My mother boldly wrote a letter to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which she posted at her new blog site http://cynthiagustavson.modblog.com — which closes with the following passage:

“What is a Christian church that doesn’t follow the teachings of Jesus, the one who included prostitutes, tax collectors, and lepers, the one who challenged the role of women in his conversations with Mary and Martha, the one who healed on the Sabbath, the one born in a manger?”

She doesn’t write this out of a desire to break with the church. On the contrary, she is a devoted Lutheran, and is even an elected member to the nationwide meeting of the ELCA from Oklahoma, where they live.

Jesus was born in a sheep and donkey trough, surrounded by the smell of manure and dust. Jesus healed on the Sabbath — even in Chariots of Fire, the main character doesn’t run on the Sabbath because of his faith convictions 2000 years later. What does it mean that Jesus ate with tax collectors, and told the crowd, “if you don’t have sins, throw the first stone…”?

If homosexuality were a sin, I would still believe in acceptance, as a Lutheran, as a follower of Christ, and as a compassionate human being. I don’t believe that homosexuality is a sin, and especially not because of what the bible says. If I believed in the bible in that manner, I couldn’t interact women on the days of their menstruation, and I could be killed for many other offenses.

And even if we did believe in the ‘literal’ interpretation of the scriptures, we would need to go back to the roots of the laws contained therein, and to understand the situations for which the codes were used, or applicable. I have been told that, in the time of the Old Testament, it was customary, or at least in practice, that the conquering army would rape their prisoners of war. And I have heard that male prostitution was as common as female prostitution.

The possibilities for literal translation of these passages is endless because of our own little knowledge on the historical significance of the laws.
So what about now? What do we believe as Christians, or simply as members of this society. Do we believe that it’s okay on television, but not in church (Will and Grace for example)… Do we believe that Spongebob is gay, and decide to homeschool our children, and shelter them from the outside world of ‘Atheists’?…

Again, I quote my good friend Jeshua Erickson from his blog at www.jeshuaerickson.com/blog:
“The Jesus I’ve experienced in my life is the Jesus who watched over me when I slept a night on the street or who joined me when I slept in a shelter, or who guided me when I hitchhiked across the country alone, taught me this: there is enough judgement and condemnation in the world. What we really need is faith to know that God can still do his work even if we aren’t busily condemning folks in his name.”

I encourage you to also visit Lars Clausen’s website, where he writes details about a plan to explore the condemnation and the compassion of this divisive discussion, http://www.onewheel.org/244.html:

“Sometime early this summer I plan a month-long solo unicycle ride to explore beyond the divisive issues of gay marriage and seek the stories of everyday GLBT people in America. My hope is to add a word of compassion to the contentious “moral” conversations of this past election.”

The one born in a manger surely doesn’t close the door on our brothers and sisters of faith who were born differently than those of us who are societally considered ‘normal’. We who are ‘normal’ should concern ourselves more with ourselves, and our embracing of our brethren and friends in faith.

When people are born to preach, let them preach. When people are born to play music, let them play. Let people love whom they love. And let them, and let us, treat those we love with the respect that Christ begs from us, whatever that might mean…