Ron Bennett
I work with the youth in our church and was at a conference-sponsored ‘confirmation kickoff weekend’ at Camp Epworth several years ago. During lights out, one of the older boys said to another: “Why are you talking like that? You sound gay. Are you a fag now?” The adult in the room didn’t say anything to the boy who made the statement, or to the boys who laughed. I don’t know if the boy being spoken to is gay, or if any other boy in that cabin is gay, but if they are, what they learned that weekend is that church is not a safe place for them. And just as disgraceful, the boy who said it learned that church is an OK place for bullying and homophobia.
I stayed away from church for many years, believing in God but convinced that organized religion was bad as evidenced in part by its condemnation of homosexuality without taking any responsibility for the verbal and physical violence against gays that it provokes. The welcome I’ve received at SPSA has given me a different experience, but it is still a far too seldom exception. Frankly, I’m fed up with the UMC, fed up with trying to convince fellow Christians that I have the right to walk through that supposedly ‘open’ door to worship.