodom and Gomorrah overwhelmingly cite the issues of unscrupulousness and domination of others as their fatal transgressions; there is little if any mention of any kind of sex.
The inescapable conclusion is that the use of the term “sodomite” as a signifier for a homosexual person has absolutely no basis in the Bible — none. This is crucial to recognize because much of the homophobia plaguing the world today can be traced to this tragic misunderstanding.
However, if anyone is hell-bent on believing that the abusive crowd was really homosexual and that the entire Sodom narrative is divinely sanctioned and literally true, then they must also accept that the Sodom narrative also gives divine approval to sending daughters out to be gang-raped. One just cannot be a biblical literalist only when it suits one’s case.
Deuteronomy & Leviticus: Meant to protect the Israelites from surrounding cultures
There are only two other direct references to male-on-male sex in the Old Testament, one in Deuteronomy and one in Leviticus (interestingly, lesbianism is never mentioned in the Old Testament). The context for these Old Testament references is the Israelite’s immigration into the land of Canaan, whose society already had well-established religious customs. As newcomers, there was much pressure for the outnumbered Israelites to assimilate into the Canaanite religious orbit, so laws and instructions were sacralized to prevent it.
One of the religious practices the biblical commands sought to keep Israelites from adopting was the ritual of male Canaanite priests honoring goddess figures by dressing like women, taking on social roles associated with women and, in some cases, even having themselves castrated. Another alarming practice was male and female Canaanite ritual temple prostitution, apparently for the purpose of appeasing their gods of fertility. The Israelites were forcefully admonished to avoid these practices: “None of the daughters of Israel shall be qedeshah (literally “a female holy/consecrated one” — that is, a temple prostitute) — “nor shall any of the sons of Israel be qadesh” — a male temple prostitute (23:17).
It is with this backdrop of Canaanite temple practices that cross-dressing by Israelites is declared an “abomination” (Deuteronomy 22:5). It is also in this context that the following commandments are issued: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22); and, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:13).
These pronouncements have the appearance of timeless biblical laws, yet they were explicitly codified — with little sense of the complexity of human sexuality — to protect Israelites from seduction into the more powerful alien cultures that surrounded them. One of the most telling statements that the primary purpose of these pronouncements was to ensure that Israelites cleave only to the God and religion of Israel is this : “You are to be holy” (qadosh, “set apart”, i.e., from the practices of other societies) “as I myself (God) am holy” (Leviticus 19:1-2).
But again, if anyone chooses to accept the Bible’s denunciations, even prescriptions of death for “a man lies with a male,” then what about other biblical commandments that prescribe murder for disobedient children, for those who have sex during a woman’s menstrual cycle? What about the commandments to stone to death adulterers (although a man could only commit adultery against the wife of another, never against his own), and the execution by stoning of women raped in the city, with the logic that if their rape was “legitimate” (shades of Rep. Todd Akins!), they would have been sure to scream loudly enough to be rescued? There is no leeway for picking and choosing. Again, either you are a biblical literalist or not.
As for the Old Testament, that’s it for references to same gender sex. Not a word in Proverbs or the Psalms. The biblical prophets rail against every social and moral transgression in Israel, yet not one of them says a word about same gender sexuality. In fact, the Old Testament talks much more about adultery, incest, even about having sex with animals than it even alludes to same gender sexual intimacy.
So when considered in proper social and historical context, we find no unambiguous condemnations in the Old Testament of what we today call homosexuality, and no mention at all of lesbianism. But what we do find is the story of the love between David and Jonathan.
In Samuel appears the holy love between Jonathan and David
In the first of two biblical texts attributed to the prophet Samuel, we are told that “the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David … and Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul” and that Jonathan sealed their covenant of love by giving gifts to David (1 Samuel 18:1-4). Later, David and Jonathan are described as “kissing each other and weeping” at their separation (20:41).
After Jonathan’s untimely death, David cries out to him, “Your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women” (2 Samuel 1:20).
Here we have a biblical story of a great love between two men that is said to be even dearer to them than the love of women. Would this love be considered any less beautiful, would it descend from sacred to profane, become worthy of disgust or even of death, if we were to learn that the physical contact between Jonathan and the messianic figure David went further than mere kissing?
It is a worthy question, because the biblical narrative of the love between David and Jonathan attests — in sacred scripture, no less — that love between two men can be as deep and as holy as any other love.
Paul speaks of heterosexuals exchanging “natural” acts for ”unnatural” ones.
When it comes to the New Testament, the most significant passages thought to specifically condemn homosexuality are found in Romans and First Corinthians. In Romans the apostle Paul writes, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving due penalty for their error” (1:26).
There is nothing in the words of Jesus that gives even the smallest sense that one will be judged by what goes on in the privacy of one’s bedroom.
Contrary to widespread misinterpretations, here Paul’s focus is not homosexuality, but “dishonorable passions,” lust, orgiastic acting out, folks just “freaking,” as they say in the street.
Paul explicitly speaks about heterosexuals exchanging what is “natural” for what is “unnatural.” That’s why he calls their passions “unnatural,” because they are doing what is unnatural for them as heterosexuals; for gay people, on the other hand, sexual intimacy with members of their own gender is not unnatural, it is purely natural.
Like everyone else in antiquity, Paul had no concept of homosexual identity or orientation; no other idea of human identity was available in his world. So what he could only have been condemning certain unidentified over-the-top, lustful sexual actions by heterosexual people.
Therefore Paul’s condemnation of “unnatural lusts” cannot be used as a biblical support for condemning same gender love and intimacy; indeed, he is not describing love at all. But notice that here Paul has made an argument from nature, declaring what is natural and what is not. If opponents of equal rights for gay Americans accept Paul’s argument from nature, why can’t the recent insights of modern science be taken similarly seriously that sexual identities evolve in early childhood and, in a yet undetermined percentage of gays, seem to have genetic origins?
Paul’s meaning can’t be known
In First Corinthians 6:9-10 Paul further writes, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes (malakoi), sodomites (arsenokoita), thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers — none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Malakos, the term translated as “male prostitute,” literally means “soft” or “effeminate,” and is thought by many scholars to refer to male child prostitutes who, of course, rarely assumed that role without coercion; or perhaps it refers to pedophiles. The meaning of arsenokoitai, the term variously translated as “sodomite” and “sexual pervert,” is not fully clear to us today, but it does seem to refer to some form of homosexual relationship, possibly exploitive in nature. Perhaps here malakoi refers to youths who are sexually used and arsenokoita to the men who use them, though we can’t be certain.
In the final analysis, however, no one can say with absolute certainty or integrity what Paul actually means in this passage.
Jesus said not one word about homosexuality
Finally we come to the Gospels. Nowhere in any of the four Gospels does Jesus speak even one word about homosexuality. What he does say is that the two paramount commandments — those that must be obeyed — are to “love your Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength … and to love your neighbor as yourself.”
But how can you love your neighbor as yourself if you would deny your neighbor — any neighbor — the happiness and social acceptability of their love and the opportunity to sacralize their committed spousal relationship in the eyes of God that you treasure for yourself?
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says that the primary way each of us will be judged as worthy of eternal life, as he puts it, is not by whom you share intimate love, but instead by whether or not we have lived justly, if we have tried to serve those in need and labored to establish justice in the land.
There is nothing in the words of Jesus that gives even the smallest sense that one will be judged by what goes on in the privacy of one’s bedroom.
And what is traditional marriage in the Bible?
Speaking of bedrooms, the term “traditional marriage” is often used to challenge the very notion of gay marriage. Yet the Bible speaks of a number of kinds of marital relationships without condemnation and without presenting any of them as “traditional.”
•There is polygamy, concubinage (“shacking up” or a woman on the side, in today’s parlance).
•There is Sarah’s urging of Abraham to impregnate their slave Hagar,
•Jacob marrying the sisters Rachel and Leah simultaneously and impregnating the female slave of each to boot.
•For his part, without criticism or a tinge of judgment Jesus speaks of serial polygamy, called Levirite marriage, which holds that if a man dies childless his widow was to engage in sex with his eldest brother to impregnate her in the name of her dead husband. If the eldest brother died without giving her a child, she went on to the next brother, then the next, then the next, until she became pregnant or ran out of brothers.
In that none of these marital arrangements are condemned or even treated as exceptional in the Bible, they contradict the notion that there is one particular “traditional” type of biblical marriage. There are, of course, cultural notions of traditional marriage that hold sway in many societies, including our own, but they are just that: cultural traditions, not biblical traditions.
So does the Bible really condemn homosexuality — and gay marriage by extension — as sinful? As we have seen, the evidence is far too ambiguous and open to dispute for anyone to claim with integrity that it does.
That is why the Bible cannot and must not be used to deny to gay citizens the full measure of the constitutional rights enjoyed by other American citizens. To do so is not only unconstitutional. It is a real biblical sin.
Obery M. Hendricks, Jr.,Visiting Scholar Department of Religion & Institute for Research in African American Studies at Columbia University. Dr. Hendricks is author of ‘The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church and the Body Politic’ (Orbis, 2012). The article originally appeared in Huffington Post reprinted with permission.
Attachments:
ohendricks
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/which-bible-verses-could-i-use/
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/which-bible-verses-could-i-use/
Many Voices
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Pastoral charge
The charge offers encouragement, inspiration and focus to those entering new journeys of ministry.
I charge you to be faithful to the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help others to be nourished in this understanding through the best of the Black religious traditions.
I charge you to take seriously the ravages of the corporate sins of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, ethnocentrism, and all other forms of oppression and internalized oppression, helping the congregation to become aware of these and to develop skills of resistance to the oppressive forms.
I charge you to be active in community struggles, bearing witness to God’s love for the world and thereby being a sign and symbol of Emmanuel, God with us in times of trouble, standing with the least of these.
I charge you to take seriously the ministry of presence as expressed in visits to congregants in times of joy and in times of sorrow. Continue to develop a listening ear so you can be and effective pastoral counselor to those going through shadowy valleys and climbing mounts of transfiguration.
I further charge you to continue your education, reading materials which will sharpen your analyses of the world around us and the spirit within us. As you do so, share with others through formal Christian Education venues, blogs, and other forms of social media, being mindful that pictures of yourself are not necessary to get the messages across.
I charge you to take care of yourself, physically and emotionally, and to keep close those who love, nurture and support you in your career & personal development. Also, always find time to nurture and support others with whom you share your life, whether they be family, friends, spouse and/or children.
I also charge you to keep a healthy sense of humor.
I also charge you to preach in powerful and liberating ways, bringing to the pulpit strong spiritual power, immersed in social justice, contoured by sharp intellectual and hermeneutical insights, engaging cultural criticism, pointing always to Jesus, who wants us to be responsible agents of his love and promise to always keep our back.
Reverend Dr. Randall Bailey, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA. Revised charge for Ordination and Installation service originally commended to Rev. Billy Michael Honor. Reprinted with permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/pastoral-charge/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Pastoral charge
The charge offers encouragement, inspiration and focus to those entering new journeys of ministry.
I charge you to be faithful to the liberating Gospel of Jesus Christ and to help others to be nourished in this understanding through the best of the Black religious traditions.
I charge you to take seriously the ravages of the corporate sins of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ageism, ethnocentrism, and all other forms of oppression and internalized oppression, helping the congregation to become aware of these and to develop skills of resistance to the oppressive forms.
I charge you to be active in community struggles, bearing witness to God’s love for the world and thereby being a sign and symbol of Emmanuel, God with us in times of trouble, standing with the least of these.
I charge you to take seriously the ministry of presence as expressed in visits to congregants in times of joy and in times of sorrow. Continue to develop a listening ear so you can be and effective pastoral counselor to those going through shadowy valleys and climbing mounts of transfiguration.
I further charge you to continue your education, reading materials which will sharpen your analyses of the world around us and the spirit within us. As you do so, share with others through formal Christian Education venues, blogs, and other forms of social media, being mindful that pictures of yourself are not necessary to get the messages across.
I charge you to take care of yourself, physically and emotionally, and to keep close those who love, nurture and support you in your career & personal development. Also, always find time to nurture and support others with whom you share your life, whether they be family, friends, spouse and/or children.
I also charge you to keep a healthy sense of humor.
I also charge you to preach in powerful and liberating ways, bringing to the pulpit strong spiritual power, immersed in social justice, contoured by sharp intellectual and hermeneutical insights, engaging cultural criticism, pointing always to Jesus, who wants us to be responsible agents of his love and promise to always keep our back.
Reverend Dr. Randall Bailey, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, GA. Revised charge for Ordination and Installation service originally commended to Rev. Billy Michael Honor. Reprinted with permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/pastoral-charge/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
But I know what the Bible says…
Too often, our ideas about the Bible stop us from becoming living testaments of God's love.
When we read and study the Bible we interact with what’s written, and we interpret from our own experiences. A book of over 30,000 verses – written thousands of years ago, by a variety of writers, over a period of hundreds of years – contains ideas quite different from ours.
Engaging sacred texts really is a heart, mind and soul endeavor. Most of us were taught to believe specific things, to view life from a particular vantage point, and to hold firm to certain ideas.
What do we know about the Bible and human sexuality?
We know that our knowledge of human sexuality is more advanced than that of the scribes and writers of the biblical texts. Our lives make most sense when we are guided by and understand anatomy, biology, gender diversity, significance of relationships, as well as, our faith.
From these sacred writings…
•We gain insight into the complexity of loving relationships and their variety.
•We become enlightened about the centrality of relationship with God and with each other.
•We enhance our appreciation for treating each person with respect and relating to one another on the basis of mutual sharing.
What should we gather from the texts about same-sex relationships?
The familiar texts that many people claim address same-sex intimate relationships are actually ambiguous to scholars, and to us. These texts are about interactions and relationships that are abusive, unequal in power, exploitive, and or ritually-suspect.
However, scriptures provide many examples of persons of the same-gender in fulfilling, loving, supportive, respectful friendships. A few examples:
•The care shown by Jesus for the disciple John
•A shared home and supportive love of Mary and Martha
•Deep devotion for Naomi by Ruth (a daughter-in-law of another culture)
•Profound care, love and commitment between Jonathan and David
By giving these examples, are we saying that these couples were gay? No, the Scriptures give us no way to know what their sexual orientation was. We can say that the relationships illustrate what love, and commitment looks like in any relationship.
So what does the Bible really say?
Some view messages of judgment and condemnation as the strongest ones in the Bible. Do those messages disturb your heart and fail to reflect what you have experienced?
Allow the Bible to inspire you! Embrace it as a guide full of the journeys of people in relationship with God. Consider committing time to deeply explore what you perceive to be the central message of sacred scripture. Sometimes these characters and writers got it right. At other points they were off base, and yet they continued to enjoy the unconditional love of God.
Contributed by Rev. Cedric A. Harmon
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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But I know what the Bible says…
Too often, our ideas about the Bible stop us from becoming living testaments of God's love.
When we read and study the Bible we interact with what’s written, and we interpret from our own experiences. A book of over 30,000 verses – written thousands of years ago, by a variety of writers, over a period of hundreds of years – contains ideas quite different from ours.
Engaging sacred texts really is a heart, mind and soul endeavor. Most of us were taught to believe specific things, to view life from a particular vantage point, and to hold firm to certain ideas.
What do we know about the Bible and human sexuality?
We know that our knowledge of human sexuality is more advanced than that of the scribes and writers of the biblical texts. Our lives make most sense when we are guided by and understand anatomy, biology, gender diversity, significance of relationships, as well as, our faith.
From these sacred writings…
•We gain insight into the complexity of loving relationships and their variety.
•We become enlightened about the centrality of relationship with God and with each other.
•We enhance our appreciation for treating each person with respect and relating to one another on the basis of mutual sharing.
What should we gather from the texts about same-sex relationships?
The familiar texts that many people claim address same-sex intimate relationships are actually ambiguous to scholars, and to us. These texts are about interactions and relationships that are abusive, unequal in power, exploitive, and or ritually-suspect.
However, scriptures provide many examples of persons of the same-gender in fulfilling, loving, supportive, respectful friendships. A few examples:
•The care shown by Jesus for the disciple John
•A shared home and supportive love of Mary and Martha
•Deep devotion for Naomi by Ruth (a daughter-in-law of another culture)
•Profound care, love and commitment between Jonathan and David
By giving these examples, are we saying that these couples were gay? No, the Scriptures give us no way to know what their sexual orientation was. We can say that the relationships illustrate what love, and commitment looks like in any relationship.
So what does the Bible really say?
Some view messages of judgment and condemnation as the strongest ones in the Bible. Do those messages disturb your heart and fail to reflect what you have experienced?
Allow the Bible to inspire you! Embrace it as a guide full of the journeys of people in relationship with God. Consider committing time to deeply explore what you perceive to be the central message of sacred scripture. Sometimes these characters and writers got it right. At other points they were off base, and yet they continued to enjoy the unconditional love of God.
Contributed by Rev. Cedric A. Harmon
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality
Walter Wink's popular and in-depth explanation.
Sexual issues are tearing our churches apart today as never before. The issue of homosexuality threatens to fracture whole denominations, as the issue of slavery did a hundred and fifty years ago. We naturally turn to the Bible for guidance, and find ourselves mired in interpretative quicksand. Is the Bible able to speak to our confusion on this issue?
The debate over homosexuality is a remarkable opportunity, because it raises in an especially acute way how we interpret the Bible, not in this case only, but in numerous others as well. The real issue here, then, is not simply homosexuality, but how Scripture informs our lives today.
Some passages that have been advanced as pertinent to the issue of homosexuality are, in fact, irrelevant.
• One is the attempted gang rape in Sodom (Gen. 19:1-29). That was a case of ostensibly heterosexual males intent on humiliating strangers by treating them “like women,” thus demasculinizing them. (This is also the case in a similar account in Judges 19-21.) Their brutal behavior has nothing to do with the problem of whether genuine love expressed between consenting adults of the same sex is legitimate or not.
