I Try And Love Like Jesus

I was catching up on some episodes of Grey's Anatomy, and I came to the one where Callie's dad tries to "pray away the gay."  And I felt for her.  I have had friends who have had to pretend they were different to family members because that was what they felt their only choice was.  I've been portrayed as the "girlfriend" more than once.  And I am okay with that.  I have learned that although you need to be true to yourself, some people don't need to know every aspect of your life, and sometimes crap like that is necessary for survival.  


I am a Christian, and a Catholic at that.  I believe in Jesus as the son of a loving God.  I believe that God may have indeed not liked the gays in the Old Testament, but then he had a child, and we know how that changes parents (I am not saying this is what I believe, just that since the conservative Christians believe the Old Testament points to this, that this is a compromise).  I don't type any of this to sound flippant.  I know some Christians will take offense, and while I hope they feel as I do, that our beliefs are our own, if they're offended I don't apologize.  I'm offended every time I hear a Christian cry out hateful words to the gay community.  Jesus asked of us to love one another as if every person we met was Him.  I choose to try to attempt this.  If you choose to have moments of hatefulness (ala the Fred Phelps Church) then I will still love you, because God says you need it.  


In the show Callie's girlfriend Arizona said that when her father found out she was gay he asked one question:  "are you still the person I raised you to be?"  I cried during the show and I am not afraid to admit it.  Because I've never heard it put so wonderfully.  I am not a mother, yet, but I do know how I want to raise my children.  I have heard conservatives cry out that they don't like how whorish the gay community is.  It can be, especially when you take a bunch of men (who are young and have high sex drives) and ostracize them from the rest of society.  Oh yes, they explore just like any other young adults.  Do I condone this?  No.  But neither do I condone any straight young adults acting like whores either.  It happens, will continue to happen, but I hope to raise my children to act differently than my peers and I did.  If they do, I will love them anyways, but I hope I will have raised them better than that.  


I know people who as soon as they hear someone is a Christian they expect the judgements to begin.  How sad is that?  I don't live my life like that.  I try not to judge, but the things that cause me to judge the most are liars and hypocrites.  I still love them, because I see the God in them.  I want to change the minds of people.  I want the title Christian to represent more good than bad.  So I am not going to judge people for who they are (which is a whole other issue, the debate on either being born gay or choosing to be gay, and we really don't have time for that).  And it makes me sick those who do, in the name of Jesus.  Jesus is ashamed of that hate, and believe me, wants nothing to do with it.