Oh my GOD...

Since calling my Minister today is on the agenda.. the topic of Church and God are on my mind this morning.

I believe in God. I am an Episcopalian. I go to Church almost every week and I very much enjoy it. I grew up in the Episcopal Church so it kindof feels like a 2nd home to me. Ron and I are getting married in October (well.. 'civil unioned') and our ceremony is taking place in our Church. I am so grateful that the Episcopal Church is so much more progressive with lgbt issues. They are not perfect, mind you, but they are leaps and bounds ahead of other sects of Christianity.

It's funny, because if I hear the word Christian, my back tends to arch like a cat waiting to pounce. To me the word Christian has been poisoned by radical ultraconservative biggots. Yet, I am technically a Christian. For many years, from my teens through my early/mid 20's, I identified as an atheist. The primary reason for this was that I was weak and bought into these biggots notions that I couldn't be gay and have God in my life.. so what did I do? I purged God from my life.

Only in the last several years when I grew more comfortable with myself.. in my own skin did I revisit this issue and come to the conclusion that I will not allow anyone to tell me that I can't be who I am and have a relationship with God. God loves me for who I am.

So many "Christians" stand behind their Bibles and preach hate and intolerance. They pick and choose what to believe and what to just gloss over. There are a lot of profound things you can take from the Bible.. There's also a lot of nutty stuff in there too. People will dedicate their entire lives trying to ensure that glbt people never have full equality, protections, etc because they think that homosexuality is wrong based upon their interpretation of the Bible. They gloss over the hundreds of other things in there that don't make sense to them.. like not eating shellfish, not making love to your if she is menstruating, not mixing fabrics... I could go on.. I think most sane people of faith nowadays understand that we live in an everchanging world and that the general themes of the Bible are what should be taken from it, not trying to live life by a book that's thousands of years old word for word.

The bottom line is.. If you hate something.. then hate it.. that's your right.. If you hate gay people, then well.. that's your right as well.. but have conviction enough in your beliefs (whatever they might be) to say.. this is how *I* feel... and don't stand behind the Bible and throw stones.