Dear Jesus,

When I open my Bible, I read you LOVE me and have loved me since the beginning of time.  It tells me that you love me so much, you died for me just so I would have the choice of accepting or rejecting you.  This fact alone is mind blowing!  What kind of love is this that would count a human, not yet born, as worthy?

I have known you and loved you since I was a teenager.  As a teenager I promised to give you my whole being, my heart and my soul.  In turn you promised to guide me, lead me, walk with me and prepare a home for me in heaven.  We have a wonderfully, amazing and loving relationship.

There is nothing in my life that is more important to me than you.  My faith is my number one priority.  In my faith it is important to me to be honest, transparent and authentic.

You and I have had long conversations.  You have whispered things in my ear … You have quickened things deep in my soul and you have shared things with me during times of prayer that I could not have known otherwise.  You have given me the words to say to a perfect stranger who needed encouragement and you have helped me love friends on a deeper level and meet needs I did not even know existed.

A few of the things I have done as a direct result of our wonderful, loving relationship are feed the hungry, give to the poor, and provide for the orphans.  I have introduced people to you.  Some have welcomed you and some have not.  I have held the hand of dying friends and prayed with them as they took their final breath.  I have taken in a child that had no safe place to rest and loved him as my own.  I have paid the rent of strangers and the doctor bills of friends.  I have gotten up in the middle of the night to be with a friend when a pet was dying.  I have prayed with individuals whose spouses were abusing them and help them find the courage, through you, to leave a life of fear.  I have sung in the church choir.  I have taught Sunday school.  I have participated in church plays, as well as church ministries, etc.  As you already know, I am not making this list for my own praise, I am merely listing examples of things done, actions taken, not in my human flesh, but because your love and grace towards me is so amazing that I cannot contain it or keep it to myself.

I try very hard to live by your example and be a reflection of you to my own little world, as well as the world at large.  I fail on a regular basis, but each time you lovingly pick me up, tell me you love me and encourage me to keep moving forward.  But to be honest some of my brothers and sisters in Christ are making it very hard for me to carry on, have hope and share your name and love with others.

You see, all of this comes crashing down around me and is uttered as worthless garbage rather than heartfelt ministry by the vast majority of my Christian brothers and sisters when we discuss the fact I am gay.  Upon learning this one fact about me, I become a misfit, an outsider, and a deceiver.  Nothing more than a preying wolf among sheep.

Some automatically exclude me from places I was once welcome.  No longer am I allowed to lead. Minister.  Pray openly for others.  The option of church membership is taken off the table entirely.

Others say I can attend church and tithe, but not be intimately involved in any ministry or outreach until I am “saved”.  Which I sincerely thought was a relationship you and I entered into when I was a teenager.

But the really confusing part for me is some of these very people who say with conviction I am going to hell, still want to partake of my kindness and love.  They call me to pray for their needs.  Still request my money for their causes.  Still eat food I have prepared at my table.  Some will even go so far as to say I am very much like you, but yet they have no doubt, and make no bones about the fact I am going directly to hell.

Jesus, I have never claimed to be a theologian.  I have spent hours in your word, in prayer, getting to know you better and more intimately.  But as far as Greek or Hebrew goes, as far as what words originally meant I do not know.  I am weary of “fundamentalist” theology, “mainstream” theology, “gay” theology, “feminist” theology, “left” theology, “right” theology or any other theology that does not bear your name and your name only.

The deepest desire of my heart is to know you better and more intimately.  I want to be a richer, more accurate reflection of you.  I want to share your goodness, love and grace with a hurting and deeply wounded world.  Can you help me do that?

I would like to end this letter by asking you for your help.  Please give me the strength, courage and wisdom to listen for your voice.  The voice I have learned intimately over the years.  Please give me the grace to love those who would attempt to rip you from my life and cast doubt on the validity of our relationship.  Give me compassion for those who tell me you hate me and lie to me about my very soul.  In essence, help me be more like you with every breath I take.  I don’t need the road to be easy, I just need the strength to walk it.

Thank you for being my best friend.

Above all else, love,

Whosoever.

If there is equality it is in His love, not in us.  CS Lewis

You know people are funny.  Not so much in the ha-ha, belly laugh way … but from my experience, more so in a quirky, ironic way.   People, humans in general, love to be right about something.  Some are even driven to be right at all costs.  Which seems odd to me, because most people focus only on one side of the coin … the side that promotes their cause, their reason, their belief, their logic.

As we sit here in the 21^st century people often wonder, how in the world Adolf Hitler successfully killed millions of people, and millions more sat by and did nothing.  The truth is frighteningly simple.  Knowing the Bible is the most revered book in most cultures, he became familiar with the Bible.  He held his Bible close to his chest and spouted verses that promoted his cause and ideology.  It mattered not to him if the verses where in context or not.  It matter not to him if he got to know the author of the Bible.  It mattered not to him if he was wrongly interpreting the Bible.  He was not seeking a relationship; his primary goal was to be right at all costs.  In essence, he wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it. After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how men ever justified owning another human being.  The truth is frighteningly simple.  They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles.  They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position.  It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it.  After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how males ever believed and treated females as second class citizens.  How females were no more than property for many years.  Of course they were more “valuable” property than slaves, but property nonetheless. The truth is frighteningly simple.  They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles.  They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position.  It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it.  After all who can argue with God?