• Likewise Deut. 23:17-18 must be pruned from the list, since it most likely refers to a heterosexual prostitute involved in Canaanite fertility rites that have infiltrated Jewish worship; the King James Version inaccurately labeled him a “sodomite.”
Several other texts are ambiguous. It is not clear whether 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 refer to the “passive” and “active” partners in homosexual relationships, or to homosexual and heterosexual male prostitutes. In short, it is unclear whether the issue is homosexuality alone, or promiscuity and “sex-for-hire.”
Unequivocal Condemnations
Putting these texts to the side, we are left with three references, all of which unequivocally condemn homosexual behavior.
• Lev. 18:22 states the principle: “You [masculine] shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (NRSV).
• The second (Lev. 20:13) adds the penalty: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.”
Such an act was regarded as an “abomination” for several reasons. The Hebrew prescientific understanding was that male semen contained the whole of nascent life. With no knowledge of eggs and ovulation, it was assumed that the woman provided only the incubating space.
Hence the spilling of semen for any nonprocreative purpose–in coitus interruptus (Gen. 38:1-11), male homosexual acts, or male masturbation–was considered tantamount to abortion or murder. (Female homosexual acts were consequently not so seriously regarded, and are not mentioned at all in the Old Testament (but see Rom. 1:26).
One can appreciate how a tribe struggling to populate a country in which its people were outnumbered would value procreation highly, but such values are rendered questionable in a world facing uncontrolled overpopulation.
In addition, when a man acted like a woman sexually, male dignity was compromised. It was a degradation, not only in regard to himself, but for every other male. The patriarchalism of Hebrew culture shows its hand in the very formulation of the commandment, since no similar stricture was formulated to forbid homosexual acts between females. And the repugnance felt toward homosexuality was not just that it was deemed unnatural but also that it was considered unJewish, representing yet one more incursion of pagan civilization into Jewish life.
On top of that is the more universal repugnance heterosexuals tend to feel for acts and orientations foreign to them. (Left-handedness has evoked something of the same response in many cultures.)
Whatever the rationale for their formulation, however, the texts leave no room for maneuvering. Persons committing homosexual acts are to be executed. This is the unambiguous command of Scripture.
The meaning is clear: anyone who wishes to base his or her beliefs on the witness of the Old Testament must be completely consistent and demand the death penalty for everyone who performs homosexual acts. (That may seem extreme, but there actually are some Christians urging this very thing today.) It is unlikely that any American court will ever again condemn a homosexual to death, even though Scripture clearly commands it.
Old Testament texts have to be weighed against the New. Consequently, Paul’s unambiguous condemnation of homosexual behavior in Rom. 1:26-27 must be the centerpiece of any discussion.
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
No doubt Paul was unaware of the distinction between sexual orientation, over which one has apparently very little choice, and sexual behavior, over which one does. He seemed to assume that those whom he condemned were heterosexuals who were acting contrary to nature, “leaving,” “giving up,” or “exchanging” their regular sexual orientation for that which was foreign to them.
Paul knew nothing of the modern psychosexual understanding of homosexuals as persons whose orientation is fixed early in life, or perhaps even genetically in some cases. For such persons, having heterosexual relations would be acting contrary to nature, “leaving,” “giving up” or “exchanging” their natural sexual orientation for one that was unnatural to them.
In other words, Paul really thought that those whose behavior he condemned were “straight,” and that they were behaving in ways that were unnatural to them. Paul believed that everyone was straight. He had no concept of homosexual orientation. The idea was not available in his world.
There are people that are genuinely homosexual by nature (whether genetically or as a result of upbringing no one really knows, and it is irrelevant). For such a person it would be acting contrary to nature to have sexual relations with a person of the opposite sex.
Likewise, the relationships Paul describes are heavy with lust; they are not relationships between consenting adults who are committed to each other as faithfully and with as much integrity as any heterosexual couple. That was something Paul simply could not envision.
Some people assume today that venereal disease and AIDS are divine punishment for homosexual behavior; we know it as a risk involved in promiscuity of every stripe, homosexual and heterosexual. In fact, the vast majority of people with AIDS the world around are heterosexuals. We can scarcely label AIDS a divine punishment, since nonpromiscuous lesbians are at almost no risk.
And Paul believes that homosexual behavior is contrary to nature, whereas we have learned that it is manifested by a wide variety of species, especially (but not solely) under the pressure of overpopulation. It would appear then to be a quite natural mechanism for preserving species. We cannot, of course, decide human ethical conduct solely on the basis of animal behavior or the human sciences, but Paul here is arguing from nature, as he himself says, and new knowledge of what is “natural” is therefore relevant to the case.
Hebrew Sexual Mores
Nevertheless, the Bible quite clearly takes a negative view of homosexual activity, in those few instances where it is mentioned at all. But this conclusion does not solve the problem of how we are to interpret Scripture today. For there are other sexual attitudes, practices and restrictions which are normative in Scripture but which we no longer accept as normative:
1. Old Testament law strictly forbids sexual intercourse during the seven days of the menstrual period (Lev. 18:19; 15:19-24), and anyone in violation was to be “extirpated” or “cut off from their people” (kareth, Lev. 18:29, a term referring to execution by stoning, burning, strangling, or to flogging or expulsion; Lev. 15:24 omits this penalty).
Today many people on occasion have intercourse during menstruation and think nothing of it. Should they be “extirpated”? The Bible says they should.
2. The punishment for adultery was death by stoning for both the man and the woman (Deut. 22:22), but here adultery is defined by the marital status of the woman. In the Old Testament, a man could not commit adultery against his own wife; he could only commit adultery against another man by sexually using the other’s wife. And a bride who is found not to be a virgin is to be stoned to death (Deut. 22:13-21), but male virginity at marriage is never even mentioned.
It is one of the curiosities of the current debate on sexuality that adultery, which creates far more social havoc, is considered less “sinful” than homosexual activity. Perhaps this is because there are far more adulterers in our churches. Yet no one, to my knowledge, is calling for their stoning, despite the clear command of Scripture. And we ordain adulterers.
3. Nudity, the characteristic of paradise, was regarded in Judaism as reprehensible (2 Sam. 6:20; 10:4; Isa. 20:2-4; 47:3). When one of Noah’s sons beheld his father naked, he was cursed (Gen. 9:20-27). To a great extent this nudity taboo probably even inhibited the sexual intimacy of husbands and wives (this is still true of a surprising number of people reared in the Judeo-Christian tradition).
We may not be prepared for nude beaches, but are we prepared to regard nudity in the locker room or at the old swimming hole or in the privacy of one’s home as an accursed sin? The Bible does.
4. Polygamy (many wives) and concubinage (a woman living with a man to whom she is not married) were regularly practiced in the Old Testament. Neither is ever condemned by the New Testament (with the questionable exceptions of 1 Tim. 3:2, 12 and Titus 1:6). Jesus’ teaching about marital union in Mark 10:6-8 is no exception, since he quotes Gen. 2:24 as his authority (the man and the woman will become “one flesh”), and this text was never understood in Israel as excluding polygamy. A man could become “one flesh” with more than one woman, through the act of sexual intercourse.
We know from Jewish sources that polygamy continued to be practiced within Judaism for centuries following the New Testament period. So if the Bible allowed polygamy and concubinage, why don’t we?
5. A form of polygamy was the levirate marriage. When a married man in Israel died childless, his widow was to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bore him a male heir. Jesus mentions this custom without criticism (Mark 12:18-27 par.).
I am not aware of any Christians who still obey this unambiguous commandment of Scripture. Why is this law ignored, and the one against homosexual behavior preserved?
6. The Old Testament nowhere explicitly prohibits sexual relations between unmarried consenting heterosexual adults, as long as the woman’s economic value (bride price) is not compromised, that is to say, as long as she is not a virgin.
There are poems in the Song of Songs that eulogize a love affair between two unmarried persons, though commentators have often conspired to cover up the fact with heavy layers of allegorical interpretation.
In various parts of the Christian world, quite different attitudes have prevailed about sexual intercourse before marriage. In some Christian communities, proof of fertility (that is, pregnancy) was required for marriage. This was especially the case in farming areas where the inability to produce children-workers could mean economic hardship.
Today, many single adults, the widowed, and the divorced are reverting to “biblical” practice, while others believe that sexual intercourse belongs only within marriage. Both views are Scriptural. Which is right?
7. The Bible virtually lacks terms for the sexual organs, being content with such euphemisms as “foot” or “thigh” for the genitals, and using other euphemisms to describe coitus, such as “he knew her.”
Today most of us regard such language as “puritanical” and contrary to a proper regard for the goodness of creation. In short, we don’t follow Biblical practice.
8. Semen and menstrual blood rendered all who touched them unclean (Lev. 15:16-24). Intercourse rendered one unclean until sundown; menstruation rendered the woman unclean for seven days.
Today most people would regard semen and menstrual fluid as completely natural and only at times “messy,” not “unclean.”
9. Social regulations regarding adultery, incest, rape and prostitution are, in the Old Testament, determined largely by considerations of the males’ property rights over women. Prostitution was considered quite natural and necessary as a safeguard of the virginity of the unmarried and the property rights of husbands (Gen. 38:12-19; Josh. 2:1-7). A man was not guilty of sin for visiting a prostitute, though the prostitute herself was regarded as a sinner. Paul must appeal to reason in attacking prostitution (1 Cor. 6:12-20); he cannot lump it in the category of adultery (vs. 9).
Today we are moving, with great social turbulence and at a high but necessary cost, toward a more equitable, non-patriarchal set of social arrangements in which women are no longer regarded as the chattel of men.
We are also trying to move beyond the double standard. Love, fidelity and mutual respect replace property rights. We have, as yet, made very little progress in changing the double standard in regard to prostitution.
As we leave behind patriarchal gender relations, what will we do with the patriarchalism in the Bible?
10. Jews were supposed to practice endogamy–that is, marriage within the twelve tribes of Israel.
Until recently a similar rule prevailed in the American South, in laws against interracial marriage (miscegenation). We have witnessed, within the lifetime of many of us, the nonviolent struggle to nullify state laws against intermarriage and the gradual change in social attitudes toward interracial relationships.
Sexual mores can alter quite radically even in a single lifetime.
11. The law of Moses allowed for divorce (Deut. 24:1-4); Jesus categorically forbids it (Mark 10:1-12; Matt. 19:9 softens his severity).
Yet many Christians, in clear violation of a command of Jesus, have been divorced. Why, then, do some of these very people consider themselves eligible for baptism, church membership, communion, and ordination, but not homosexuals?
What makes the one so much greater a sin than the other, especially considering the fact that Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality but explicitly condemned divorce? Yet we ordain divorcees. Why not homosexuals?
12. The Old Testament regarded celibacy as abnormal, and 1 Tim. 4:1-3 calls compulsory celibacy a heresy. Yet the Catholic Church has made it mandatory for priests and nuns. Some Christian ethicists demand celibacy of homosexuals, whether they have a vocation for celibacy or not. But this legislates celibacy by category, not by divine calling.
Others argue that since God made men and women for each other in order to be fruitful and multiply, homosexuals reject God’s intent in creation.
But this would mean that childless couples, single persons, priests and nuns would be in violation of God’s intention in their creation. Those who argue thus must explain why the apostle Paul never married. And are they prepared to charge Jesus with violating the will of God by remaining single?
Certainly heterosexual marriage is normal, else the race would die out. But it is not normative. God can bless the world through people who are married and through people who are single, and it is false to generalize from the marriage of most people to the marriage of everyone.
In 1 Cor. 7:7 Paul goes so far as to call marriage a “charisma,” or divine gift, to which not everyone is called. He preferred that people remain as he was–unmarried. In an age of overpopulation, perhaps a gay orientation is especially sound ecologically!
13. In many other ways we have developed different norms from those explicitly laid down by the Bible. For example, “If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity” (Deut. 25:11f.).
We, on the contrary, might very well applaud her for trying to save her husband’s life!
14. The Old and New Testaments both regarded slavery as normal and nowhere categorically condemned it. Part of that heritage was the use of female slaves, concubines and captives as sexual toys, breeding machines, or involuntary wives by their male owners, which 2 Sam. 5:13, Judges 19-21 and Num. 31:18 permitted–and as many American slave owners did some 150 years ago, citing these and numerous other Scripture passages as their justification.
The Problem of Authority
These cases are relevant to our attitude toward the authority of Scripture. They are not cultic prohibitions from the Holiness Code that are clearly superseded in Christianity, such as rules about eating shellfish or wearing clothes made of two different materials. They are rules concerning sexual behavior, and they fall among the moral commandments of Scripture.
Clearly we regard certain rules, especially in the Old Testament, as no longer binding. Other things we regard as binding, including legislation in the Old Testament that is not mentioned at all in the New. What is our principle of selection here?
For example, virtually all modern readers would agree with the Bible in rejecting: incest, rape, adultery, and intercourse with animals. But we disagree with the Bible on most other sexual mores.
The Bible condemned the following behaviors which we generally allow: intercourse during menstruation, celibacy, exogamy (marriage with non-Jews), naming sexual organs, nudity (under certain conditions), masturbation (some Christians still condemn this), birth control (some Christians still forbid this).
And the Bible regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most of us do not. Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviors that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl, age 11-13).
And while the Old Testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it. In short, of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them, and disagree with it on sixteen!
Surely no one today would recommend reviving the levirate marriage. So why do we appeal to proof texts in Scripture in the case of homosexuality alone, when we feel perfectly free to disagree with Scripture regarding most other sexual practices?
Obviously many of our choices in these matters are arbitrary. Mormon polygamy was outlawed in this country, despite the constitutional protection of freedom of religion, because it violated the sensibilities of the dominant Christian culture. Yet no explicit biblical prohibition against polygamy exists.
If we insist on placing ourselves under the old law, as Paul reminds us, we are obligated to keep every commandment of the law (Gal. 5:3).
But if Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), if we have been discharged from the law to serve, not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6), then all of these biblical sexual mores come under the authority of the Spirit. We cannot then take even what Paul himself says as a new Law.
Christians reserve the right to pick and choose which sexual mores they will observe, though they seldom admit to doing just that. And this is as true of evangelicals and fundamentalists as it is of liberals and mainliners.
Judge for Yourselves
The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is simply that the Bible has no sexual ethic. There is no Biblical sex ethic. Instead, it exhibits a variety of sexual mores, some of which changed over the thousand year span of biblical history. Mores are unreflective customs accepted by a given community. Many of the practices that the Bible prohibits, we allow, and many that it allows, we prohibit.
The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in any given country, or culture, or period.
The very notion of a “sex ethic” reflects the materialism and splitness of modern life, in which we increasingly define our identity sexually.
Sexuality cannot be separated off from the rest of life. No sex act is “ethical” in and of itself, without reference to the rest of a person’s life, the patterns of the culture, the special circumstances faced, and the will of God. What we have are simply sexual mores, which change, sometimes with startling rapidity, creating bewildering dilemmas.
Just within one lifetime we have witnessed the shift from the ideal of preserving one’s virginity until marriage, to couples living together for several years before getting married. The response of many Christians is merely to long for the hypocrisies of an earlier era.
I agree that rules and norms are necessary; that is what sexual mores are. But rules and norms also tend to be impressed into the service of the Domination System, and to serve as a form of crowd control rather than to enhance the fullness of human potential.
So we must critique the sexual mores of any given time and clime by the love ethic exemplified by Jesus. Defining such a love ethic is not complicated. It is non-exploitative (hence no sexual exploitation of children, no using of another to their loss), it does not dominate (hence no patriarchal treatment of women as chattel), it is responsible, mutual, caring, and loving.
Augustine already dealt with this in his inspired phrase, “Love God, and do as you please.”
Our moral task, then, is to apply Jesus’ love ethic to whatever sexual mores are prevalent in a given culture. This doesn’t mean everything goes. It means that everything is to be critiqued by Jesus’ love commandment.
We might address younger teens, not with laws and commandments whose violation is a sin, but rather with the sad experiences of so many of our own children who find too much early sexual intimacy overwhelming, and who react by voluntary celibacy and even the refusal to date. We can offer reasons, not empty and unenforceable orders. We can challenge both gays and straights to question their behaviors in the light of love and the requirements of fidelity, honesty, responsibility, and genuine concern for the best interests of the other and of society as a whole.
Christian morality, after all, is not an iron chastity belt for repressing urges, but a way of expressing the integrity of our relationship with God. It is the attempt to discover a manner of living that is consistent with who God created us to be.
For those of same-sex orientation, as for heterosexuals, being moral means rejecting sexual mores that violate their own integrity and that of others, and attempting to discover what it would mean to live by the love ethic of Jesus.
Morton Kelsey goes so far as to argue that homosexual orientation has nothing to do with morality, any more than left-handedness. It is simply the way some people’s sexuality is configured. Morality enters the picture when that predisposition is enacted. If we saw it as a God-given gift to those for whom it is normal, we could get beyond the acrimony and brutality that have so often characterized the unchristian behavior of Christians toward gays.
Approached from the point of view of love rather than that of law, the issue is at once transformed.
Now the question is not “What is permitted?” but rather “What does it mean to love my homosexual neighbor?” Approached from the point of view of faith rather than works, the question ceases to be “What constitutes a breach of divine law in the sexual realm?” and becomes instead “What constitutes integrity before the God revealed in the cosmic lover, Jesus Christ?”
Approached from the point of view of the Spirit rather than the letter, the question ceases to be “What does Scripture command?” and becomes “What is the Word that the Spirit speaks to the churches now, in the light of Scripture, tradition, theology, and, yes, psychology, genetics, anthropology, and biology?” We can’t continue to build ethics on the basis of bad science.
In a little-remembered statement, Jesus said, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57 NRSV). Such sovereign freedom strikes terror in the hearts of many Christians; they would rather be under law and be told what is right.
