Jitterbugging for Jesus

Now, if only my beloved United Methodist Church would get it, and would finally accept and fully include gay couples who love each other and are as committed as many “straight” couples who’ve stay together for decades.

I know so many wonderful, God-loving, Christlike (and baptized) Christians who are gay and who have been to seminary and who can’t be ordained in my beloved UMC and other denominations because they openly love someone of the same sex. The military is ahead of the churches on gay rights and discrimination, but everyone is always ahead of churches on rights and discrimination. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The church is always the tail light, never the headlight” when it comes to full inclusion of whole masses of people.

As a UMC minister, I can bless your snake and do it in a UMC church, no less. But I can’t bless–much less preside at the wedding–of a gay couple.

Christians and churches still trot out and bend the same old scriptures to maintain the conservative status quo.

It is heartening that so many conservatives–including a lot of very conservative Christians–are starting to see that the biblical case can be made for the inclusion of gays. The biblical case for slavery and anti-racism was finally accepted after centuries of slavery, which no one in their right mind would make today in spite of the many slavery- and racist-friendly scriptures found all over the Bible.

Even Rush Limbaugh, for gosh sake, had Sir Elton John perform at his wedding last year. That’s Sir Elton John the superstar singer who’s been out of the closet for decades–he who has been on magazine covers all over the place with pictures of his spouse and their new baby.

The times are changing none too soon.