Doors, not Walls

Summary

To be honest, I don’t like this sermon. I see the importance of this series, but I don’t like it. For straight people it’s one thing, but for a person from the LGBTQ community to give a sermon about why they’re for LGBTQ inclusion in the church? Why maybe you should consider LGBTQ inclusion in the church? Giving you a Biblical basis for LGBTQ inclusion in the church? Or give you further affirmation that you do not want LGBTQ inclusion in the church? It’s strange to me. And as a person who sees the question of LGBTQ inclusion though a social justice lens, fruit from the same tree of accepting people from other races and cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds, this seems…weird. Like maybe I shouldn’t be the one talking. Or maybe I’m exactly the person who should be talking? I don’t know the answer to that.

But if I’m to get over myself and put myself in another person’s shoes, particularly another person who thinks differently from me, the idea of this sermon makes total sense. I know for a fact that others find my views, particularly equating LGBTQ inclusion as a social justice discussion on par with the discussion around exclusion being equated to the other “phobias” of our day, as deeply offensive. What is my theology surrounding inclusion, and why does it matter? It’s obvious why it matters to me, but why should it matter to you, as a person in our congregation here in this time and space?