Yet Paul himself echoes Jesus’ sentiment when he says, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Cor. 6:3 RSV). The last thing Paul would want is for people to respond to his ethical advice as a new law engraved on tablets of stone. He is himself trying to “judge for himself what is right.”
If now new evidence is in on the phenomenon of homosexuality, are we not obligated–no, free–to re-evaluate the whole issue in the light of all the available data and decide what is right, under God, for ourselves? Is this not the radical freedom for obedience in which the gospel establishes us?
Where the Bible mentions homosexual behavior at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct.
The Bible sanctioned slavery as well, and nowhere attacked it as unjust. Are we prepared to argue today that slavery is biblically justified? One hundred and fifty years ago, when the debate over slavery was raging, the Bible seemed to be clearly on the slaveholders’ side. Abolitionists were hard pressed to justify their opposition to slavery on biblical grounds. Yet today, if you were to ask Christians in the South whether the Bible sanctions slavery, virtually everyone would agree that it does not. How do we account for such a monumental shift?
What happened is that the churches were finally driven to penetrate beyond the legal tenor of Scripture to an even deeper tenor, articulated by Israel out of the experience of the Exodus and the prophets and brought to sublime embodiment in Jesus’ identification with harlots, tax collectors, the diseased and maimed and outcast and poor.
It is that God sides with the powerless. God liberates the oppressed. God suffers with the suffering and groans toward the reconciliation of all things. In the light of that supernal compassion, whatever our position on gays, the gospel’s imperative to love, care for, and be identified with their sufferings is unmistakably clear.
In the same way, women are pressing us to acknowledge the sexism and patriarchalism that pervades Scripture and has alienated so many women from the church. The way out, however, is not to deny the sexism in Scripture, but to develop an interpretive theory that judges even Scripture in the light of the revelation in Jesus.
What Jesus gives us is a critique of domination in all its forms, a critique that can be turned on the Bible itself. The Bible thus contains the principles of its own correction. We are freed from bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. It is restored to its proper place as witness to the Word of God. And that word is a Person, not a book.
With the interpretive grid provided by a critique of domination, we are able to filter out the sexism, patriarchalism, violence, and homophobia that are very much a part of the Bible, thus liberating it to reveal to us in fresh ways the inbreaking, in our time, of God’s domination-free order.
An Appeal for Tolerance
What most saddens me in this whole raucous debate in the churches is how sub-Christian most of it has been. It is characteristic of our time that the issues most difficult to assess, and which have generated the greatest degree of animosity, are issues on which the Bible can be interpreted as supporting either side. I am referring to abortion and homosexuality.
We need to take a few steps back and be honest with ourselves. I am deeply convinced of the rightness of what I have said in this essay. But I must acknowledge that it is not an air tight case. You can find weaknesses in it, just as I can in others’. The truth is, we are not given unequivocal guidance in either area, abortion or homosexuality.
Rather than tearing at each others’s throats, therefore, we should humbly admit our limitations. How do I know I am correctly interpreting God’s word for us today? How do you? Wouldn’t it be wiser for Christians to lower the decibels by 95 percent and quietly present our beliefs, knowing full well that we might be wrong?
I know of a couple, both well known Christian authors in their own right, who have both spoken out on the issue of homosexuality. She supports gays, passionately; he opposes their behavior, strenuously. So far as I can tell, this couple still enjoy each other’s company, eat at the same table, and, for all I know, sleep in the same bed.
We in the church need to get our priorities straight. We have not reached a consensus about who is right on the issue of homosexuality. But what is clear, utterly clear, is that we are commanded to love one another. Love not just our gay sisters and brothers who are often sitting beside us, unacknowledged, in church, but all of us who are involved in this debate.
These are issues about which we should amiably agree to disagree. We don’t have to tear whole denominations to shreds in order to air our differences on this point. If that couple I mentioned can continue to embrace across this divide, surely we can do so as well.
Used with permission of Rev. Wink. Additional copies may be ordered from Fellowship Bookstore, Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960. 914-358-4601.
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Walter Wink
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Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality
Walter Wink's popular and in-depth explanation.
Sexual issues are tearing our churches apart today as never before. The issue of homosexuality threatens to fracture whole denominations, as the issue of slavery did a hundred and fifty years ago. We naturally turn to the Bible for guidance, and find ourselves mired in interpretative quicksand. Is the Bible able to speak to our confusion on this issue?
The debate over homosexuality is a remarkable opportunity, because it raises in an especially acute way how we interpret the Bible, not in this case only, but in numerous others as well. The real issue here, then, is not simply homosexuality, but how Scripture informs our lives today.
Some passages that have been advanced as pertinent to the issue of homosexuality are, in fact, irrelevant.
• One is the attempted gang rape in Sodom (Gen. 19:1-29). That was a case of ostensibly heterosexual males intent on humiliating strangers by treating them “like women,” thus demasculinizing them. (This is also the case in a similar account in Judges 19-21.) Their brutal behavior has nothing to do with the problem of whether genuine love expressed between consenting adults of the same sex is legitimate or not.
• Likewise Deut. 23:17-18 must be pruned from the list, since it most likely refers to a heterosexual prostitute involved in Canaanite fertility rites that have infiltrated Jewish worship; the King James Version inaccurately labeled him a “sodomite.”
Several other texts are ambiguous. It is not clear whether 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 refer to the “passive” and “active” partners in homosexual relationships, or to homosexual and heterosexual male prostitutes. In short, it is unclear whether the issue is homosexuality alone, or promiscuity and “sex-for-hire.”
Unequivocal Condemnations
Putting these texts to the side, we are left with three references, all of which unequivocally condemn homosexual behavior.
• Lev. 18:22 states the principle: “You [masculine] shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination” (NRSV).
• The second (Lev. 20:13) adds the penalty: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.”
Such an act was regarded as an “abomination” for several reasons. The Hebrew prescientific understanding was that male semen contained the whole of nascent life. With no knowledge of eggs and ovulation, it was assumed that the woman provided only the incubating space.
Hence the spilling of semen for any nonprocreative purpose–in coitus interruptus (Gen. 38:1-11), male homosexual acts, or male masturbation–was considered tantamount to abortion or murder. (Female homosexual acts were consequently not so seriously regarded, and are not mentioned at all in the Old Testament (but see Rom. 1:26).
One can appreciate how a tribe struggling to populate a country in which its people were outnumbered would value procreation highly, but such values are rendered questionable in a world facing uncontrolled overpopulation.
In addition, when a man acted like a woman sexually, male dignity was compromised. It was a degradation, not only in regard to himself, but for every other male. The patriarchalism of Hebrew culture shows its hand in the very formulation of the commandment, since no similar stricture was formulated to forbid homosexual acts between females. And the repugnance felt toward homosexuality was not just that it was deemed unnatural but also that it was considered unJewish, representing yet one more incursion of pagan civilization into Jewish life.
On top of that is the more universal repugnance heterosexuals tend to feel for acts and orientations foreign to them. (Left-handedness has evoked something of the same response in many cultures.)
Whatever the rationale for their formulation, however, the texts leave no room for maneuvering. Persons committing homosexual acts are to be executed. This is the unambiguous command of Scripture.
The meaning is clear: anyone who wishes to base his or her beliefs on the witness of the Old Testament must be completely consistent and demand the death penalty for everyone who performs homosexual acts. (That may seem extreme, but there actually are some Christians urging this very thing today.) It is unlikely that any American court will ever again condemn a homosexual to death, even though Scripture clearly commands it.
Old Testament texts have to be weighed against the New. Consequently, Paul’s unambiguous condemnation of homosexual behavior in Rom. 1:26-27 must be the centerpiece of any discussion.
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
No doubt Paul was unaware of the distinction between sexual orientation, over which one has apparently very little choice, and sexual behavior, over which one does. He seemed to assume that those whom he condemned were heterosexuals who were acting contrary to nature, “leaving,” “giving up,” or “exchanging” their regular sexual orientation for that which was foreign to them.
Paul knew nothing of the modern psychosexual understanding of homosexuals as persons whose orientation is fixed early in life, or perhaps even genetically in some cases. For such persons, having heterosexual relations would be acting contrary to nature, “leaving,” “giving up” or “exchanging” their natural sexual orientation for one that was unnatural to them.
In other words, Paul really thought that those whose behavior he condemned were “straight,” and that they were behaving in ways that were unnatural to them. Paul believed that everyone was straight. He had no concept of homosexual orientation. The idea was not available in his world.
There are people that are genuinely homosexual by nature (whether genetically or as a result of upbringing no one really knows, and it is irrelevant). For such a person it would be acting contrary to nature to have sexual relations with a person of the opposite sex.
Likewise, the relationships Paul describes are heavy with lust; they are not relationships between consenting adults who are committed to each other as faithfully and with as much integrity as any heterosexual couple. That was something Paul simply could not envision.
Some people assume today that venereal disease and AIDS are divine punishment for homosexual behavior; we know it as a risk involved in promiscuity of every stripe, homosexual and heterosexual. In fact, the vast majority of people with AIDS the world around are heterosexuals. We can scarcely label AIDS a divine punishment, since nonpromiscuous lesbians are at almost no risk.
And Paul believes that homosexual behavior is contrary to nature, whereas we have learned that it is manifested by a wide variety of species, especially (but not solely) under the pressure of overpopulation. It would appear then to be a quite natural mechanism for preserving species. We cannot, of course, decide human ethical conduct solely on the basis of animal behavior or the human sciences, but Paul here is arguing from nature, as he himself says, and new knowledge of what is “natural” is therefore relevant to the case.
Hebrew Sexual Mores
Nevertheless, the Bible quite clearly takes a negative view of homosexual activity, in those few instances where it is mentioned at all. But this conclusion does not solve the problem of how we are to interpret Scripture today. For there are other sexual attitudes, practices and restrictions which are normative in Scripture but which we no longer accept as normative:
1. Old Testament law strictly forbids sexual intercourse during the seven days of the menstrual period (Lev. 18:19; 15:19-24), and anyone in violation was to be “extirpated” or “cut off from their people” (kareth, Lev. 18:29, a term referring to execution by stoning, burning, strangling, or to flogging or expulsion; Lev. 15:24 omits this penalty).
Today many people on occasion have intercourse during menstruation and think nothing of it. Should they be “extirpated”? The Bible says they should.
2. The punishment for adultery was death by stoning for both the man and the woman (Deut. 22:22), but here adultery is defined by the marital status of the woman. In the Old Testament, a man could not commit adultery against his own wife; he could only commit adultery against another man by sexually using the other’s wife. And a bride who is found not to be a virgin is to be stoned to death (Deut. 22:13-21), but male virginity at marriage is never even mentioned.
It is one of the curiosities of the current debate on sexuality that adultery, which creates far more social havoc, is considered less “sinful” than homosexual activity. Perhaps this is because there are far more adulterers in our churches. Yet no one, to my knowledge, is calling for their stoning, despite the clear command of Scripture. And we ordain adulterers.
3. Nudity, the characteristic of paradise, was regarded in Judaism as reprehensible (2 Sam. 6:20; 10:4; Isa. 20:2-4; 47:3). When one of Noah’s sons beheld his father naked, he was cursed (Gen. 9:20-27). To a great extent this nudity taboo probably even inhibited the sexual intimacy of husbands and wives (this is still true of a surprising number of people reared in the Judeo-Christian tradition).
We may not be prepared for nude beaches, but are we prepared to regard nudity in the locker room or at the old swimming hole or in the privacy of one’s home as an accursed sin? The Bible does.
4. Polygamy (many wives) and concubinage (a woman living with a man to whom she is not married) were regularly practiced in the Old Testament. Neither is ever condemned by the New Testament (with the questionable exceptions of 1 Tim. 3:2, 12 and Titus 1:6). Jesus’ teaching about marital union in Mark 10:6-8 is no exception, since he quotes Gen. 2:24 as his authority (the man and the woman will become “one flesh”), and this text was never understood in Israel as excluding polygamy. A man could become “one flesh” with more than one woman, through the act of sexual intercourse.
We know from Jewish sources that polygamy continued to be practiced within Judaism for centuries following the New Testament period. So if the Bible allowed polygamy and concubinage, why don’t we?
5. A form of polygamy was the levirate marriage. When a married man in Israel died childless, his widow was to have intercourse with each of his brothers in turn until she bore him a male heir. Jesus mentions this custom without criticism (Mark 12:18-27 par.).
I am not aware of any Christians who still obey this unambiguous commandment of Scripture. Why is this law ignored, and the one against homosexual behavior preserved?
6. The Old Testament nowhere explicitly prohibits sexual relations between unmarried consenting heterosexual adults, as long as the woman’s economic value (bride price) is not compromised, that is to say, as long as she is not a virgin.
There are poems in the Song of Songs that eulogize a love affair between two unmarried persons, though commentators have often conspired to cover up the fact with heavy layers of allegorical interpretation.
In various parts of the Christian world, quite different attitudes have prevailed about sexual intercourse before marriage. In some Christian communities, proof of fertility (that is, pregnancy) was required for marriage. This was especially the case in farming areas where the inability to produce children-workers could mean economic hardship.
Today, many single adults, the widowed, and the divorced are reverting to “biblical” practice, while others believe that sexual intercourse belongs only within marriage. Both views are Scriptural. Which is right?
7. The Bible virtually lacks terms for the sexual organs, being content with such euphemisms as “foot” or “thigh” for the genitals, and using other euphemisms to describe coitus, such as “he knew her.”
Today most of us regard such language as “puritanical” and contrary to a proper regard for the goodness of creation. In short, we don’t follow Biblical practice.
8. Semen and menstrual blood rendered all who touched them unclean (Lev. 15:16-24). Intercourse rendered one unclean until sundown; menstruation rendered the woman unclean for seven days.
Today most people would regard semen and menstrual fluid as completely natural and only at times “messy,” not “unclean.”
9. Social regulations regarding adultery, incest, rape and prostitution are, in the Old Testament, determined largely by considerations of the males’ property rights over women. Prostitution was considered quite natural and necessary as a safeguard of the virginity of the unmarried and the property rights of husbands (Gen. 38:12-19; Josh. 2:1-7). A man was not guilty of sin for visiting a prostitute, though the prostitute herself was regarded as a sinner. Paul must appeal to reason in attacking prostitution (1 Cor. 6:12-20); he cannot lump it in the category of adultery (vs. 9).
Today we are moving, with great social turbulence and at a high but necessary cost, toward a more equitable, non-patriarchal set of social arrangements in which women are no longer regarded as the chattel of men.
We are also trying to move beyond the double standard. Love, fidelity and mutual respect replace property rights. We have, as yet, made very little progress in changing the double standard in regard to prostitution.
As we leave behind patriarchal gender relations, what will we do with the patriarchalism in the Bible?
10. Jews were supposed to practice endogamy–that is, marriage within the twelve tribes of Israel.
Until recently a similar rule prevailed in the American South, in laws against interracial marriage (miscegenation). We have witnessed, within the lifetime of many of us, the nonviolent struggle to nullify state laws against intermarriage and the gradual change in social attitudes toward interracial relationships.
Sexual mores can alter quite radically even in a single lifetime.
11. The law of Moses allowed for divorce (Deut. 24:1-4); Jesus categorically forbids it (Mark 10:1-12; Matt. 19:9 softens his severity).
Yet many Christians, in clear violation of a command of Jesus, have been divorced. Why, then, do some of these very people consider themselves eligible for baptism, church membership, communion, and ordination, but not homosexuals?
What makes the one so much greater a sin than the other, especially considering the fact that Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality but explicitly condemned divorce? Yet we ordain divorcees. Why not homosexuals?
12. The Old Testament regarded celibacy as abnormal, and 1 Tim. 4:1-3 calls compulsory celibacy a heresy. Yet the Catholic Church has made it mandatory for priests and nuns. Some Christian ethicists demand celibacy of homosexuals, whether they have a vocation for celibacy or not. But this legislates celibacy by category, not by divine calling.
Others argue that since God made men and women for each other in order to be fruitful and multiply, homosexuals reject God’s intent in creation.
But this would mean that childless couples, single persons, priests and nuns would be in violation of God’s intention in their creation. Those who argue thus must explain why the apostle Paul never married. And are they prepared to charge Jesus with violating the will of God by remaining single?
Certainly heterosexual marriage is normal, else the race would die out. But it is not normative. God can bless the world through people who are married and through people who are single, and it is false to generalize from the marriage of most people to the marriage of everyone.
In 1 Cor. 7:7 Paul goes so far as to call marriage a “charisma,” or divine gift, to which not everyone is called. He preferred that people remain as he was–unmarried. In an age of overpopulation, perhaps a gay orientation is especially sound ecologically!
13. In many other ways we have developed different norms from those explicitly laid down by the Bible. For example, “If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity” (Deut. 25:11f.).
We, on the contrary, might very well applaud her for trying to save her husband’s life!
14. The Old and New Testaments both regarded slavery as normal and nowhere categorically condemned it. Part of that heritage was the use of female slaves, concubines and captives as sexual toys, breeding machines, or involuntary wives by their male owners, which 2 Sam. 5:13, Judges 19-21 and Num. 31:18 permitted–and as many American slave owners did some 150 years ago, citing these and numerous other Scripture passages as their justification.
The Problem of Authority
These cases are relevant to our attitude toward the authority of Scripture. They are not cultic prohibitions from the Holiness Code that are clearly superseded in Christianity, such as rules about eating shellfish or wearing clothes made of two different materials. They are rules concerning sexual behavior, and they fall among the moral commandments of Scripture.
Clearly we regard certain rules, especially in the Old Testament, as no longer binding. Other things we regard as binding, including legislation in the Old Testament that is not mentioned at all in the New. What is our principle of selection here?
For example, virtually all modern readers would agree with the Bible in rejecting: incest, rape, adultery, and intercourse with animals. But we disagree with the Bible on most other sexual mores.
