Candid Reflections on the Squabble Between “Pro” and “Anti” LGBT Advocates

I started my day being so demoralized this morning after watching on cable TV a well-known American preacher mouthing cruel invectives against gays and lesbians in his sermon. This preacher’s words were full of unkind diatribe and nasty rants against LGBTs! This preacher thundered his self-righteous denunciations and tirades against the LGBTs in his sermon: “gays and lesbians are antichristian”, “they are the cause of America’s doom”, “perverts and immoral lot”, “they are evil agents of Satan out to corrupt the morality of the American public,” “they can never be saved if they are gays and lesbians”, “doomed for hell to burn there forever and ever”, etcetera—his wild pious harangues went on and on.

I am so sorry to feel that there was no love of Christ being manifested whatsoever in the Pharisaic outburst of conceited self-righteousness in this preacher’s sermon against the LGBTS and against the US Supreme Court approval of the legality of LGBT same sex marriage. Instead of ministering the love, mercy and compassion of Christ, this preacher was foaming inflammatory words, which I feel, straight from the very pits of hell itself! Christ came to this world not to condemn nor judge people, but that sinners may be saved by their own free and voluntary act of repentance, reformation, transformation and renewal by freely exercising their faith in Him (See St. John 3:16-17). The preacher, in his spiteful judgmentalism and unkind words against his fellow humans, had effectively nullified and directly contravened the compassionate ministry of Jesus Christ, whom he purports to represent, by the former’s cruel, nasty, harsh and heartless words (See St. Matthew 7:1-3).

Can we really—with one-hundred-percent certainty—denounce another as evil, as an Antichrist, as the purveyor of perversion; if we do not even care to know and do not even bother to check their perspectives in support of our assumptions? Perhaps, it would have been better for these holy persons and pious ones to spend some time in sympathetically understanding the point of view of the one whom they demonize as a pervert before blurting-out unkind words of invectives against persons and against supporters of a particular viewpoint: in this case, LGBT groups pressing for equal rights under the law.

Can persons who claim to be messengers of love, be truly loving, when they outrightly condemn someone as evil? Can these so-called guardians of salvation be true harbingers of God’s redemption if all that they have uttered are hateful slogans against persons and against groups of persons whom they deem as “beyond redemption”? Can these holy persons who claim to be knowers of Divine Truth be really truthful when they employ unfounded propaganda to demonize others—even using baseless presuppositions to articulate their views against the other?

If a “godly” person does not even bother to know the point of view of another, and instead dismisses him/her as “satanic” without giving him/her a fair hearing—can we call this so-called godly person a fair envoy of a Just God? If one did not even bother to get acquainted with what the other is saying—is it just and fair for one to label the person as evil? If a holy person who anathemizes a group of people as “sinful lot worthy of hell” and yet this person does not even bother to address squarely the point of view of the group whom he accused of being an incarnation of the devil; would you still call this person holy?

Can these so-called righteous persons who claim to be saved by God’s love and proceed to tell someone who did not buy their judgmental attitude as “the unsaved”—are they really saved by God’s love? If they are: then how come they are so unloving in their condemnation of others who may differ from their own points of view and from their very “holy” lifestyle? Can people who, in their admission, assert that they are advocates for humanity, be truly humane, when their lips and their actions cruelly discriminate against the rights of others whose lives are lived-out differently from their “holier-than-thou” existence?

If these guardians of righteousness respect others as having minds of their own, then they would not impose their “ex-cathedra” views on others. If they truly realize from the depths of their being that our Loving, Benevolent, Just and Merciful God gives us full freedom to think and to freely decide for ourselves based on the dictates of our own individual consciences, then they will not shove and cram their dogmatic moralism and absolutist views on what is “prim and proper” on other’s unwilling mouths.

If the Merciful God whom they claim to worship gives to each and everyone of us the full liberty to carve-out independently our own paths to life; and if this Merciful God Whose genuine love is so secure enough to give us our own autonomy and freedom to decide either to reject Him or to choose Him—I am just wondering, why these so-called God’s self-appointed spokespersons, in their unloving condemnation against those who do not “toe their line” of thinking, would behave as if they know better than God, by forcing their dogmatic and ethical viewpoints on others whose views and ways of life differ from them!

Let us learn to respect each other—we have our own individual consciences given by God to each one of us as our own guide to life. Sanctimonious people: please, please, enough of this Pharisaic charade and judgmentalism! People are not anymore naive children who should say “Yes!” and “Amen!” to every godly phrase you mumble and to every “infallible” view you arrogantly pontificate. Respect, Understanding, Tolerance, Acceptance: these are the true criteria of an authentic, just and humane spirituality. Practice what you preach about God’s love, justice, fairness, mercy and compassion for all—for all men, women, straight, gays, lesbians, transgendered. Let there be tolerance and respect for all human persons and their free choices of who they are and what they want to be. May it be so!