A Must Read -- OPINION: Use love to cast out fear

[theHandpuppet]

The Cincinnati Enquirer
Feb 27, 2014
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20140228/EDIT02/302280038/OPINION-Use-love-cast-out-fear?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

OPINION: Use love to cast out fear

(excerpt)

My life changed in the 1960s when students invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to sit-in at Atlanta lunch counters. I was among those arrested with Dr. King, spending three days in a jail cell next to him. Our efforts led to the eventual integration of downtown Atlanta, all because we were willing to do the right thing. Dr. King taught us that discriminatory and unjust laws were no laws at all, and that we had a moral responsibility to act as if those laws no longer existed. I experienced a greater law of love that was more powerful than any law made in fear.

Now some 50 years later, my lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer brothers and sisters are faced with laws cast from the same fear that fed the Jim Crow South.

I am a bishop in the United Methodist Church, given the charge to uphold our laws – some of which discriminate against gay and lesbian persons, calling them “incompatible with Christian teaching.” However, I am also required as bishop to call the church to do the right thing.

That is why in 2012 I called on my colleagues to ignore the discriminatory laws of my church and to officiate same-sex weddings. That is why last October I traveled down to Birmingham, Ala., to preside over the wedding of Joe and Bobby. That is also why I am coming to Cincinnati to share my story. I am coming to share my vision of the ways we can be obedient to the greater law of love that Jesus lived...

[GeorgeGist]

1. Truth be told ...

I believe Jesus was gay.

[nomorenomore08]

3. It's certainly not impossible. There is mention of a "beloved disciple" after all.

What degree of romantic or sexual component there may have been to their relationship, I have no idea, but a "gay Jesus" would certainly explain his declining to marry in a time when nearly all Jewish men did.

[theHandpuppet]

2. When men of faith speak out...

"We must be entirely clear about this: the history of people is littered with attempts to legislate against love or marriage across class, caste, and race. But there is no scientific basis or genetic rationale for love. There is only the grace of God. There is no scientific justification for prejudice and discrimination, ever. And nor is there any moral justification. Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, among others, attest to these facts."

-- Archbishop Desmond Tutu, responding to anti-gay laws enacted in Uganda