The Bible condemned the following behaviors which we generally allow: intercourse during menstruation, celibacy, exogamy (marriage with non-Jews), naming sexual organs, nudity (under certain conditions), masturbation (some Christians still condemn this), birth control (some Christians still forbid this).
And the Bible regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most of us do not. Likewise, the Bible permitted behaviors that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl, age 11-13).
And while the Old Testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it. In short, of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them, and disagree with it on sixteen!
Surely no one today would recommend reviving the levirate marriage. So why do we appeal to proof texts in Scripture in the case of homosexuality alone, when we feel perfectly free to disagree with Scripture regarding most other sexual practices?
Obviously many of our choices in these matters are arbitrary. Mormon polygamy was outlawed in this country, despite the constitutional protection of freedom of religion, because it violated the sensibilities of the dominant Christian culture. Yet no explicit biblical prohibition against polygamy exists.
If we insist on placing ourselves under the old law, as Paul reminds us, we are obligated to keep every commandment of the law (Gal. 5:3).
But if Christ is the end of the law (Rom. 10:4), if we have been discharged from the law to serve, not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit (Rom. 7:6), then all of these biblical sexual mores come under the authority of the Spirit. We cannot then take even what Paul himself says as a new Law.
Christians reserve the right to pick and choose which sexual mores they will observe, though they seldom admit to doing just that. And this is as true of evangelicals and fundamentalists as it is of liberals and mainliners.
Judge for Yourselves
The crux of the matter, it seems to me, is simply that the Bible has no sexual ethic. There is no Biblical sex ethic. Instead, it exhibits a variety of sexual mores, some of which changed over the thousand year span of biblical history. Mores are unreflective customs accepted by a given community. Many of the practices that the Bible prohibits, we allow, and many that it allows, we prohibit.
The Bible knows only a love ethic, which is constantly being brought to bear on whatever sexual mores are dominant in any given country, or culture, or period.
The very notion of a “sex ethic” reflects the materialism and splitness of modern life, in which we increasingly define our identity sexually.
Sexuality cannot be separated off from the rest of life. No sex act is “ethical” in and of itself, without reference to the rest of a person’s life, the patterns of the culture, the special circumstances faced, and the will of God. What we have are simply sexual mores, which change, sometimes with startling rapidity, creating bewildering dilemmas.
Just within one lifetime we have witnessed the shift from the ideal of preserving one’s virginity until marriage, to couples living together for several years before getting married. The response of many Christians is merely to long for the hypocrisies of an earlier era.
I agree that rules and norms are necessary; that is what sexual mores are. But rules and norms also tend to be impressed into the service of the Domination System, and to serve as a form of crowd control rather than to enhance the fullness of human potential.
So we must critique the sexual mores of any given time and clime by the love ethic exemplified by Jesus. Defining such a love ethic is not complicated. It is non-exploitative (hence no sexual exploitation of children, no using of another to their loss), it does not dominate (hence no patriarchal treatment of women as chattel), it is responsible, mutual, caring, and loving.
Augustine already dealt with this in his inspired phrase, “Love God, and do as you please.”
Our moral task, then, is to apply Jesus’ love ethic to whatever sexual mores are prevalent in a given culture. This doesn’t mean everything goes. It means that everything is to be critiqued by Jesus’ love commandment.
We might address younger teens, not with laws and commandments whose violation is a sin, but rather with the sad experiences of so many of our own children who find too much early sexual intimacy overwhelming, and who react by voluntary celibacy and even the refusal to date. We can offer reasons, not empty and unenforceable orders. We can challenge both gays and straights to question their behaviors in the light of love and the requirements of fidelity, honesty, responsibility, and genuine concern for the best interests of the other and of society as a whole.
Christian morality, after all, is not an iron chastity belt for repressing urges, but a way of expressing the integrity of our relationship with God. It is the attempt to discover a manner of living that is consistent with who God created us to be.
For those of same-sex orientation, as for heterosexuals, being moral means rejecting sexual mores that violate their own integrity and that of others, and attempting to discover what it would mean to live by the love ethic of Jesus.
Morton Kelsey goes so far as to argue that homosexual orientation has nothing to do with morality, any more than left-handedness. It is simply the way some people’s sexuality is configured. Morality enters the picture when that predisposition is enacted. If we saw it as a God-given gift to those for whom it is normal, we could get beyond the acrimony and brutality that have so often characterized the unchristian behavior of Christians toward gays.
Approached from the point of view of love rather than that of law, the issue is at once transformed.
Now the question is not “What is permitted?” but rather “What does it mean to love my homosexual neighbor?” Approached from the point of view of faith rather than works, the question ceases to be “What constitutes a breach of divine law in the sexual realm?” and becomes instead “What constitutes integrity before the God revealed in the cosmic lover, Jesus Christ?”
Approached from the point of view of the Spirit rather than the letter, the question ceases to be “What does Scripture command?” and becomes “What is the Word that the Spirit speaks to the churches now, in the light of Scripture, tradition, theology, and, yes, psychology, genetics, anthropology, and biology?” We can’t continue to build ethics on the basis of bad science.
In a little-remembered statement, Jesus said, “Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:57 NRSV). Such sovereign freedom strikes terror in the hearts of many Christians; they would rather be under law and be told what is right.
Yet Paul himself echoes Jesus’ sentiment when he says, “Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Cor. 6:3 RSV). The last thing Paul would want is for people to respond to his ethical advice as a new law engraved on tablets of stone. He is himself trying to “judge for himself what is right.”
If now new evidence is in on the phenomenon of homosexuality, are we not obligated–no, free–to re-evaluate the whole issue in the light of all the available data and decide what is right, under God, for ourselves? Is this not the radical freedom for obedience in which the gospel establishes us?
Where the Bible mentions homosexual behavior at all, it clearly condemns it. I freely grant that. The issue is precisely whether that Biblical judgment is correct.
The Bible sanctioned slavery as well, and nowhere attacked it as unjust. Are we prepared to argue today that slavery is biblically justified? One hundred and fifty years ago, when the debate over slavery was raging, the Bible seemed to be clearly on the slaveholders’ side. Abolitionists were hard pressed to justify their opposition to slavery on biblical grounds. Yet today, if you were to ask Christians in the South whether the Bible sanctions slavery, virtually everyone would agree that it does not. How do we account for such a monumental shift?
What happened is that the churches were finally driven to penetrate beyond the legal tenor of Scripture to an even deeper tenor, articulated by Israel out of the experience of the Exodus and the prophets and brought to sublime embodiment in Jesus’ identification with harlots, tax collectors, the diseased and maimed and outcast and poor.
It is that God sides with the powerless. God liberates the oppressed. God suffers with the suffering and groans toward the reconciliation of all things. In the light of that supernal compassion, whatever our position on gays, the gospel’s imperative to love, care for, and be identified with their sufferings is unmistakably clear.
In the same way, women are pressing us to acknowledge the sexism and patriarchalism that pervades Scripture and has alienated so many women from the church. The way out, however, is not to deny the sexism in Scripture, but to develop an interpretive theory that judges even Scripture in the light of the revelation in Jesus.
What Jesus gives us is a critique of domination in all its forms, a critique that can be turned on the Bible itself. The Bible thus contains the principles of its own correction. We are freed from bibliolatry, the worship of the Bible. It is restored to its proper place as witness to the Word of God. And that word is a Person, not a book.
With the interpretive grid provided by a critique of domination, we are able to filter out the sexism, patriarchalism, violence, and homophobia that are very much a part of the Bible, thus liberating it to reveal to us in fresh ways the inbreaking, in our time, of God’s domination-free order.
An Appeal for Tolerance
What most saddens me in this whole raucous debate in the churches is how sub-Christian most of it has been. It is characteristic of our time that the issues most difficult to assess, and which have generated the greatest degree of animosity, are issues on which the Bible can be interpreted as supporting either side. I am referring to abortion and homosexuality.
We need to take a few steps back and be honest with ourselves. I am deeply convinced of the rightness of what I have said in this essay. But I must acknowledge that it is not an air tight case. You can find weaknesses in it, just as I can in others’. The truth is, we are not given unequivocal guidance in either area, abortion or homosexuality.
Rather than tearing at each others’s throats, therefore, we should humbly admit our limitations. How do I know I am correctly interpreting God’s word for us today? How do you? Wouldn’t it be wiser for Christians to lower the decibels by 95 percent and quietly present our beliefs, knowing full well that we might be wrong?
I know of a couple, both well known Christian authors in their own right, who have both spoken out on the issue of homosexuality. She supports gays, passionately; he opposes their behavior, strenuously. So far as I can tell, this couple still enjoy each other’s company, eat at the same table, and, for all I know, sleep in the same bed.
We in the church need to get our priorities straight. We have not reached a consensus about who is right on the issue of homosexuality. But what is clear, utterly clear, is that we are commanded to love one another. Love not just our gay sisters and brothers who are often sitting beside us, unacknowledged, in church, but all of us who are involved in this debate.
These are issues about which we should amiably agree to disagree. We don’t have to tear whole denominations to shreds in order to air our differences on this point. If that couple I mentioned can continue to embrace across this divide, surely we can do so as well.
Used with permission of Rev. Wink. Additional copies may be ordered from Fellowship Bookstore, Box 271, Nyack, NY 10960. 914-358-4601.
Contributed by Rev. Dr. Walter Wink
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Black Church Conversations, How to Think about the Bible, Insights from the Academy, Sexuality
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
Pastoral charge
Black Church Conversations, Blessings for Persons, How to Think about the Bible, Life Transitions, Preaching, Rituals & Blessings, Worship
The charge offers encouragement, inspiration and focus to those entering new journeys of ministry.
But I know what the Bible says…
Black Church Conversations, Dialogue, How to Think about the Bible, Moral Reflections, Sexuality
Too often, our ideas about the Bible stop us from becoming living testaments of God's love.
Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality
Biblical Themes, How to Think about the Bible
Walter Wink's popular and in-depth explanation.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/how-to-think-about-the-bible/
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A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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How to Think about the Bible
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WorshipBlessings for Persons (1)
Rituals & BlessingsLife Transitions (1)
Biblical ThemesDiscipleship & Witness (1)
EducationFrequently Asked Questions (1)
Frequently Asked QuestionsConcerns about the Bible (2)
Black Church ConversationsInsights from the Academy (1)
Preaching (2)
Dialogue (2)
Moral Reflections (1)
Sexuality (2)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Resources in "How to Think about the Bible"
How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Dialogue, How to Think about the Bible
Don’t Blame It on the Bible
Black Church Conversations, How to Think about the Bible, Insights from the Academy, Sexuality
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
Pastoral charge
Black Church Conversations, Blessings for Persons, How to Think about the Bible, Life Transitions, Preaching, Rituals & Blessings, Worship
The charge offers encouragement, inspiration and focus to those entering new journeys of ministry.
But I know what the Bible says…
Black Church Conversations, Dialogue, How to Think about the Bible, Moral Reflections, Sexuality
Too often, our ideas about the Bible stop us from becoming living testaments of God's love.
Biblical Perspectives on Homosexuality
Biblical Themes, How to Think about the Bible
Walter Wink's popular and in-depth explanation.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/how-to-think-about-the-bible/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
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Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Light My Step
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
There’s a light that shines into the darkness.
There’s a song that rises from the earth.
There’s a hope that guides us on our journey.
There’s a love that springs to life new birth.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when loneliness surrounds you,
when the pain seems too much to bear.
Can you hear the voice of love that calls you?
In your grief, know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when we are called to journey.
When the road ahead becomes unclear.
Just take one step and know that I am with you.
Walk in faith and know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
© 1999 Thomas W. Nichols and Daniel Chadburn All Rights Reserved.
Attachments:
Nichols – Chadburn – Light My Step.mp3
Chadburn-Nichols Light My Step.pdf
Contributed by Dan Chadburn & Tom Nichols
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/light-my-step/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
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Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Light My Step
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
There’s a light that shines into the darkness.
There’s a song that rises from the earth.
There’s a hope that guides us on our journey.
There’s a love that springs to life new birth.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when loneliness surrounds you,
when the pain seems too much to bear.
Can you hear the voice of love that calls you?
In your grief, know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when we are called to journey.
When the road ahead becomes unclear.
Just take one step and know that I am with you.
Walk in faith and know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
© 1999 Thomas W. Nichols and Daniel Chadburn All Rights Reserved.
Attachments:
Nichols – Chadburn – Light My Step.mp3
Chadburn-Nichols Light My Step.pdf
Contributed by Dan Chadburn & Tom Nichols
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/light-my-step/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
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Events
Get Involved
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Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Changed by God’s Love
Greater acceptance, broader love, and wider welcome illuminates our reflection of God to the world (based on Acts 10:9-15 and Matthew 15:21-28).
One: How quickly we humans condemn, how easily hurtful words are spoken, acts of hate and injury accomplished.
Many: If I am different, there is no welcome; if you don’t belong, there is no love.
One: The disciple Peter refused to accept that which he thought unclean, to receive those who were impure.
Many: God taught him that nothing God has made is unclean and must not be called profane.
One: Sometimes the good news of God’s love is thought to be only for some people and not for others.
Many: Even Jesus had his eyes opened to the depth of God’s inclusive love.
One: Those who are called by the name Christian are called to be changed by God’s love,
All: so that none may be excluded, and all may be welcomed in.
From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Reprinted by permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/changed-by-gods-love/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
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Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Changed by God’s Love
Greater acceptance, broader love, and wider welcome illuminates our reflection of God to the world (based on Acts 10:9-15 and Matthew 15:21-28).
One: How quickly we humans condemn, how easily hurtful words are spoken, acts of hate and injury accomplished.
Many: If I am different, there is no welcome; if you don’t belong, there is no love.
One: The disciple Peter refused to accept that which he thought unclean, to receive those who were impure.
Many: God taught him that nothing God has made is unclean and must not be called profane.
One: Sometimes the good news of God’s love is thought to be only for some people and not for others.
Many: Even Jesus had his eyes opened to the depth of God’s inclusive love.
One: Those who are called by the name Christian are called to be changed by God’s love,
All: so that none may be excluded, and all may be welcomed in.
From Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God’s Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney. Copyright 2000 by Reconciling Ministries Network. Reprinted by permission.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/changed-by-gods-love/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
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Get Involved
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Current Search Terms
Love/Relationships
Refine Your Search
WorshipLitanies & Liturgies (1)
Biblical ThemesStewardship & Creation (1)
Music & MediaChoir or Small Group (1)
Congregational Singing (1)
Solo (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Resources in "Love/Relationships"
Light My Step
Choir or Small Group, Congregational Singing, Love/Relationships, Music & Media, Solo, Stewardship & Creation
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
Changed by God’s Love
Biblical Themes, Litanies & Liturgies, Love/Relationships, Worship
Greater acceptance, broader love, and wider welcome illuminates our reflection of God to the world (based on Acts 10:9-15 and Matthew 15:21-28).
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/love-relationships/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS Feed
Shopping Cart
Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Current Search Terms
Love/Relationships
Refine Your Search
WorshipLitanies & Liturgies (1)
Biblical ThemesStewardship & Creation (1)
Music & MediaChoir or Small Group (1)
Congregational Singing (1)
Solo (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Resources in "Love/Relationships"
Light My Step
Choir or Small Group, Congregational Singing, Love/Relationships, Music & Media, Solo, Stewardship & Creation
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
Changed by God’s Love
Biblical Themes, Litanies & Liturgies, Love/Relationships, Worship
Greater acceptance, broader love, and wider welcome illuminates our reflection of God to the world (based on Acts 10:9-15 and Matthew 15:21-28).
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/love-relationships/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS Feed
Shopping Cart
Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Light My Step
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
There’s a light that shines into the darkness.
There’s a song that rises from the earth.
There’s a hope that guides us on our journey.
There’s a love that springs to life new birth.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when loneliness surrounds you,
when the pain seems too much to bear.
Can you hear the voice of love that calls you?
In your grief, know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when we are called to journey.
When the road ahead becomes unclear.
Just take one step and know that I am with you.
Walk in faith and know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
© 1999 Thomas W. Nichols and Daniel Chadburn All Rights Reserved.
Attachments:
Nichols – Chadburn – Light My Step.mp3
Chadburn-Nichols Light My Step.pdf
Contributed by Dan Chadburn & Tom Nichols
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/light-my-step/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS Feed
Shopping Cart
Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Light My Step
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
There’s a light that shines into the darkness.
There’s a song that rises from the earth.
There’s a hope that guides us on our journey.
There’s a love that springs to life new birth.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when loneliness surrounds you,
when the pain seems too much to bear.
Can you hear the voice of love that calls you?
In your grief, know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
There are times when we are called to journey.
When the road ahead becomes unclear.
Just take one step and know that I am with you.
Walk in faith and know that I am here.
Light my step, guide my feet.
Show me the path to my life.
In Your love, rescue me.
Light my step, guide my feet.
© 1999 Thomas W. Nichols and Daniel Chadburn All Rights Reserved.
Attachments:
Nichols – Chadburn – Light My Step.mp3
Chadburn-Nichols Light My Step.pdf
Contributed by Dan Chadburn & Tom Nichols
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/light-my-step/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS Feed
Shopping Cart
Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Offering
Our worship provides space to practice giving and sharing our talents, time and treasure.
Embraced by God
and loved for all that we are,
let us embrace the Church and the world
as we share what we have
to bring God’s love and justice to all.
By Rev. Wes Jamison, Gay, Lesbian Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/offering/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
Blog
Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS Feed
Shopping Cart
Search for:
Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Offering
Our worship provides space to practice giving and sharing our talents, time and treasure.
Embraced by God
and loved for all that we are,
let us embrace the Church and the world
as we share what we have
to bring God’s love and justice to all.
By Rev. Wes Jamison, Gay, Lesbian Affirming Disciples (GLAD) Alliance. Used with permission.
Contributed by Rev. Wes Jamison
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Song of Letting Go
I will sing the song of letting go, I will sing it out though I don't know, I will sing it clear though I don't know where this song goes.... [Includes MP3 recording.]
