Rev. Gil Caldwell
I have lived through that peculiar moment in American history, when it came to marriage, many Christians were more concerned about the race of persons who love each other, than the quality and content of their love for each other. Now, many Christians are more concerned about the gender of persons who love each other than they are about their love for each other.
Although biology may be more appropriate in discussions about gender than about race, I ask where is the theology of those persons who say that love is less-than-authentic when shared by persons of the same gender or of different races?
First John 1:1a comes to mind this morning as I write this:
“See what love God has given us, that we should be called the children of God.”
Some Christians who boast of their “Bible Believing” ignore the love of God, as they combat same gender marriage. Thus they give more attention to gender as a biological construct than they do to love as a theological construct.
In 1939 Cole Porter wrote these words in a song that those in California who stand in the way of same gender marriage ought sing: “What is this thing called love? This funny thing called love? Just who can solve its mystery? Why should it make a fool of me? I saw you there one wonderful day. You took my heart and threw it away. That’s why I ask the Lord in heaven above, what is this thing called love?”
We would think that persons who claim to be in frequent conversation with God would understand the love that flows from God that we share with each other. But their responses to the love of God that is expressed by persons of the same gender to each other, indicates they don’t have a clue.
The Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is a retired United Methodist Minister who lives in Asbury Park, N.J. He was active in the Massachusetts unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and participated in the civil-rights movement throughout the nation. In 2000, he, with others, organized the RMN Extension ministry United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church (UMOC), an organization committed to the full inclusion of LGBT people in every aspect of church and society. His recent book, Something Within: Works by Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is available from Church Within A Church. Reprinted with permission from the Reconciling Ministries Network RMN Blog.