the letters...

“Do you know the letters L, G, B, T, Q?” she asked?  She immediately followed up with “I am one of those letters”. 

I was sitting across from a ten year old camper a few weeks back who began the above conversation. Working at an urban Christian camp for low income kids, conversations about sexuality and gender are pretty routine these days. Not as often, though, with one so young. Ten years old.

Her real question, which came out a bit into our chat was whether or not, because she was “one of the letters” she was going to hell. She was confused because she was learning at camp that God loved her. The day prior she had learned that He had created her to be special and unique and in His own image.

Unfortunately, previously she had learned somewhere that “God hates gay people”. 

In her small, ten year old voice, she said, “He does hate gay people, doesn’t He?”

Over the years I’ve had a number of conversations with campers that have haunted me. Sitting and praying silently to say “good words”. Words that bring life and hope.  Words that were understandable.

This day found me praying silently and fervently. 

I also learned during our conversation that her favorite snack was taki’s. And that began our friendship and will hopefully be a connecting point over this next year.

I bring this up not to dwell on my conversation, but to pose a question to you:

What are you doing in your sphere of influence to dispel the pervasive notion that “God hates gay people”?

You are reading this blog, so I imagine you have some desire to learn and lean into this conversation. 

But are you praying and seeking to love the gender and sexual minorities around you? Are you asking the Lord for opportunities to know and love people wrestling with their sexuality or gender? Are you confronting the stereotypes in our churches that keep perpetuating the notion that God has a special hatred for gay people?

To be honest it gets tiring of always needing to undo the lie that God hates gay people. For that to change, we, God’s people, need to change.

We need to correct the bad doctrine that God focuses in on gay people’s sin and straight people are a bit better. Isn’t sin, any sin,my sin, your sin, the real issue?

Also needing correction is the idea that being attracted to the same sex means you are going to hell- whatever happened to all sin separating us from a holy God?

We all have some work to do- don’t we? Send me a note if you’d like to talk further!