Attachments:
SONG OF LETTING GO.mp3
Contributed by Thew Elliott
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Song of Letting Go
I will sing the song of letting go, I will sing it out though I don't know, I will sing it clear though I don't know where this song goes.... [Includes MP3 recording.]
Attachments:
SONG OF LETTING GO.mp3
Contributed by Thew Elliott
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Resources in "Stewardship & Creation"
Light My Step
Choir or Small Group, Congregational Singing, Love/Relationships, Music & Media, Solo, Stewardship & Creation
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
Offering
Biblical Themes, Stewardship & Creation
Our worship provides space to practice giving and sharing our talents, time and treasure.
Song of Letting Go
Congregational Singing, Music & Media, Stewardship & Creation
I will sing the song of letting go, I will sing it out though I don't know, I will sing it clear though I don't know where this song goes.... [Includes MP3 recording.]
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http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/stewardship-creation/
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Resources in "Stewardship & Creation"
Light My Step
Choir or Small Group, Congregational Singing, Love/Relationships, Music & Media, Solo, Stewardship & Creation
Allow yourself to bask in the glow and warmth of God's holy light surrounding you wherever you go. [Includes MP3 and PDF of score.]
Offering
Biblical Themes, Stewardship & Creation
Our worship provides space to practice giving and sharing our talents, time and treasure.
Song of Letting Go
Congregational Singing, Music & Media, Stewardship & Creation
I will sing the song of letting go, I will sing it out though I don't know, I will sing it clear though I don't know where this song goes.... [Includes MP3 recording.]
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/which-bible-verses-could-i-use/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/which-bible-verses-could-i-use/
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Resources in "Discipleship & Witness"
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
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Resources in "Discipleship & Witness"
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
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Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
I was outraged as my research produced one account after another of violence against black lesbian teens! I was equally angered at the number of violent crimes against young black gay men. One article identified a pattern of the gruesome violence against gay black males: someone familiar to the victim and desecration of the body. The pattern of violence against lesbians was rape and fatal shootings. Some of these rapes and murders were committed by black church folks, even pastors. The Houston Chronicle published a brief article about a Fort Worth, Texas pastor charged with raping a 22-year-old member who sought his counsel as one struggling with her sexuality. The Rev. Leonard Ray Owens, 63, of the Prayer House of Faith Church told the young women she had a “lesbian demon” and allegedly sexually assaulted her in his effort to excise the demon. Egregious crimes such as these did not merit an outcry from the black community, least of all a cry of outrage from the Black Church.
What should the church say to gay teens? “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” and “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”As I begin this essay on talking to gay teens, I must confess my anger at the Black Church, an institution which I dearly love, for failing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) black teens. Also, I want to briefly note two assumptions associated with talking with black teenagers. The first assumption is that the Black Church wants to say something positive and life-giving to all teenagers about black sexuality regardless of their skin color, social status, gender, and sexual orientation. A related assumption is that the Black Church wants such a positive conversation with black gay teens. Black congregations commonly communicate negatively to youth using abstinence and homophobic rhetoric spoken from Sunday morning pulpits and pews as well as weekday youth programs. As ethicist Victor Anderson has noted, black congregations and their leaders are consistently vocal about the “abominable sin of homosexuality” among the young and old. I believe more congregations speak negatively about black sexuality to youth than those congregations that speak positively, and I wish to suggest a positive approach to black sexuality, specifically, to consider a positive word for black gay teens. So, what should the church say to gay teens? I suggest two things: “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” And “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”
The African American Church Must Seek Forgiveness from Gay Teens
The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.First, the African American Church must ask forgiveness of gay teens for failing to love them. Loving black gay teens involves loving like Jesus loved. John’s Gospel records how Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe in him because of them, “…the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17: 26b). Loving as God loves is unconditional and perfect. Love “…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:7) Since love is from God, we are called to love one another for “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfect in us.” (I John 4:8 and 11b) The Bible is clear that we should love all people without any conditions, including their sexual orientation. The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.
Perfect love advocates and protects gay teens along with all other teenagers. This type of love fashions youth ministries relevant to negotiating the difficult, death dealing, and bullying terrains of school, home, and peers. Perfect love must accompany black gay teens as they journey toward a “whole” and wholesome identity that includes race, religion, and sexuality. Generally, within the black community youth view being homosexual as the worst mark of identity. In an ethnographic study with low-income black teenagers, Carissa Froyum discovered that teens construct affirming identities through heterosexuality. Froyum observed poor black teens using strategies to create and protect their heterosexual identities that included appropriating heterosexist ideologies. Froyum’s research suggests that black teens may not be able to deny being poor but at least they are not gay; for poor black youth, being gay is the absolute worst mark of identity.1 Perfect love provides a corrective to such dehumanizing and class stratifying beliefs.
The African American Church must become a Sanctuary for Gay Teens
The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God. Second, the Black Church must become a sanctuary for gay youth, inviting them to a physical and metaphorical place of safety where God dwells. A sanctuary is a holy place where God, known in Jesus Christ and present in the world today as the Holy Spirit, provides a place that should shelter gay youth from harm. I have argued that the Black Church should allow black youth to express their anger and well as their joy in the presence of God and the congregation. This is the physical setting of the church where gay youth can be themselves without fear of being exploited or ridiculed. Metaphorically, the church should be a safe place for gay youth to be their authentic selves with all their emotions, gifts, and concerns. The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God, created in God’s own goodness. In the sanctuary, gay teens can live into their “sacred-selves” with confidence.
I imagine the Black Church as a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells. How does a sanctuary church function in a homophobic society? Let us imagine the Black Church as a place where gay youth literally run when someone threatens to kill them or when they are being bullied. I want to imagine a “sanctuary” for fifteen year old Sakia Gunn who was killed on May 11, 2003. She and her lesbian friends, ages 15-17, were returning from New York City’s Greenwich Village to Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning when two men driving by propositioned them at the bus stop. When Sakia told the men they were not interested and that they were lesbians, the two men jumped out of the car and attacked the three girls, stabbing Sakia as she defended her girlfriend. Sakia died in her friend’s arms on the way to the hospital. I want to imagine a Black Church that would have been a hiding place, a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells for girls like Sakia.
I wonder what the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, feels when Black congregations refuse to love and offer sanctuary to gay teenagers. I also wonder how gay teens would have responded to the question of what should the Black Church say to them. I am concerned that we keep asking the question until black gay teens lift their voices and speak to the Black Church and we listen and accept them.
Books
Resources
Pat Davis, “Okay with Who I Am” Listening to Lesbian Young Women Talk about Their Spiritualities. In Evelyn L. Parker, ed., The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2006.
Support Groups
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, Online location: http://www.glsen.org/cgibin/iowa/all/home/index.html
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Online location: http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2
Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth, ROSMY, Online location: http://www.rosmy.org/
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, Online location: http://www.smyal.org/ Sisters of Sakia, Online location: http://www.myspace.com/sistersofsakia
Notes
1. Carissa M. Froyum, “At Least I‟m Not Gay”: Heterosexual identity Making Among Poor Black Teens. In Sexualities, December 2007, Vol. 10 Issue 5, pp. 603-622.
By Evelyn L. Parker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Reprinted with permission from the Dialogue Corner of The African American Lectionary.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
I was outraged as my research produced one account after another of violence against black lesbian teens! I was equally angered at the number of violent crimes against young black gay men. One article identified a pattern of the gruesome violence against gay black males: someone familiar to the victim and desecration of the body. The pattern of violence against lesbians was rape and fatal shootings. Some of these rapes and murders were committed by black church folks, even pastors. The Houston Chronicle published a brief article about a Fort Worth, Texas pastor charged with raping a 22-year-old member who sought his counsel as one struggling with her sexuality. The Rev. Leonard Ray Owens, 63, of the Prayer House of Faith Church told the young women she had a “lesbian demon” and allegedly sexually assaulted her in his effort to excise the demon. Egregious crimes such as these did not merit an outcry from the black community, least of all a cry of outrage from the Black Church.
What should the church say to gay teens? “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” and “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”As I begin this essay on talking to gay teens, I must confess my anger at the Black Church, an institution which I dearly love, for failing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) black teens. Also, I want to briefly note two assumptions associated with talking with black teenagers. The first assumption is that the Black Church wants to say something positive and life-giving to all teenagers about black sexuality regardless of their skin color, social status, gender, and sexual orientation. A related assumption is that the Black Church wants such a positive conversation with black gay teens. Black congregations commonly communicate negatively to youth using abstinence and homophobic rhetoric spoken from Sunday morning pulpits and pews as well as weekday youth programs. As ethicist Victor Anderson has noted, black congregations and their leaders are consistently vocal about the “abominable sin of homosexuality” among the young and old. I believe more congregations speak negatively about black sexuality to youth than those congregations that speak positively, and I wish to suggest a positive approach to black sexuality, specifically, to consider a positive word for black gay teens. So, what should the church say to gay teens? I suggest two things: “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” And “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”
The African American Church Must Seek Forgiveness from Gay Teens
The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.First, the African American Church must ask forgiveness of gay teens for failing to love them. Loving black gay teens involves loving like Jesus loved. John’s Gospel records how Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe in him because of them, “…the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17: 26b). Loving as God loves is unconditional and perfect. Love “…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:7) Since love is from God, we are called to love one another for “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfect in us.” (I John 4:8 and 11b) The Bible is clear that we should love all people without any conditions, including their sexual orientation. The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.
Perfect love advocates and protects gay teens along with all other teenagers. This type of love fashions youth ministries relevant to negotiating the difficult, death dealing, and bullying terrains of school, home, and peers. Perfect love must accompany black gay teens as they journey toward a “whole” and wholesome identity that includes race, religion, and sexuality. Generally, within the black community youth view being homosexual as the worst mark of identity. In an ethnographic study with low-income black teenagers, Carissa Froyum discovered that teens construct affirming identities through heterosexuality. Froyum observed poor black teens using strategies to create and protect their heterosexual identities that included appropriating heterosexist ideologies. Froyum’s research suggests that black teens may not be able to deny being poor but at least they are not gay; for poor black youth, being gay is the absolute worst mark of identity.1 Perfect love provides a corrective to such dehumanizing and class stratifying beliefs.
The African American Church must become a Sanctuary for Gay Teens
The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God. Second, the Black Church must become a sanctuary for gay youth, inviting them to a physical and metaphorical place of safety where God dwells. A sanctuary is a holy place where God, known in Jesus Christ and present in the world today as the Holy Spirit, provides a place that should shelter gay youth from harm. I have argued that the Black Church should allow black youth to express their anger and well as their joy in the presence of God and the congregation. This is the physical setting of the church where gay youth can be themselves without fear of being exploited or ridiculed. Metaphorically, the church should be a safe place for gay youth to be their authentic selves with all their emotions, gifts, and concerns. The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God, created in God’s own goodness. In the sanctuary, gay teens can live into their “sacred-selves” with confidence.
I imagine the Black Church as a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells. How does a sanctuary church function in a homophobic society? Let us imagine the Black Church as a place where gay youth literally run when someone threatens to kill them or when they are being bullied. I want to imagine a “sanctuary” for fifteen year old Sakia Gunn who was killed on May 11, 2003. She and her lesbian friends, ages 15-17, were returning from New York City’s Greenwich Village to Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning when two men driving by propositioned them at the bus stop. When Sakia told the men they were not interested and that they were lesbians, the two men jumped out of the car and attacked the three girls, stabbing Sakia as she defended her girlfriend. Sakia died in her friend’s arms on the way to the hospital. I want to imagine a Black Church that would have been a hiding place, a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells for girls like Sakia.
I wonder what the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, feels when Black congregations refuse to love and offer sanctuary to gay teenagers. I also wonder how gay teens would have responded to the question of what should the Black Church say to them. I am concerned that we keep asking the question until black gay teens lift their voices and speak to the Black Church and we listen and accept them.
Books
Resources
Pat Davis, “Okay with Who I Am” Listening to Lesbian Young Women Talk about Their Spiritualities. In Evelyn L. Parker, ed., The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2006.
Support Groups
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, Online location: http://www.glsen.org/cgibin/iowa/all/home/index.html
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Online location: http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2
Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth, ROSMY, Online location: http://www.rosmy.org/
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, Online location: http://www.smyal.org/ Sisters of Sakia, Online location: http://www.myspace.com/sistersofsakia
Notes
1. Carissa M. Froyum, “At Least I‟m Not Gay”: Heterosexual identity Making Among Poor Black Teens. In Sexualities, December 2007, Vol. 10 Issue 5, pp. 603-622.
By Evelyn L. Parker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Reprinted with permission from the Dialogue Corner of The African American Lectionary.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Resources in "Youth Group Programs"
Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
Children & Youth, Education, Frequently Asked Questions, Youth Group Programs
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Resources in "Youth Group Programs"
Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
Children & Youth, Education, Frequently Asked Questions, Youth Group Programs
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Questions you may have about God & LGBT
Because of outdated Biblical teachings, many gay and transgender Christians ask themselves if God can ever truly love them. This 6×9 card responds to this and other urgent questions in a loving and compassionate way.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Questions you may have about God & LGBT
Because of outdated Biblical teachings, many gay and transgender Christians ask themselves if God can ever truly love them. This 6×9 card responds to this and other urgent questions in a loving and compassionate way.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Our team
Employment
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Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/which-bible-verses-could-i-use/
Many Voices
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Many people worry that talking with young children about these issues will only confuse or worry them.
But children need caring adults to help them sift through the conflicting and misleading messages they hear about gender and orientation and to provide them with a context for developing positive attitudes and respectful values based on accurate information.
Here are just a few examples:
• Elementary school children hear “you’re so gay” as a put-down and will repeat it unless adults step in and explain that name-calling is hurtful and unacceptable.
• When children point out differences in public and are told to be quiet, they learn that these things can’t be talked about. Adults who speak openly and respectfully teach children that differences are okay.
• Even very young children encounter attitudes and ideas about sexual orientation and gender in the form of storybooks and videos where a prince meets a princess and they live happily ever after, adults who hug little girls but shake hands with little boys, and TV commercials showing boys playing in the dirt with toy trucks and girls playing with dolls.
Openness and guidance from caring adults can prevent prejudice and stereotyping and cultivate acceptance.
Adapted from All God’s Children: Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/arent-children-too-young-to-learn-about-sexual-and-gender-differences/
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Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Many people worry that talking with young children about these issues will only confuse or worry them.
But children need caring adults to help them sift through the conflicting and misleading messages they hear about gender and orientation and to provide them with a context for developing positive attitudes and respectful values based on accurate information.
Here are just a few examples:
• Elementary school children hear “you’re so gay” as a put-down and will repeat it unless adults step in and explain that name-calling is hurtful and unacceptable.
• When children point out differences in public and are told to be quiet, they learn that these things can’t be talked about. Adults who speak openly and respectfully teach children that differences are okay.
• Even very young children encounter attitudes and ideas about sexual orientation and gender in the form of storybooks and videos where a prince meets a princess and they live happily ever after, adults who hug little girls but shake hands with little boys, and TV commercials showing boys playing in the dirt with toy trucks and girls playing with dolls.
Openness and guidance from caring adults can prevent prejudice and stereotyping and cultivate acceptance.
Adapted from All God’s Children: Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
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Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/arent-children-too-young-to-learn-about-sexual-and-gender-differences/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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What does “gender diversity” mean?
Sex and gender. They’re always present, they’re important aspects of who we are, yet they’re rarely discussed in a thoughtful way.
The following definitions are intended to provide a framework for discussion about gender – physical sex, assigned sex, gender identity, gender role, gender presentation, and perceived gender.
Note, first, that even researchers and clinicians disagree about the use of the words sex and gender. You may be accustomed to using those words in a different way than they’re used here. If so, please don’t let that sidetrack you. Instead, listen for the concepts underlying the words.
Physical sex
Physical sex is often identified simplistically in terms of the genitals we have, but physical sex is much more than that. Just as human beings come in many shapes, sizes and colors, we also come in many varieties of physical sex, based on our own unique combination of chromosomes, hormones, and physical characteristics.
Inspecting a newborn’s genitals to determine whether the baby is a boy or a girl can be inconclusive or misleading. Experts have estimated that approximately one percent of babies (at least 40,000 annually in the United States alone) are born with bodies that differ in some way from what is considered standard for males or females.
Some babies have physical characteristics that lead to confusion about whether they’re male or female.
…My wife and I just had our first baby. People keep asking, Is it a girl or a boy?” and I don’t know what to say because the baby has what the doctors call ambiguous genitals. The doctors are recommending a series of surgeries to “correct” the problem. I’ve never heard of this. I usually follow doctors’ recommendations, but I don’t know what to do. I feel so alone.
Other atypical aspects of physical, genetic, and brain sex are invisible to the eye but may become apparent later, perhaps at puberty, or become apparent only if genetic tests are performed.
Assigned sex
Assigned sex is what people declare a baby to be at birth. Assignment is the answer to the question, “Is it a girl or a boy?” Most of us don’t realize that sex was assigned to us, and we take for granted that we are the male or female that we were originally said to be.
However, sometimes sex is ambiguous, as in the above example, but even when a baby’s genitals look the way we expect them to, sex assignment on that basis alone isn’t necessarily accurate.
…Our child was born with a girl’s body, externally, but when she was about four, our doctor noticed a slight bulge in her groin. After blood work and ultrasound, we learned that she had male chromosomes (XY) and testes rather than ovaries.
Still other people have unambiguous genitals, but have a profound sense that their assignment was wrong, and they’re deeply troubled by the bind they find themselves in.
Gender identity
Gender identity is a person’s internal understanding of their own true gender. Most people never question or contradict their assigned sex. They were declared to be a boy or girl at birth, and that suits them completely.
Some children, however, know from a very young age that their assigned gender and apparent physical sex are wrong for them, that they are really the other gender.
