Processing through lots of stuff...

My Intro to Women's Studies class has us thinking through lots of controversial stuff. This week we discussed human sexuality and hit on homosexuality. A part of me didn't even want to go there, I'm so tired of hearing all the debates. Yet the other part of me wants to discuss how the church is handling this not-so-black-and-white issue and what direction the church seems to be going with this. My prof made an interesting comment, saying that where you fall on your beliefs about homosexuality affects how you interpret Scripture, and vice versa. I guess what I get so frustrated about is the fact that the issue always ends up being an "us and them" issue. The categorization needs to come to an end, and all of us need to see one another as human beings with histories, intelligent minds, likes and dislikes, dreams, gifts, rather than just some bodies who are floating around and who are either "straight" or "gay." This isn't a black-and-white issue, and contrary to popular belief, the Bible is not completely clear on it. We as brothers and sisters in Christ need to start recognizing and treating one another as brothers and sisters. I guess here I could compare the issue of homosexuality to the issue of women in ministry. There are amazing, amazing Christians on both the most liberal and the most conservative sides of the women in ministry debate. And that cannot be forgotten. The same applies to homosexuality. There are some amazing men and women who are committed to Christ who are also homosexual. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, they have God-given gifts and talents, and we can learn things from them. This, too, cannot be forgotten.