There’s a certain resignation that can come from a lifetime of being a “gay” Christian. I use inverted commas because I am really just a Christian who feels very, very uncomfortable about the demands made by the gay community upon GLBT people to abandon all principles except those that fit neatly into the standard secular agenda of some.
In the first letter of John, the author says “The commandment we have from Him is this: those who love God must first love their brothers and sisters”.
What I do want to dwell on, and I’ve touched on it before, is the lack of listening patiently to one another, that does nothing but keep us from having the Mind of Christ.
It is so convenient to holding to our personal values to listen to Fox News – if we’re of a mind to hate taxes and like guns or other things of that particular secular agenda. Equally, it is very easy and tempting for GLBT folks to limit our reading or our blog surfing to places where we feel safe.

[De Chirico the Return of the Prodigal Son]
I’ve been thinking about this following a radio interview on NPR wherein the psychologist being interviewed spoke of how homeless persons were “envisioned” as being lesser forms of life by many of us - because – when we do not ask ourselves how such a person thinks, or feels, or hopes about anything – we have no way of coming to a deeper understanding of who they are and their true value as a human being.
GLBT folks can be like that, too. We can dismiss individuals as homophobic, or reactionary when in fact by thoughtlessly dismissing them we behave as though they do not have the same, equal value to us as human beings. That’s not good enough, as the passage from I John clearly states. Conservatives have fears and hopes and feelings, too – some of them very good ones. Jesus died and rose again for them, just like he did for the homeless woman who died in the subway recently nearby me, and like he did for Matthew Shepard, and yes, for Jerry Falwell.

[Guercino - Return of the Prodigal Son]
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant … “
I wonder if I will always just be resigned?