…My nephew is four years old. He’s been telling his parents for two years that he’s a girl and wants to wear dresses. My brother is beside himself. He keeps pointing to the child’s penis and saying, “You’re a boy, just like Daddy.” But the kid won’t buy it and is getting more sullen by the day.
For some people, neither male nor female fits their understanding of themselves.
…I’m 24 years old and look androgynous. People don’t know what I am. I don’t feel that either label—male or female—fits me. I’ve been trying to explain this to my mom, but she doesn’t get it. She keeps saying that I have to decide whether I’m a boy or a girl. I’m so frustrated.
Gender role
Gender role is what society says is appropriate for males and females, including dress, behavior, and other activities such as using a particular restroom.
When children encounter gender role restrictions that don’t make sense to them, they often conclude that they have a problem and begin monitoring themselves to make sure they don’t step outside the gender role considered appropriate for their assigned sex. For example, you’ve probably known
• an intelligent girl who played dumb to try to become more popular, or
• a boy who held back tears at his grandfather’s funeral because boys aren’t supposed to cry.
We often forget how culturally specific gender roles are, that what is acceptable in one culture is completely unacceptable in another. For example,
• In the United States, adult women are allowed to drive; in some countries, it is forbidden.
• In some countries, men express their affection for each other freely; in the United States, doing so can be dangerous.
Gender presentation
Gender presentation is the way people express their gender or gender role outwardly—including
• Clothing and jewelry they choose,
• Their mannerisms,
• The way they walk and use their hands,
• Their hairstyle,
• The interests they express, and
• Their speech.
If you stand on a street corner in any major city, you can observe a huge range of choices to express gender. And if you look back at your own life, you may remember different periods of experimenting with or changing how you presented yourself as a man or woman.
…I’m a 34-year-old woman. When I was a kid, I felt comfortable only in boys’ clothes. I was so relieved when I grew up and no longer had to fight with my parents over dresses. I wear men’s clothes all the time, and people are fine with it The only exception is the choir I sing in, which requires women to wear long skirts and men to wear tuxes. It’s not that I want to wear a tux, but I find wearing that skirt incredibly stressful.
Perceived gender
Perceived gender is how someone appears to others. Think about how you “know’ whether someone is male or female. We usually see people clothes, so we perceive gender based on gender presentation and how they fit society’s gender roles.
We may think that we can always tell whether someone is male or female, but what we perceive can be inaccurate. For example, at first glance, many people perceive the woman in the photo on this page to be male because of the way she dresses and carries herself.
As another example, look at the photo of the other person. You probably see him as male, and he agrees. Your perception and his own male gender identity, however, don’t match the sex he was assigned at birth: female.
What does all this mean?
Take a moment to consider the distinctions we’ve just made between physical sex, assigned sex, gender identity, gender role, gender presentation, and perceived gender. You probably can’t remember how you learned about your own gender, your physical sex, or the sex you were assigned. We learn these things before we learn to talk. Most of us take them for granted and assume that everyone else does too.
Then again, you may be able to recall some of the ways you learned about what was considered appropriate for boys and girls. You probably learned these things as a very young child by watching your family and friends. You may remember instances when you unknowingly crossed a gender line and were corrected, ridiculed, or punished.
Of course, if you objected to the rules, they were probably rigidly enforced. For example, if you were a girl who didn’t want to wear dresses, or a boy who did, you were probably not given a choice, but made to conform.
Notice that we haven’t mentioned sexual orientation. Many people confuse gender and sexual orientation, and although they’re related, they’re quite separate issues.
Adapted from Made in God’s Image
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-does-gender-diversity-mean/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What does “gender diversity” mean?
Sex and gender. They’re always present, they’re important aspects of who we are, yet they’re rarely discussed in a thoughtful way.
The following definitions are intended to provide a framework for discussion about gender – physical sex, assigned sex, gender identity, gender role, gender presentation, and perceived gender.
Note, first, that even researchers and clinicians disagree about the use of the words sex and gender. You may be accustomed to using those words in a different way than they’re used here. If so, please don’t let that sidetrack you. Instead, listen for the concepts underlying the words.
Physical sex
Physical sex is often identified simplistically in terms of the genitals we have, but physical sex is much more than that. Just as human beings come in many shapes, sizes and colors, we also come in many varieties of physical sex, based on our own unique combination of chromosomes, hormones, and physical characteristics.
Inspecting a newborn’s genitals to determine whether the baby is a boy or a girl can be inconclusive or misleading. Experts have estimated that approximately one percent of babies (at least 40,000 annually in the United States alone) are born with bodies that differ in some way from what is considered standard for males or females.
Some babies have physical characteristics that lead to confusion about whether they’re male or female.
…My wife and I just had our first baby. People keep asking, Is it a girl or a boy?” and I don’t know what to say because the baby has what the doctors call ambiguous genitals. The doctors are recommending a series of surgeries to “correct” the problem. I’ve never heard of this. I usually follow doctors’ recommendations, but I don’t know what to do. I feel so alone.
Other atypical aspects of physical, genetic, and brain sex are invisible to the eye but may become apparent later, perhaps at puberty, or become apparent only if genetic tests are performed.
Assigned sex
Assigned sex is what people declare a baby to be at birth. Assignment is the answer to the question, “Is it a girl or a boy?” Most of us don’t realize that sex was assigned to us, and we take for granted that we are the male or female that we were originally said to be.
However, sometimes sex is ambiguous, as in the above example, but even when a baby’s genitals look the way we expect them to, sex assignment on that basis alone isn’t necessarily accurate.
…Our child was born with a girl’s body, externally, but when she was about four, our doctor noticed a slight bulge in her groin. After blood work and ultrasound, we learned that she had male chromosomes (XY) and testes rather than ovaries.
Still other people have unambiguous genitals, but have a profound sense that their assignment was wrong, and they’re deeply troubled by the bind they find themselves in.
Gender identity
Gender identity is a person’s internal understanding of their own true gender. Most people never question or contradict their assigned sex. They were declared to be a boy or girl at birth, and that suits them completely.
Some children, however, know from a very young age that their assigned gender and apparent physical sex are wrong for them, that they are really the other gender.
…My nephew is four years old. He’s been telling his parents for two years that he’s a girl and wants to wear dresses. My brother is beside himself. He keeps pointing to the child’s penis and saying, “You’re a boy, just like Daddy.” But the kid won’t buy it and is getting more sullen by the day.
For some people, neither male nor female fits their understanding of themselves.
…I’m 24 years old and look androgynous. People don’t know what I am. I don’t feel that either label—male or female—fits me. I’ve been trying to explain this to my mom, but she doesn’t get it. She keeps saying that I have to decide whether I’m a boy or a girl. I’m so frustrated.
Gender role
Gender role is what society says is appropriate for males and females, including dress, behavior, and other activities such as using a particular restroom.
When children encounter gender role restrictions that don’t make sense to them, they often conclude that they have a problem and begin monitoring themselves to make sure they don’t step outside the gender role considered appropriate for their assigned sex. For example, you’ve probably known
• an intelligent girl who played dumb to try to become more popular, or
• a boy who held back tears at his grandfather’s funeral because boys aren’t supposed to cry.
We often forget how culturally specific gender roles are, that what is acceptable in one culture is completely unacceptable in another. For example,
• In the United States, adult women are allowed to drive; in some countries, it is forbidden.
• In some countries, men express their affection for each other freely; in the United States, doing so can be dangerous.
Gender presentation
Gender presentation is the way people express their gender or gender role outwardly—including
• Clothing and jewelry they choose,
• Their mannerisms,
• The way they walk and use their hands,
• Their hairstyle,
• The interests they express, and
• Their speech.
If you stand on a street corner in any major city, you can observe a huge range of choices to express gender. And if you look back at your own life, you may remember different periods of experimenting with or changing how you presented yourself as a man or woman.
…I’m a 34-year-old woman. When I was a kid, I felt comfortable only in boys’ clothes. I was so relieved when I grew up and no longer had to fight with my parents over dresses. I wear men’s clothes all the time, and people are fine with it The only exception is the choir I sing in, which requires women to wear long skirts and men to wear tuxes. It’s not that I want to wear a tux, but I find wearing that skirt incredibly stressful.
Perceived gender
Perceived gender is how someone appears to others. Think about how you “know’ whether someone is male or female. We usually see people clothes, so we perceive gender based on gender presentation and how they fit society’s gender roles.
We may think that we can always tell whether someone is male or female, but what we perceive can be inaccurate. For example, at first glance, many people perceive the woman in the photo on this page to be male because of the way she dresses and carries herself.
As another example, look at the photo of the other person. You probably see him as male, and he agrees. Your perception and his own male gender identity, however, don’t match the sex he was assigned at birth: female.
What does all this mean?
Take a moment to consider the distinctions we’ve just made between physical sex, assigned sex, gender identity, gender role, gender presentation, and perceived gender. You probably can’t remember how you learned about your own gender, your physical sex, or the sex you were assigned. We learn these things before we learn to talk. Most of us take them for granted and assume that everyone else does too.
Then again, you may be able to recall some of the ways you learned about what was considered appropriate for boys and girls. You probably learned these things as a very young child by watching your family and friends. You may remember instances when you unknowingly crossed a gender line and were corrected, ridiculed, or punished.
Of course, if you objected to the rules, they were probably rigidly enforced. For example, if you were a girl who didn’t want to wear dresses, or a boy who did, you were probably not given a choice, but made to conform.
Notice that we haven’t mentioned sexual orientation. Many people confuse gender and sexual orientation, and although they’re related, they’re quite separate issues.
Adapted from Made in God’s Image
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-does-gender-diversity-mean/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What is sexual orientation?
Let’s face it. Americans bring sex into everything from toothpaste to cars, yet most of us have a hard time affirming sexuality as a gift of God.
And if it’s hard to talk about sexuality in an open, honest, caring way, it may seem nearly impossible to talk about differences in sexual orientation. One reason is that when people think “sex,” they tend to think of sexual behavior. But sexuality encompasses a lot more than behavior.
Sexuality encompasses all of these:
• how we understand and express our gender;
• how we grow and change over the years;
• how we view our bodies;
• how we relate to each other;
• whom we like, love, and are attracted to;
• how we reproduce;
• how we’re alike and different in appearance and behavior;
• what we believe is important;
• and much, much more.
Sexuality includes biological sex
Given that every newborn is greeted with the same question—is it a boy or a girl?—biological sex can appear to be the most fundamental aspect of our sexuality.
Yet even that simple question doesn’t always have a simple answer. Some babies have physical characteristics that lead to confusion about whether they’re male or female. For other babies, atypical aspects of physical, genetic, and brain sex may be invisible at birth and become apparent in early childhood, at puberty, or even later when genetic tests are performed. Some people don’t learn until they’re adults and can’t conceive, for example, that their genetic makeup is not simply either/or.
In addition, our biological sex may not match our gender identify, which is how we see ourselves on the spectrum of female and male, what we let the world see about us, and how congruent our bodies are with our internal experience.
Biological sex and gender diversity are explained more fully in Made in God’s Image.
Sexuality includes gender roles
Despite real variations in physical sex, parents do label their child as a boy or a girl, and from that moment on, children begin learning what’s considered appropriate for them as boys or girls—and what’s not.
One gender role expectation that children learn early is not to act “gay” or not to act like a “sissy,” “faggot,” or “dyke.” Rather than be free to be themselves, boys and girls learn to stifle anything that might be considered “wrong”—too feminine for boys or too masculine for girls.
These playground rules, which extend into adult relationships, demonstrate that people confuse gender role with sexual orientation, which will be discussed shortly.
Sexuality includes sensuality and intimacy
Sexuality includes being sensual, which has to do with
• the ways we feel pleasure,
• our comfort with touching and feelings,
• the image we have of our bodies,
• how we accept ourselves,
• what we know about our bodies, and
• how we take care of them.
Sexuality also includes intimacy, which has to do with our ability to
• trust another person,
• to become known,
• to share,
• to show affection,
• to reveal ourselves honestly, and
• to allow others to reveal themselves to us.
Sexuality includes behavior
Sexual behavior has many components: how we walk and talk, how we dress, how we express affection.
When people use the term “having sex,” they’re talking about a subset of a huge range of behaviors, from holding hands to kissing to various forms of giving and receiving pleasure, including different kinds of sexual intercourse.
Sexuality includes sexual orientation
Sexual orientation refers to the sex of the people to whom we’re physically and romantically attracted. We discover our own orientation by noticing the patterns of our dreams, fantasies, longings, physical and emotional arousal, comfort, and love.
Please note that when people label their orientation, they’re indicating only their internal sexual orientation, not their sexual behavior. For example, a woman who identifies herself as heterosexual is simply saying that she’s attracted, physically and romantically, to men. She isn’t saying that she’s attracted to all men, nor is she saying that, at the moment, she acts on her attraction.
So it is with homosexuality (gay or lesbian) and bisexuality, which are also sexual orientations. Gay males that that the people they’re attracted to, physically and romantically, are other males; lesbians find that the people they’re attracted to are other women. Bisexual people find that they’re attracted to some who are male and some who are female.
Like heterosexuality, the terms homosexuality and bisexuality describe an internal experience that’s unique for each person. In fact, many people feel that such words are inadequate descriptors of their own personal experience.
And sexuality includes identity
Our identity is who we say we are to ourselves and to others. Note that a person’s identity, orientation, and behavior don’t always line up. For example, a bisexual woman may be married to a man. Her internal orientation is bisexual, but unless she specifically talks about it, people will probably assume that she’s heterosexual.
Of a man who’s uncomfortable with his attraction to other men may insist, both to himself and to others, that he’s heterosexual. Unless he specifically talks about his attraction to men, people will probably assume that he’s heterosexual.
Or a woman who understands herself to be lesbian and has a long-time woman partner may feel that her workplace isn’t a safe place to be “out,” so she allows others to assume that she’s a single, heterosexual woman and then deals with their efforts to help her find a man.
So you see that people’s sexual identity—both their private understanding of their sexual orientation and the public image they project—may not align with their relationships and behavior.
Adapted from And God Loves Each One
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
Welcoming church list
Other justice-seeking organizations
RSS Feed
YouTube
Like ManyVoices
on Facebook
Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-is-sexual-orientation/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
Donate Now
About
How to Begin
Resources
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Events
Get Involved
Tumblr
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Join our mailing list
Resources
Worship
Black Church Conversations
Biblical Themes
Education
Frequently Asked Questions
Rituals & Blessings
Music & Media
Church Seasons
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What is sexual orientation?
Let’s face it. Americans bring sex into everything from toothpaste to cars, yet most of us have a hard time affirming sexuality as a gift of God.
And if it’s hard to talk about sexuality in an open, honest, caring way, it may seem nearly impossible to talk about differences in sexual orientation. One reason is that when people think “sex,” they tend to think of sexual behavior. But sexuality encompasses a lot more than behavior.
Sexuality encompasses all of these:
• how we understand and express our gender;
• how we grow and change over the years;
• how we view our bodies;
• how we relate to each other;
• whom we like, love, and are attracted to;
• how we reproduce;
• how we’re alike and different in appearance and behavior;
• what we believe is important;
• and much, much more.
Sexuality includes biological sex
Given that every newborn is greeted with the same question—is it a boy or a girl?—biological sex can appear to be the most fundamental aspect of our sexuality.
Yet even that simple question doesn’t always have a simple answer. Some babies have physical characteristics that lead to confusion about whether they’re male or female. For other babies, atypical aspects of physical, genetic, and brain sex may be invisible at birth and become apparent in early childhood, at puberty, or even later when genetic tests are performed. Some people don’t learn until they’re adults and can’t conceive, for example, that their genetic makeup is not simply either/or.
In addition, our biological sex may not match our gender identify, which is how we see ourselves on the spectrum of female and male, what we let the world see about us, and how congruent our bodies are with our internal experience.
Biological sex and gender diversity are explained more fully in Made in God’s Image.
Sexuality includes gender roles
Despite real variations in physical sex, parents do label their child as a boy or a girl, and from that moment on, children begin learning what’s considered appropriate for them as boys or girls—and what’s not.
One gender role expectation that children learn early is not to act “gay” or not to act like a “sissy,” “faggot,” or “dyke.” Rather than be free to be themselves, boys and girls learn to stifle anything that might be considered “wrong”—too feminine for boys or too masculine for girls.
These playground rules, which extend into adult relationships, demonstrate that people confuse gender role with sexual orientation, which will be discussed shortly.
Sexuality includes sensuality and intimacy
Sexuality includes being sensual, which has to do with
• the ways we feel pleasure,
• our comfort with touching and feelings,
• the image we have of our bodies,
• how we accept ourselves,
• what we know about our bodies, and
• how we take care of them.
Sexuality also includes intimacy, which has to do with our ability to
• trust another person,
• to become known,
• to share,
• to show affection,
• to reveal ourselves honestly, and
• to allow others to reveal themselves to us.
Sexuality includes behavior
Sexual behavior has many components: how we walk and talk, how we dress, how we express affection.
When people use the term “having sex,” they’re talking about a subset of a huge range of behaviors, from holding hands to kissing to various forms of giving and receiving pleasure, including different kinds of sexual intercourse.
Sexuality includes sexual orientation
Sexual orientation refers to the sex of the people to whom we’re physically and romantically attracted. We discover our own orientation by noticing the patterns of our dreams, fantasies, longings, physical and emotional arousal, comfort, and love.
Please note that when people label their orientation, they’re indicating only their internal sexual orientation, not their sexual behavior. For example, a woman who identifies herself as heterosexual is simply saying that she’s attracted, physically and romantically, to men. She isn’t saying that she’s attracted to all men, nor is she saying that, at the moment, she acts on her attraction.
So it is with homosexuality (gay or lesbian) and bisexuality, which are also sexual orientations. Gay males that that the people they’re attracted to, physically and romantically, are other males; lesbians find that the people they’re attracted to are other women. Bisexual people find that they’re attracted to some who are male and some who are female.
