Ally Position Statement

 

It's been said that people don't change, but it's not true.  Our experiences, successes and failures, help us learn and grow, and through it all God's Holy Spirit works on our hearts. People change. Groups change.  This change for me has been many years in the making.  I have been an ally for a while now, but today I have been set free to say so.  What follows explains my thinking a bit.

Melissa Krabbe Position Statement Regarding LGBTQIA+

What:

• We sing “All are welcome in this place” and we want that to be completely true
• For LGBTQIA+ to know they are welcome in this place, we need to be explicit about our welcome and inclusion because so many churches say they are welcoming but really aren’t
• Psalm 139:14 says that we are wonderfully made by God. I believe that means everyone.
• Romans 15:7 NIV tells us to “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”
• Galatians 3:28 says “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Why

• It’s not as simple as “God made them male and female.” Gender is complicated and variable. So I do not believe it is a sin. It’s just another way that we’re all different.
• I saw these variations in the testing being done at the endocrine lab (my employer in the 90’s and early 2000’s) when doctors needed extra specific testing to determine sex of a baby.  It’s not always straightforward or determinable.
• I wrestled with the medical ethics of these complications in a class on applied philosophy at Clemson University
• I read about the challenges to the translations of the words in the Bible that have been used against LGBTQIA+ and the similarities to the history of using the Bible to justify slavery and to keep women from voting, owning property, or holding positions of leadership.
• I heard testimonies from LGBTQIA+ individuals who have wrestled with themselves and the church trying to be “acceptable” and seen the deep scars this leaves in people’s lives.
• There are no churches in Rice County that are explicitly welcoming and inclusive of LGBTQIA+
• In having one-on-one conversations with church members over the past few years, I have heard hearts that are open to welcoming LGBTQIA+ but were hesitant to say so because they didn’t know how others would react
• The more we can have open, friendly, and honest conversations about issues that are important to us, the healthier we can be as a church and the healthier I can be as your pastor
• Being welcomed and included in a church can help heal scars people have from being made to feel ashamed of who they are, and help them know that God really does love them

How

• Session has been discussing this for several months and reading the book Jesus, the Bible, and Homosexuality by Jack Rogers.  Our denomination (PCUSA) has changed our polity to allow us to be allies, and adopted the statement below.
• Our small group discussions of the book The Flight of the Puffin gave us the opportunity to have some beginning conversations about being transgender.
• More reading and discussing can help us to better understand each other and be better welcomers of those who are LGBTQIA+
• From the beginning this has been the subject of lots of prayer, and will continue to be
• I have tried to be open to listening, and over the past several years have had the opportunity to hear people’s coming out stories

Thanks, God!

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If you want to talk about this, comment below or message me. I would love to talk with you!

PCUSA Statement Adopted in 2018

Standing in the conviction that all people are created in the image of God and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news for all people, the 223rd General Assembly (2018) affirms its commitment to the full welcome, acceptance, and inclusion of transgender people, people who identify as gender non-binary, and people of all gender identities within the full life of the church and the world. The assembly affirms the full dignity and the full humanity of transgender people, their full inclusion in all human rights, and their giftedness for service. The assembly affirms the church’s obligation to stand for the right of people of all gender identities to live free from discrimination, violence, and every form of injustice.

Full statement here: https://www.pc-biz.org/#/search/3000312