… people often wonder how in the world we could have ever believed that one race was superior to another.  How could white people believe and promote they are superior to other races? The truth is frighteningly simple.  They found support for their belief between the covers of their Bibles.  They held their Bible close to their chests and spouted verses that promoted their position.  It mattered not to them if the verses where in context or not. In essence they wrapped a lie in the dressing of the Bible and people believed it.  After all who can argue with God?

This list is endless.  Which poses a critical question.  What is it now, this very day, in your individual life, or our churches collective lives that we are promoting, protesting or betting our lives and the lives of others that we are right about?  What is it we are pointing a finger to in the scripture as an absolute truth, which we could be interpreting incorrectly, thus creating a lie in the dressing of the Bible?  What topic, issue, belief is it that we could, through interpretation which is not clear, be putting words in God’s mouth?

Christians and the church need to remember that following Christ is not about being RIGHT … The Word of God is not something which to brow beat an individual or group of individuals.  The Word of God is a love story of how God loves us so much Christ died for us.  The church, as well as individual Christians, need to learn to error on the side of mercy and love.  Christ has called us to be the BIGGER people … the more LOVING people.  We cannot go after groups of people aggressively and be surprised when they are not cordial and loving back.  It is the GOODNESS of God that leads mankind to repentance, not the hostile, sign holding, protesting, yelling group of self-righteous so called Christians.

Am I saying when there is injustice or wrongs being committed we need to become a door mat.  ABSOLUTELY. NOT.  What I am saying is we need to temper our moves and behaviors with love, mercy and grace; which is exactly what Christ did for every single person ever born or ever to be born.  By doing so He led by example and set the standard of how we should interact with His children.

As we sit here in the 21^st century, it is time we began following His example … and by doing so lives will be revolutionized forever.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

This is where I would like to begin.  What we believe and why.  Do we believe what we believe because it is true, or do we believe because we have been taught to believe?  There are numerous examples of this throughout life.  For instance, if you were raised in the State of Alabama and are a football fan, you are probably either a die-hard University of Alabama fan or a die-hard Auburn fan.  Depending on which household you grew up in, will depend which team you root for with reckless abandon.  This loyalty is passed down generation to generation.

If you were raised in an Episcopal household, there is a high probability you will be Episcopalian.  If you were raised in a Methodist household, there is high probability you will be Methodist. If you were raised in a Baptist household there is a high probability you will be Baptist.  If you were raised in a Catholic household there is a high probability you will be Catholic; and so on and so forth.

Each of these faiths uses the Bible as their guidebook.  Yet each faith has a different set of doctrines and beliefs.  I am not implying one faith is more accurate or true than the other; that is not the purpose here.  However, what I am saying is those faiths are very different.  Yet each believer fervently believes they are right and in most cases perhaps even closer to God.  I am challenging us to briefly set aside what we have been taught.  To temporarily leave what is our spiritual comfort zone and look at things from a different perspective and determine what we believe the truth to be for ourselves.

There was a time when a ship sailing on a body of water and reached the horizon, it was not only assumed but sincerely believed it fell off the face of the earth because the earth was flat.  We now look back and think the people who held that belief were not very smart.  But in fact, that vast majority of individuals living at that time believed it to be true.

I remember growing up in the South in the 60’s.  It was a turbulent time.  Civil rights was a heated issue.  Many churches were involved on both sides of the debate.  Many churches would not let those of different races enter into their worship services.  People were beaten and/or killed simply because of the color of their skin.  Now in the 21^st century we look back and say that behavior was WRONG.  When we read of something like that happening now we are appalled and righteously enraged.  The question I want to pose here is when did the rules change?  Was it RIGHT back then and WRONG now?  Or was it always WRONG?  Did people continue holding on to the belief that Black Americans were inferior simply because the beliefs were passed down from generation to generation or did they seek out what God said?

God is never changing.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  So who was it that missed the truth?  Of course, it was the humans. Why? Because a choice was made to believe the status quo and stay in the comfort zone of the time.  Humans took a few scriptures and interpreted them in such a way to make them mean what they wanted them to say, rather than investigate and believe what the Bible really said about the issue.

Isn’t it time we examined what we believe and why?  In this day and age of such hot button topics and great divides in the country not only politically, but spiritually, is it not of paramount importance that we sincerely search our hearts and ask God for direction, guidance and wisdom.  With hate spewing from every side, Christian and non-Christian alike, is it not time we searched and investigated what really is consistent with the character of God?  What is consistent with the character of Jesus?  Did Jesus Christ come to this earth, die for us and rise from the dead, to give us the freedom to beat and bloody each other in His name? I believe not.

I realize it takes courage to break your belief system down and examine it part by part. It takes even greater courage to admit perhaps you had a thing or two wrong.  But in the final analysis it matters not what man says, not what the preacher or priest says, not what the Pope says, not what momma and daddy always told me, but what does God say.  It is far better to recognize an honestly, non-malicious, skewed belief, than to keep beating Children of God over the head with our misconceptions and false truths because we do not have the courage to re-evaluate our beliefs and ask God for direction and wisdom.

If you find in your self-evaluation you were wrong, and most of us are wrong about something, then let’s pray we have the courage to adopt the truth and let that truth, in fact, set us free.  (Malachi 3:6; John 8:32)