Like heterosexuality, the terms homosexuality and bisexuality describe an internal experience that’s unique for each person. In fact, many people feel that such words are inadequate descriptors of their own personal experience.
And sexuality includes identity
Our identity is who we say we are to ourselves and to others. Note that a person’s identity, orientation, and behavior don’t always line up. For example, a bisexual woman may be married to a man. Her internal orientation is bisexual, but unless she specifically talks about it, people will probably assume that she’s heterosexual.
Of a man who’s uncomfortable with his attraction to other men may insist, both to himself and to others, that he’s heterosexual. Unless he specifically talks about his attraction to men, people will probably assume that he’s heterosexual.
Or a woman who understands herself to be lesbian and has a long-time woman partner may feel that her workplace isn’t a safe place to be “out,” so she allows others to assume that she’s a single, heterosexual woman and then deals with their efforts to help her find a man.
So you see that people’s sexual identity—both their private understanding of their sexual orientation and the public image they project—may not align with their relationships and behavior.
Adapted from And God Loves Each One
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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What causes different gender experiences and sexual orientations?
Sexual orientation and where we are on the gender spectrum are core parts of our human makeup.
We don’t know why some people are heterosexual and others aren’t or why some people fit society’s expectations of female and male and others don’t.
Perhaps what should matter is how we and our children learn to relate to the diversity of experience.
Adapted from All God’s Children.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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What causes different gender experiences and sexual orientations?
Sexual orientation and where we are on the gender spectrum are core parts of our human makeup.
We don’t know why some people are heterosexual and others aren’t or why some people fit society’s expectations of female and male and others don’t.
Perhaps what should matter is how we and our children learn to relate to the diversity of experience.
Adapted from All God’s Children.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-causes-different-gender-experiences-and-sexual-orientations/
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Why don’t gay, lesbian, bisexual people change?
This question implies that something needs to be fixed—but there’s really nothing wrong. Homosexuality and bisexuality are normal variations of human sexuality.
Confirmation of this fact has come from all the major health and mental health organizations, which have all come to recognize that homosexuality is not deviant, not a symptom or category of illness, but simply normal.
You may have heard of people who claim to have changed their orientation, but they appear to be confusing behavior, identity and orientation. They may have been able to stop acting on their attraction. They may have publicly identified themselves as heterosexual. But nothing has been found to change a person’s internal orientation.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/why-dont-gay-lesbian-bisexual-people-change/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Why don’t gay, lesbian, bisexual people change?
This question implies that something needs to be fixed—but there’s really nothing wrong. Homosexuality and bisexuality are normal variations of human sexuality.
Confirmation of this fact has come from all the major health and mental health organizations, which have all come to recognize that homosexuality is not deviant, not a symptom or category of illness, but simply normal.
You may have heard of people who claim to have changed their orientation, but they appear to be confusing behavior, identity and orientation. They may have been able to stop acting on their attraction. They may have publicly identified themselves as heterosexual. But nothing has been found to change a person’s internal orientation.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/why-dont-gay-lesbian-bisexual-people-change/
Many Voices
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Are bisexual people going through a stage?
Our society tries to simplify attraction—something that’s extremely complex—into two polor opposites: Either you’re heterosexual or you’re gay/lesbian.
But not everyone’s experience fits that oversimplification. For bisexuals, the other person’s biological sex may not play as large a role in their attractions as other personal characteristics.
It does happen sometimes that gay/lesbian people will begin their coming-out by thinking and saying that they’re bisexual, which may seem safer to them at first. But it also often happens that may people who are bisexual never mention it.
That, coupled with society’s insistence on only two possible sexual orientations, supports the impression that bisexuality is rare. It’s not. Actually, it’s quite common.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/are-bisexual-people-going-through-a-stage/
Many Voices
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Are bisexual people going through a stage?
Our society tries to simplify attraction—something that’s extremely complex—into two polor opposites: Either you’re heterosexual or you’re gay/lesbian.
But not everyone’s experience fits that oversimplification. For bisexuals, the other person’s biological sex may not play as large a role in their attractions as other personal characteristics.
It does happen sometimes that gay/lesbian people will begin their coming-out by thinking and saying that they’re bisexual, which may seem safer to them at first. But it also often happens that may people who are bisexual never mention it.
That, coupled with society’s insistence on only two possible sexual orientations, supports the impression that bisexuality is rare. It’s not. Actually, it’s quite common.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/are-bisexual-people-going-through-a-stage/
Many Voices
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What do same-sex couples do together?
Just like other couples, same-sex couples pursue whatever interests they have in common—singing, playing ball, gardening, worshipping, raising families, and so on.
They have the same potential for positive and negative relating—caring, hurting, nurturing, fighting, having fun, abusing, competing, or cooperating.
They also have available the same means for making love—holding hands, intimate eye contact, and touching with every part of the body.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-do-same-sex-couples-do-together/
Many Voices
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What do same-sex couples do together?
Just like other couples, same-sex couples pursue whatever interests they have in common—singing, playing ball, gardening, worshipping, raising families, and so on.
They have the same potential for positive and negative relating—caring, hurting, nurturing, fighting, having fun, abusing, competing, or cooperating.
They also have available the same means for making love—holding hands, intimate eye contact, and touching with every part of the body.
Excerpted from And God Loves Each One.
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-do-same-sex-couples-do-together/
Many Voices
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Many people worry that if we’re open with our children about sexual orientation and gender diversity, it will encourage them to experiment, perhaps out of curiosity, and perhaps influence their development.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are internal experiences. Research shows clearly that adults do not cause children to become lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or heterosexual.
Adults can, however, influence how children feel about themselves, including all the ways they may feel out of sync with cultural messages. Adults can have a huge impact on whether children accept or reject themselves and how they feel about and treat those around them.
Please see important research on the impact of family acceptance vs. rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. See the Family Acceptance Project’s findings in English and in Spanish.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/wlll-talking-with-children-about-sexuality-and-gender-influence-them/
Many Voices
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Many people worry that if we’re open with our children about sexual orientation and gender diversity, it will encourage them to experiment, perhaps out of curiosity, and perhaps influence their development.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are internal experiences. Research shows clearly that adults do not cause children to become lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or heterosexual.
Adults can, however, influence how children feel about themselves, including all the ways they may feel out of sync with cultural messages. Adults can have a huge impact on whether children accept or reject themselves and how they feel about and treat those around them.
Please see important research on the impact of family acceptance vs. rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. See the Family Acceptance Project’s findings in English and in Spanish.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
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Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/wlll-talking-with-children-about-sexuality-and-gender-influence-them/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child is gay or transgender?
You may sense that a child in your class, congregation, or family may be gay or transgender. What should you do?
• Love that child unconditionally as an amazing gift from God.
• Deepen your understanding of sexual orientation and gender—read, discuss, and learn as much as you can.
• Get help—don’t go it alone. Find a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) or other support group.
Sexual orientation and gender identity aren’t choices, and you can’t change them. However, your responses can change how children feel about themselves and their outlook on life.
Here is an easy-to-understand research report in English and in Spanish about the impact of family acceptance or rejection; it shows that healthy and supportive parenting or teaching that enhances self-esteem can have a vital impact on the well-being of any child.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-child-is-gay-or-transgender/
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What if a child is gay or transgender?
You may sense that a child in your class, congregation, or family may be gay or transgender. What should you do?
• Love that child unconditionally as an amazing gift from God.
• Deepen your understanding of sexual orientation and gender—read, discuss, and learn as much as you can.
• Get help—don’t go it alone. Find a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) or other support group.
Sexual orientation and gender identity aren’t choices, and you can’t change them. However, your responses can change how children feel about themselves and their outlook on life.
Here is an easy-to-understand research report in English and in Spanish about the impact of family acceptance or rejection; it shows that healthy and supportive parenting or teaching that enhances self-esteem can have a vital impact on the well-being of any child.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-child-is-gay-or-transgender/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Information isn’t dangerous. Respond to children’s questions and provide factual, age-appropriate information. They’ll appreciate your openness and candor.
If the response calls for values, particularly values that may not be shared, let love and respect be your guides.
With older children, point out that some people see things differently, explain the various views, and encourage them to find out what their parents think.
Loving and supporting children for who they are helps them become happy, well-adjusted people.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-childs-parents-are-less-affirming-than-i-am-and-the-child-comes-to-me-with-questions/
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Information isn’t dangerous. Respond to children’s questions and provide factual, age-appropriate information. They’ll appreciate your openness and candor.
If the response calls for values, particularly values that may not be shared, let love and respect be your guides.
With older children, point out that some people see things differently, explain the various views, and encourage them to find out what their parents think.
Loving and supporting children for who they are helps them become happy, well-adjusted people.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-childs-parents-are-less-affirming-than-i-am-and-the-child-comes-to-me-with-questions/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Thank you for all that you do to create a welcoming and inclusive community of faith. But why would you want to hide your light under a bushel?
Here’s the deal: Many people associate Christianity with condemnation.
Your congregation may welcome all, but you may be missing many people who are longing for a welcoming space—
• gay and transgender people who are unwilling to risk rejection again,
• young adults who long for an inclusive church,
• parents who want to raise their children in a truly welcoming environment like yours.
The list is very long. Stating your welcome publicly is one step to inviting many disenfranchised worshippers back into the fold!
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-welcome-everyone-why-should-we-broadcast-one-particular-welcome/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Thank you for all that you do to create a welcoming and inclusive community of faith. But why would you want to hide your light under a bushel?
Here’s the deal: Many people associate Christianity with condemnation.
Your congregation may welcome all, but you may be missing many people who are longing for a welcoming space—
• gay and transgender people who are unwilling to risk rejection again,
• young adults who long for an inclusive church,
• parents who want to raise their children in a truly welcoming environment like yours.
The list is very long. Stating your welcome publicly is one step to inviting many disenfranchised worshippers back into the fold!
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
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Encourage learning
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-welcome-everyone-why-should-we-broadcast-one-particular-welcome/
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Biblical ThemesDiscipleship & Witness (1)
How to Think about the Bible (1)
Frequently Asked QuestionsSexual Orientation & Gender Diversity (9)
Children & Youth (4)
Concerns about the Bible (1)
Congregational Dialogue (1)
Black Church ConversationsMoral Reflections (1)
Preaching (1)
Gay/Transgender Experience (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Resources in "Frequently Asked Questions"
Questions you may have about God & LGBT
Black Church Conversations, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Gay/Transgender Experience, Moral Reflections, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
What does “gender diversity” mean?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What is sexual orientation?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What causes different gender experiences and sexual orientations?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Why don’t gay, lesbian, bisexual people change?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Are bisexual people going through a stage?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What do same-sex couples do together?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child is gay or transgender?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Congregational Dialogue, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
About
Media
Our team
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Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/frequently-asked-questions/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Refine Your Search
Biblical ThemesDiscipleship & Witness (1)
How to Think about the Bible (1)
Frequently Asked QuestionsSexual Orientation & Gender Diversity (9)
Children & Youth (4)
Concerns about the Bible (1)
Congregational Dialogue (1)
Black Church ConversationsMoral Reflections (1)
Preaching (1)
Gay/Transgender Experience (1)
Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Resources in "Frequently Asked Questions"
Questions you may have about God & LGBT
Black Church Conversations, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Gay/Transgender Experience, Moral Reflections, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
What does “gender diversity” mean?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What is sexual orientation?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What causes different gender experiences and sexual orientations?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Why don’t gay, lesbian, bisexual people change?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Are bisexual people going through a stage?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What do same-sex couples do together?
Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child is gay or transgender?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Congregational Dialogue, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/frequently-asked-questions/
Many Voices
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And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
When someone claims they “know what the Bible says,” learn from this 6×9 card how to respond in a way that respects LGBT Christians and creates an opening for dialogue.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.
Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Attachments:
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_2
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_1
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/how-to-respond-bible-lgbt/
Many Voices
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
When someone claims they “know what the Bible says,” learn from this 6×9 card how to respond in a way that respects LGBT Christians and creates an opening for dialogue.
Order both our cards in packs of 10 or 50 in our shop.
Share this card with LGBT and non-LGBT alike – family, friends, pastors, church leaders, and anyone with whom you’d like to open dialogue.
Attachments:
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_2
The Bible LGBT w copyright_Page_1
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
Sign up
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/how-to-respond-bible-lgbt/
Many Voices
A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice
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Support Many Voices
Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
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Which Bible verses could I use?
Pastors often ask us,
“Which Bible verses could I use to minister to gay and transgender folks?” and
“Which verses could I use to open up dialogue about sexuality and gender?”
The best verses are the ones you already know well and use often—the verses related to love, justice, hospitality, and beloved community.
When you are reminding your congregation about Jesus’ example of standing with those whom society has marginalized, you can include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families as an example of those who are marginalized.
When you are speaking of justice for all people, you can raise the same issues of justice that you raise for everyone—discrimination in employment, health care, housing, etc.—that LGBT people and their families also face. And so on.
Following are some ideas to help you make the connections. We know that you’re already preaching and teaching from these verses. Upon reflection, the connections will become more obvious, and you’ll see opportunities everywhere you turn.
Love
•Jeremiah 31:3— I have loved you with an everlasting love
•Luke 10:27—the Great Commandments
•I Cor. 16:14—Let all you do be done in love
•Romans 12:9-13—Let love be genuine
•John 15:12—Love one another as I have loved you
•Romans 13:8-10—Love one another
•John 13:34-35—Everyone will know you…by your love
•1 John 4:7-11—Let us love one another because God is love
•1 John 4: 19-21—We love because God first loved us
•John 3:16—For God so loved the world
•1 Cor. 13—Love Chapter
Justice
•Micah 6:8—What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…
•Psalm 33:5—God loves righteousness and justice
•Psalm 106:3—Happy are those who do observe justice
•Isaiah 58:6-11—The Lord desires kindness and justice
•Matthew 12:18—I will pour out my Spirit… and he will proclaim justice
•Amos 5:24—Righteousness flows like a stream
•Luke 4:18—The Lord has anointed me to preach good news…
•Matthew 7:12—Do to others as you would have them do to you
Hospitality
•Hebrews 13:1-2—Strangers
•Luke 19:1-10—Zacchaeus
•Luke 10:29-37—Good Samaritan
•Luke 14:7-24—Great Dinner
•John 13:1-20—Foot washing
•Acts 8:14-17—Samaritans
•Acts 8:38-39—Eunuch
•Acts 10:45-48—Gentiles
•Acts 16:13-15—Women
Beloved community
•Galatians 3:26-28—…You are all children of God
•Matthew 25:31-46—If you did it to the least of these…
•Matthew 12:46-50—Whoever does the will of God…
•Ephesians 4:4-5—There is one body, one Spirit…
•Ephesians 2:19—So then you are no longer strangers…
•John 10:16—I have other sheep…
•I Cor. 12:26—If one suffers, all suffer
•I Cor. 12:12-17, 24-27—The body, though made of many parts…
Attachments:
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible2
aareligionbible
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Resources in "Concerns about the Bible"
How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Dialogue, How to Think about the Bible
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
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http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/concerns-about-the-bible/
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Resources in "Concerns about the Bible"
How to respond to negative claims about the Bible & LGBT
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Dialogue, How to Think about the Bible
Which Bible verses could I use?
Biblical Themes, Black Church Conversations, Concerns about the Bible, Discipleship & Witness, Frequently Asked Questions, How to Think about the Bible, Preaching
About
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Employment
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/concerns-about-the-bible/
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We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Thank you for all that you do to create a welcoming and inclusive community of faith. But why would you want to hide your light under a bushel?
Here’s the deal: Many people associate Christianity with condemnation.
Your congregation may welcome all, but you may be missing many people who are longing for a welcoming space—
• gay and transgender people who are unwilling to risk rejection again,
• young adults who long for an inclusive church,
• parents who want to raise their children in a truly welcoming environment like yours.
The list is very long. Stating your welcome publicly is one step to inviting many disenfranchised worshippers back into the fold!
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-welcome-everyone-why-should-we-broadcast-one-particular-welcome/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
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We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Thank you for all that you do to create a welcoming and inclusive community of faith. But why would you want to hide your light under a bushel?
Here’s the deal: Many people associate Christianity with condemnation.
Your congregation may welcome all, but you may be missing many people who are longing for a welcoming space—
• gay and transgender people who are unwilling to risk rejection again,
• young adults who long for an inclusive church,
• parents who want to raise their children in a truly welcoming environment like yours.
The list is very long. Stating your welcome publicly is one step to inviting many disenfranchised worshippers back into the fold!
Contributed by Ann Thompson Cook
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Employment
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Encourage learning
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/we-welcome-everyone-why-should-we-broadcast-one-particular-welcome/
Many Voices
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Resources in "Congregational Dialogue"
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Congregational Dialogue, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/congregational-dialogue/
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Resources in "Congregational Dialogue"
We welcome everyone; why should we broadcast one particular welcome?
Congregational Dialogue, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
About
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/congregational-dialogue/
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Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
I was outraged as my research produced one account after another of violence against black lesbian teens! I was equally angered at the number of violent crimes against young black gay men. One article identified a pattern of the gruesome violence against gay black males: someone familiar to the victim and desecration of the body. The pattern of violence against lesbians was rape and fatal shootings. Some of these rapes and murders were committed by black church folks, even pastors. The Houston Chronicle published a brief article about a Fort Worth, Texas pastor charged with raping a 22-year-old member who sought his counsel as one struggling with her sexuality. The Rev. Leonard Ray Owens, 63, of the Prayer House of Faith Church told the young women she had a “lesbian demon” and allegedly sexually assaulted her in his effort to excise the demon. Egregious crimes such as these did not merit an outcry from the black community, least of all a cry of outrage from the Black Church.
