I have to stop being silent. I have wrestled with "making a statement" but have finally come to the realization that silence truly is culpability. It is all too easy to like someone else's status and call that standing in support. And I can't be quiet any more.
On Twitter I have been reading comments related to the hashtag "#reasonsIstay" - one which hit me very hard said, "I stay because I am a person NOT an issue." Another said, "I stay because: it is harder to call me 'incompatible' if you have a relationship with me."
I have contemplated walking away. Really, I have. I have thought about moving over to any of the other inclusive "brands" of mainline churches, but as I recently told one friend, I just can't shake the Wesley in me. I CHOSE to become United Methodist because I believe in how we do theology. I believe in the "Three Simple Rules"-I believe in our "Duty of Constant Communion" - I love our officially unofficial Open Table. I love what it means to be United Methodist.
So much so that I leaned on the "we have to keep the covenant until the covenant is changed" stance for a very long time. I said, "We must work to change the rules, but until that happens, it is only right to abide by them."
Now I have a problem with that because too many people are being kept from participating in the covenant. My friends who are LGBTQ cannot enjoy the fullness of what it means to be United Methodist because our covenant prevents them from the fullness of the ministries of the Church. To keep the covenant is no longer just.
(And part of what it means to be United Methodist is to know that we are founded-as a church--on Ecclesiastical disobedience.what else does one call a priest who ordains others without being given the authority? Especially considering that those ordinations happened to include "identified revolutionaries" in the full ministries of the Church.)
I do not believe that sexual identity is a choice. I do not believe that my friends who identify as LGBTQ are making a "lifestyle choice." I do not believe that their identity is a sin.
I do believe that heaping guilt and shame upon a person based on biology that cannot be changed is a sin, though. And I believe that all the time I have spent sitting in "silent support" is a sin, and I repent.
Please forgive me for being silent. I cannot, I will not, be silent any more. For those of you who make a choice to "de-friend" me or "unfollow" me because of this, and as much as I don't want that, I accept that. I am sure that for some of you this will be a surprise, maybe even a disappointment; others not so much.
But please know that this is not a debate. This is not a dialogue. This is where I stand.
