Shortly after we met, my partner-to-be told me that my faith in God, and more importantly, God's love for me, was not reliant on the whims of those who are uncomfortable with gay folk. I don't make the mistake of confusing God's love with their anger, he told me. In the years before we met, I had pretty much given up on the Church, assuming that I was unwelcome there. I did not quit being a Christian. That is who I am. But I left the Church.
His words and his own example were a great gift and I will always be grateful for his sharing it with me.
Last night, in my private prayers, I came across this passage from John's gospel that always manages to speak out across our fear and pain:
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God -- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
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