God is very clear on what he expects from his people.
Love thy neighbor (Matthew 32:29)
Whoever does not know love does not know God, because God is love (1 John 4:8)
I know that Christians can argue all day about homosexuality, but could we argue all day about the commandment of love? Jesus was very clear about a few key things in his ministry...
-Whether you like someone or not, you have to love them
-Just because they are on the outside of YOUR society doesn't mean they are outside of God
-Be BOLD in doing what is right even if everyone else thinks its wrong
It sickens me that adults have justified the behaviors of youth who have brutalized their peers because of their sexuality (or their race, or their religion, or their gender, or their weight, or their appearance) saying that 'they are just kids' and that 'it's not a big deal'. Tyler Clementi was 18 years old. He was a freshman in college. I think of our COOS college freshman, of their tender hearts and their new adventures and all that lies ahead for them. I think of my own insecurities and shortcomings and how raw they were to me during my early young adulthood.
And I also think about what kept me safe, grounded, and in the knowledge that I was loved exactly as I was... it was the Church, it was my mom, and the families that had raised me at St. Christopher's (the church I grew up in), it was the youth minister, Michelle, I worked with at the Cathedral in Spokane. It was my fellow Christians who reminded me of the greatness that lied ahead and that the best was yet to come.
We are called to love, in the verb sense. We are called to BE there for our youth, to be present, to notice. The stories of these precious young people who have taken their own lives in the past month because of the weight they have had to carry breaks my heart and reminds me that there is not a SECOND we can waste, that we must BE THE CHURCH to EVERYONE all the time. We must not only think about how much we care but show it. Say the words. Ask the hard questions, "are you okay? what is really going on?" and also HEAR. Hear where God needs us to be for his children and hear what those children are saying.
We must DO love everyday... it is a waste to sit and bicker about what we believe is right or wrong about another's life when we are then wasting time... time that should be spent loving Christ's children.
