As a former Minister of Music, former Youth Minister, and former Church member, I find today's version of Church extremely disturbing.
While I find myself at odds with the traditional Church because of my sexuality, I've come to realize that it's much deeper than that. When I "came out" over 6 years ago, I was "lost at sea" when it came to my faith. The Church members who had declared their love for me as a "brother in Christ" were suddenly nowhere to be found. My closest friends who were a part of the Church were also gone. Their love had simply evaporated into thin air.
I struggled for the first year to find a place of faith and worship. I thought a "gay" Church was surely the answer to my needs. I visited a small Church with a gay Pastor and predominantly gay congregation. At first I felt at home. They were warm and welcoming. Shortly after I began my time there, it was discovered that I had a background in music and singing. I was asked time and again to contribute to the music ministry there, but was not at a place in my life where that was possible. I was still struggling for a place to live and my basic needs in life. I could not, in good conscience, commit to something like that. Soon, attitudes changed. The leadership grew cold. People stopped calling. I realized it was time to move on.
I rationalized at that point that I needed to be in a larger congregation. I thought this would help me be a little more anonymous and allow me to focus on my faith. I went to a Church in Dallas touted as the largest gay Church in the world. What I began to see in my time there, however, is that this Church was no different than any traditional version. It was a highly programmed, image conscious, political battlefield. It was a market-place. You know the kind Jesus might have destroyed with his bare hands back in the day. For all it's "glitz and glamour", it was still empty and hollow, straying wildly away from the central theme of love that the Bible teaches. It was the place to see and be seen.
This is when it occurred to me... It's not about whether the church is gay or gay-friendly, traditional or non-traditional. It's the majority of Churches today...they have spiraled into an era of hatred and intolerance. They hide behind various and differing interpretations to condone exclusion and to explain away anything they do not understand or agree with.
For the larger MEGA-Church, it is all about business. They have created a political climate that would make Washington lawmakers blush. Is this what Church was supposed to be? They are over-grown corporations with political power that rivals that of small countries. Every day of the week these days, churches are packed to capacity with people who have decided to blindly follow "the man". Then, they have the nerve to be upset when that "man" turns out to be nothing more than just that....a man. People have forgotten to use their own minds and hearts. They follow along without question, ready and willing to possibly follow a person right to the gates of Hell.
Think back to all that has been done in the name of religion or faith or Church: The Inquisition, The Holocaust, Salem Witch Trials, The French Wars of Religion, almost any Middle Eastern Conflict, and modern day "terrorism" from groups like Al Qaeda, just to name a few.
It's time we all stopped and asked ourselves both on personal and global level... What has religion really accomplished? If anything needs reform in this country or any other, it is Religion.
Stay Free!
