#beyond the block

I actually envision [Jesus] hearing Christians talk about how much God hates gay people and then flipping through a copy of the Bible like "Where, man? Where the heck did you hear me say that? Where did I say, ‘be celibate’? Where did I command gay people to condemn themselves to a life devoid of romantic, long term and emotionally and physically intimate love that all people understand not only as their birth right but as just about one of the greatest parts of being human? Where did I command gay people to be alone? To live alone? To not hold anyone’s hand? To not snuggle on the couch with anyone? To not have someone to talk to, enrich and otherwise share and synergize with over the experiences of life? Where did I command them to not have or raise children, or not to get married? Where did I command them to live their whole lives without knowing that joy, that sharing, that fulfillment? When did I command my gay children to resist the terrible temptation of love which I myself ordained as the greatest?" …. This is where we really end up messing ourselves up. Is when we take God’s law – which is Love God and Love others above all else – and we use that to hurt people.

"People think that LGBT people are faithless and apostate. We've got more faith than everyone else. Every LGBT person who stays in the church has absolutely more faith than 90-something% of the straight people in the church, right? We just have to. And I'm sure it's true for every marginalized population in the church. Cause we know where God's going and we know what God's promises are, and we know those promises better than you because we have to rehearse them to ourselves everyday of our lives just to continue functioning and no one else needs to do that."

"We must latch on to every joy that we have a right to have. Its a commandment. If, on judgement day, you realize that you SHOULD have married the person you love and you didn't, it will be too late. If, on judgement day, you realize that you SHOULD have lived as the gender you know yourself to be and you didn't, it will be too late. 'At midnight comes the cry, the bridegroom is here.' All who wrongly deprive themselves will be mad at themselves for being so foolish."

In Beyond the Block Episode 81 “Crash and Learn,” James and Derek talk about having the kind of faith to “live into the reality of promises that don’t exist yet.” and “realities that are not yet seen.” They talked about early Black members of the church who had the faith to join or stay despite the racist policies, based on their faith in promises that one day the changes would come. They talked about LGBT members, and Derek shared his testimony once again that he knows there is a place for us in the Plan of Salvation, because there must be because our Heavenly Parents didn’t send us here just to forget about us. 

When members or leaders of the church make decisions about us [LGBTQ members] they are not deciding if WE are fully human, they are deciding if THEY are.