What should the church say to gay teens? “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” and “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”As I begin this essay on talking to gay teens, I must confess my anger at the Black Church, an institution which I dearly love, for failing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) black teens. Also, I want to briefly note two assumptions associated with talking with black teenagers. The first assumption is that the Black Church wants to say something positive and life-giving to all teenagers about black sexuality regardless of their skin color, social status, gender, and sexual orientation. A related assumption is that the Black Church wants such a positive conversation with black gay teens. Black congregations commonly communicate negatively to youth using abstinence and homophobic rhetoric spoken from Sunday morning pulpits and pews as well as weekday youth programs. As ethicist Victor Anderson has noted, black congregations and their leaders are consistently vocal about the “abominable sin of homosexuality” among the young and old. I believe more congregations speak negatively about black sexuality to youth than those congregations that speak positively, and I wish to suggest a positive approach to black sexuality, specifically, to consider a positive word for black gay teens. So, what should the church say to gay teens? I suggest two things: “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” And “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”
The African American Church Must Seek Forgiveness from Gay Teens
The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.First, the African American Church must ask forgiveness of gay teens for failing to love them. Loving black gay teens involves loving like Jesus loved. John’s Gospel records how Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe in him because of them, “…the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17: 26b). Loving as God loves is unconditional and perfect. Love “…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:7) Since love is from God, we are called to love one another for “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfect in us.” (I John 4:8 and 11b) The Bible is clear that we should love all people without any conditions, including their sexual orientation. The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.
Perfect love advocates and protects gay teens along with all other teenagers. This type of love fashions youth ministries relevant to negotiating the difficult, death dealing, and bullying terrains of school, home, and peers. Perfect love must accompany black gay teens as they journey toward a “whole” and wholesome identity that includes race, religion, and sexuality. Generally, within the black community youth view being homosexual as the worst mark of identity. In an ethnographic study with low-income black teenagers, Carissa Froyum discovered that teens construct affirming identities through heterosexuality. Froyum observed poor black teens using strategies to create and protect their heterosexual identities that included appropriating heterosexist ideologies. Froyum’s research suggests that black teens may not be able to deny being poor but at least they are not gay; for poor black youth, being gay is the absolute worst mark of identity.1 Perfect love provides a corrective to such dehumanizing and class stratifying beliefs.
The African American Church must become a Sanctuary for Gay Teens
The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God. Second, the Black Church must become a sanctuary for gay youth, inviting them to a physical and metaphorical place of safety where God dwells. A sanctuary is a holy place where God, known in Jesus Christ and present in the world today as the Holy Spirit, provides a place that should shelter gay youth from harm. I have argued that the Black Church should allow black youth to express their anger and well as their joy in the presence of God and the congregation. This is the physical setting of the church where gay youth can be themselves without fear of being exploited or ridiculed. Metaphorically, the church should be a safe place for gay youth to be their authentic selves with all their emotions, gifts, and concerns. The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God, created in God’s own goodness. In the sanctuary, gay teens can live into their “sacred-selves” with confidence.
I imagine the Black Church as a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells. How does a sanctuary church function in a homophobic society? Let us imagine the Black Church as a place where gay youth literally run when someone threatens to kill them or when they are being bullied. I want to imagine a “sanctuary” for fifteen year old Sakia Gunn who was killed on May 11, 2003. She and her lesbian friends, ages 15-17, were returning from New York City’s Greenwich Village to Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning when two men driving by propositioned them at the bus stop. When Sakia told the men they were not interested and that they were lesbians, the two men jumped out of the car and attacked the three girls, stabbing Sakia as she defended her girlfriend. Sakia died in her friend’s arms on the way to the hospital. I want to imagine a Black Church that would have been a hiding place, a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells for girls like Sakia.
I wonder what the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, feels when Black congregations refuse to love and offer sanctuary to gay teenagers. I also wonder how gay teens would have responded to the question of what should the Black Church say to them. I am concerned that we keep asking the question until black gay teens lift their voices and speak to the Black Church and we listen and accept them.
Books
Resources
Pat Davis, “Okay with Who I Am” Listening to Lesbian Young Women Talk about Their Spiritualities. In Evelyn L. Parker, ed., The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2006.
Support Groups
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, Online location: http://www.glsen.org/cgibin/iowa/all/home/index.html
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Online location: http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2
Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth, ROSMY, Online location: http://www.rosmy.org/
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, Online location: http://www.smyal.org/ Sisters of Sakia, Online location: http://www.myspace.com/sistersofsakia
Notes
1. Carissa M. Froyum, “At Least I‟m Not Gay”: Heterosexual identity Making Among Poor Black Teens. In Sexualities, December 2007, Vol. 10 Issue 5, pp. 603-622.
By Evelyn L. Parker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Reprinted with permission from the Dialogue Corner of The African American Lectionary.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
Media
Our team
Employment
Contact us
Encourage learning
Share resources on sexuality & gender
Get involved
Donate now
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/talking-to-gay-teens-what-should-the-church-say/
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
I was outraged as my research produced one account after another of violence against black lesbian teens! I was equally angered at the number of violent crimes against young black gay men. One article identified a pattern of the gruesome violence against gay black males: someone familiar to the victim and desecration of the body. The pattern of violence against lesbians was rape and fatal shootings. Some of these rapes and murders were committed by black church folks, even pastors. The Houston Chronicle published a brief article about a Fort Worth, Texas pastor charged with raping a 22-year-old member who sought his counsel as one struggling with her sexuality. The Rev. Leonard Ray Owens, 63, of the Prayer House of Faith Church told the young women she had a “lesbian demon” and allegedly sexually assaulted her in his effort to excise the demon. Egregious crimes such as these did not merit an outcry from the black community, least of all a cry of outrage from the Black Church.
What should the church say to gay teens? “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” and “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”As I begin this essay on talking to gay teens, I must confess my anger at the Black Church, an institution which I dearly love, for failing Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (GLBTQ) black teens. Also, I want to briefly note two assumptions associated with talking with black teenagers. The first assumption is that the Black Church wants to say something positive and life-giving to all teenagers about black sexuality regardless of their skin color, social status, gender, and sexual orientation. A related assumption is that the Black Church wants such a positive conversation with black gay teens. Black congregations commonly communicate negatively to youth using abstinence and homophobic rhetoric spoken from Sunday morning pulpits and pews as well as weekday youth programs. As ethicist Victor Anderson has noted, black congregations and their leaders are consistently vocal about the “abominable sin of homosexuality” among the young and old. I believe more congregations speak negatively about black sexuality to youth than those congregations that speak positively, and I wish to suggest a positive approach to black sexuality, specifically, to consider a positive word for black gay teens. So, what should the church say to gay teens? I suggest two things: “Forgive me, for I have failed to love you.” And “Come, let me be your sanctuary.”
The African American Church Must Seek Forgiveness from Gay Teens
The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.First, the African American Church must ask forgiveness of gay teens for failing to love them. Loving black gay teens involves loving like Jesus loved. John’s Gospel records how Jesus prayed for his disciples and for those who would believe in him because of them, “…the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17: 26b). Loving as God loves is unconditional and perfect. Love “…bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (I Corinthians 13:7) Since love is from God, we are called to love one another for “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfect in us.” (I John 4:8 and 11b) The Bible is clear that we should love all people without any conditions, including their sexual orientation. The perfect love that we receive from God enables us to act on behalf of gay teens.
Perfect love advocates and protects gay teens along with all other teenagers. This type of love fashions youth ministries relevant to negotiating the difficult, death dealing, and bullying terrains of school, home, and peers. Perfect love must accompany black gay teens as they journey toward a “whole” and wholesome identity that includes race, religion, and sexuality. Generally, within the black community youth view being homosexual as the worst mark of identity. In an ethnographic study with low-income black teenagers, Carissa Froyum discovered that teens construct affirming identities through heterosexuality. Froyum observed poor black teens using strategies to create and protect their heterosexual identities that included appropriating heterosexist ideologies. Froyum’s research suggests that black teens may not be able to deny being poor but at least they are not gay; for poor black youth, being gay is the absolute worst mark of identity.1 Perfect love provides a corrective to such dehumanizing and class stratifying beliefs.
The African American Church must become a Sanctuary for Gay Teens
The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God. Second, the Black Church must become a sanctuary for gay youth, inviting them to a physical and metaphorical place of safety where God dwells. A sanctuary is a holy place where God, known in Jesus Christ and present in the world today as the Holy Spirit, provides a place that should shelter gay youth from harm. I have argued that the Black Church should allow black youth to express their anger and well as their joy in the presence of God and the congregation. This is the physical setting of the church where gay youth can be themselves without fear of being exploited or ridiculed. Metaphorically, the church should be a safe place for gay youth to be their authentic selves with all their emotions, gifts, and concerns. The Black Church becomes truly holy where gay teens realize that they are created in the image of God, created in God’s own goodness. In the sanctuary, gay teens can live into their “sacred-selves” with confidence.
I imagine the Black Church as a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells. How does a sanctuary church function in a homophobic society? Let us imagine the Black Church as a place where gay youth literally run when someone threatens to kill them or when they are being bullied. I want to imagine a “sanctuary” for fifteen year old Sakia Gunn who was killed on May 11, 2003. She and her lesbian friends, ages 15-17, were returning from New York City’s Greenwich Village to Newark, New Jersey, early Sunday morning when two men driving by propositioned them at the bus stop. When Sakia told the men they were not interested and that they were lesbians, the two men jumped out of the car and attacked the three girls, stabbing Sakia as she defended her girlfriend. Sakia died in her friend’s arms on the way to the hospital. I want to imagine a Black Church that would have been a hiding place, a place of safety where the Spirit of God dwells for girls like Sakia.
I wonder what the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, feels when Black congregations refuse to love and offer sanctuary to gay teenagers. I also wonder how gay teens would have responded to the question of what should the Black Church say to them. I am concerned that we keep asking the question until black gay teens lift their voices and speak to the Black Church and we listen and accept them.
Books
Resources
Pat Davis, “Okay with Who I Am” Listening to Lesbian Young Women Talk about Their Spiritualities. In Evelyn L. Parker, ed., The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press, 2006.
Support Groups
Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, Online location: http://www.glsen.org/cgibin/iowa/all/home/index.html
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, Online location: http://community.pflag.org/Page.aspx?pid=194&srcid=-2
Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth, ROSMY, Online location: http://www.rosmy.org/
The Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League, Online location: http://www.smyal.org/ Sisters of Sakia, Online location: http://www.myspace.com/sistersofsakia
Notes
1. Carissa M. Froyum, “At Least I‟m Not Gay”: Heterosexual identity Making Among Poor Black Teens. In Sexualities, December 2007, Vol. 10 Issue 5, pp. 603-622.
By Evelyn L. Parker, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Christian Education at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. Reprinted with permission from the Dialogue Corner of The African American Lectionary.
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
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Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Many people worry that talking with young children about these issues will only confuse or worry them.
But children need caring adults to help them sift through the conflicting and misleading messages they hear about gender and orientation and to provide them with a context for developing positive attitudes and respectful values based on accurate information.
Here are just a few examples:
• Elementary school children hear “you’re so gay” as a put-down and will repeat it unless adults step in and explain that name-calling is hurtful and unacceptable.
• When children point out differences in public and are told to be quiet, they learn that these things can’t be talked about. Adults who speak openly and respectfully teach children that differences are okay.
• Even very young children encounter attitudes and ideas about sexual orientation and gender in the form of storybooks and videos where a prince meets a princess and they live happily ever after, adults who hug little girls but shake hands with little boys, and TV commercials showing boys playing in the dirt with toy trucks and girls playing with dolls.
Openness and guidance from caring adults can prevent prejudice and stereotyping and cultivate acceptance.
Adapted from All God’s Children: Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/arent-children-too-young-to-learn-about-sexual-and-gender-differences/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Many people worry that talking with young children about these issues will only confuse or worry them.
But children need caring adults to help them sift through the conflicting and misleading messages they hear about gender and orientation and to provide them with a context for developing positive attitudes and respectful values based on accurate information.
Here are just a few examples:
• Elementary school children hear “you’re so gay” as a put-down and will repeat it unless adults step in and explain that name-calling is hurtful and unacceptable.
• When children point out differences in public and are told to be quiet, they learn that these things can’t be talked about. Adults who speak openly and respectfully teach children that differences are okay.
• Even very young children encounter attitudes and ideas about sexual orientation and gender in the form of storybooks and videos where a prince meets a princess and they live happily ever after, adults who hug little girls but shake hands with little boys, and TV commercials showing boys playing in the dirt with toy trucks and girls playing with dolls.
Openness and guidance from caring adults can prevent prejudice and stereotyping and cultivate acceptance.
Adapted from All God’s Children: Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/arent-children-too-young-to-learn-about-sexual-and-gender-differences/
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Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Many people worry that if we’re open with our children about sexual orientation and gender diversity, it will encourage them to experiment, perhaps out of curiosity, and perhaps influence their development.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are internal experiences. Research shows clearly that adults do not cause children to become lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or heterosexual.
Adults can, however, influence how children feel about themselves, including all the ways they may feel out of sync with cultural messages. Adults can have a huge impact on whether children accept or reject themselves and how they feel about and treat those around them.
Please see important research on the impact of family acceptance vs. rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. See the Family Acceptance Project’s findings in English and in Spanish.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/wlll-talking-with-children-about-sexuality-and-gender-influence-them/
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Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Many people worry that if we’re open with our children about sexual orientation and gender diversity, it will encourage them to experiment, perhaps out of curiosity, and perhaps influence their development.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are internal experiences. Research shows clearly that adults do not cause children to become lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or heterosexual.
Adults can, however, influence how children feel about themselves, including all the ways they may feel out of sync with cultural messages. Adults can have a huge impact on whether children accept or reject themselves and how they feel about and treat those around them.
Please see important research on the impact of family acceptance vs. rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. See the Family Acceptance Project’s findings in English and in Spanish.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/wlll-talking-with-children-about-sexuality-and-gender-influence-them/
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child is gay or transgender?
You may sense that a child in your class, congregation, or family may be gay or transgender. What should you do?
• Love that child unconditionally as an amazing gift from God.
• Deepen your understanding of sexual orientation and gender—read, discuss, and learn as much as you can.
• Get help—don’t go it alone. Find a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) or other support group.
Sexual orientation and gender identity aren’t choices, and you can’t change them. However, your responses can change how children feel about themselves and their outlook on life.
Here is an easy-to-understand research report in English and in Spanish about the impact of family acceptance or rejection; it shows that healthy and supportive parenting or teaching that enhances self-esteem can have a vital impact on the well-being of any child.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-child-is-gay-or-transgender/
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child is gay or transgender?
You may sense that a child in your class, congregation, or family may be gay or transgender. What should you do?
• Love that child unconditionally as an amazing gift from God.
• Deepen your understanding of sexual orientation and gender—read, discuss, and learn as much as you can.
• Get help—don’t go it alone. Find a PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) or other support group.
Sexual orientation and gender identity aren’t choices, and you can’t change them. However, your responses can change how children feel about themselves and their outlook on life.
Here is an easy-to-understand research report in English and in Spanish about the impact of family acceptance or rejection; it shows that healthy and supportive parenting or teaching that enhances self-esteem can have a vital impact on the well-being of any child.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
About
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3133 Dumbarton Street, NW | Washington, DC 20007 | info@manyvoices.org
©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-child-is-gay-or-transgender/
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Information isn’t dangerous. Respond to children’s questions and provide factual, age-appropriate information. They’ll appreciate your openness and candor.
If the response calls for values, particularly values that may not be shared, let love and respect be your guides.
With older children, point out that some people see things differently, explain the various views, and encourage them to find out what their parents think.
Loving and supporting children for who they are helps them become happy, well-adjusted people.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-childs-parents-are-less-affirming-than-i-am-and-the-child-comes-to-me-with-questions/
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Please spread the word about Many Voices.
And donate today, at whatever level you can.
Together, we can achieve the justice and liberation that we so long for, affirm the lives of our gay and transgender brothers and sisters, and call the Black church into the full expression of God’s unconditional love.
Donate Now
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Information isn’t dangerous. Respond to children’s questions and provide factual, age-appropriate information. They’ll appreciate your openness and candor.
If the response calls for values, particularly values that may not be shared, let love and respect be your guides.
With older children, point out that some people see things differently, explain the various views, and encourage them to find out what their parents think.
Loving and supporting children for who they are helps them become happy, well-adjusted people.
Adapted from All God’s Children:Teaching Children about Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity.
Contributed by Melany Burrill
Please give credit: The person or organization who contributed this resource has made it available for you to download free for use for worship or education in your congregation or faith community. Whenever you use it, please attribute to the contributors as they are named, adding the words, "downloaded at ManyVoices.org." Use of this resource for commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
Please give feedback: To share anything about your experience using this resource, enter your comments below. Your feedback helps build a vibrant community.
Please give a donation: If you appreciate the opportunity for free downloads, please consider a donation so we can continue offering guidance to all who seek to broaden their welcome.
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Questions? Comments? Participate in the conversation!
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©2010 Many Voices, All Rights Reserved | Terms of Use
http://www.manyvoices.org/blog/resource/what-if-a-childs-parents-are-less-affirming-than-i-am-and-the-child-comes-to-me-with-questions/
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Resources in "Children & Youth"
Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
Children & Youth, Education, Frequently Asked Questions, Youth Group Programs
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child is gay or transgender?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
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http://www.manyvoices.org/resources/?/children-youth/
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Children & Youth
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EducationFrequently Asked Questions (4)
Youth Group Programs (1)
Frequently Asked QuestionsSexual Orientation & Gender Diversity (2)
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Resources in "Children & Youth"
Talking to gay teens – what should the church say?
Children & Youth, Education, Frequently Asked Questions, Youth Group Programs
Aren’t children too young to learn about sexual and gender differences?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
Wlll talking with children about sexuality and gender influence them?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child is gay or transgender?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions, Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity
What if a child’s parents are less affirming than I am, and the child comes to me with questions?
Children & Youth, Frequently Asked Questions, Frequently Asked Questions
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