Home of fiction writer and self-proclaimed King of Chapter One
The truth is, the Church has a long history of excluding undesirables, sometimes altogether, sometimes from leadership, and sometimes relegating them to second class status. People whose skin color is the wrong shade. People who are the wrong gender. People who love wrong. We are not nearly as evolved from these first century Jews as we'd like to think.
Jesus wasn't a baker. He was a carpenter and a storyteller and (apparently) an amateur -- excuse me, artisanal -- wine maker. So maybe he makes the happy couple a nice china hutch. And he probably whips up a mean batch of pinot. But he doesn't bake a dang cake. Because cake-baking is just not his thing.
Jesus just don't like division and infighting. Jesus likes unity. It was his prayer for us. So it is incumbent upon us to do all in our power to reconcile these differences if at all possible. To do that, both "sides" are going to have to let go of a misconception.
One frustrating thing about following this general conference from afar is the tendency to view people as issues. They are not. People are people. Treating them as debate points strips them of their humanity and robs the conversation of grace.
Wherefore is the Therefore there for?
Look, there are lots of gay relationships that are unhealthy, destructive, and sinful. But guess what? There are also a ton of straight relationships that are unhealthy, destructive, and sinful. Neither has anything to do with the orientation of the partners. Rather, it has everything to do with how those partners treat one another and how they care for that relationship.
John R. Ford 