A couple of friends starts a soup kitchen, paid out of their own pocket, to feed the cart-pushers in Curitiba. Do you know how much % of money they earn? Do you know how much fame? Do you know how much applause in the Christian world? Yes… almost nothing…
A council member fights to eradicate slavery in São Paulo. Do you know how much this is talked about from the pulpit of the churches? Do you know how much this guy shows up on TV? Do you know how much he asks “brother, vote for brother”… Yep… nothing.
Romário fights for the equality of people with physical disabilities. For rights for special-needs children… do you know how much our Christian society rewards this guy? That’s right, nothing…
Now, burn a rainbow flag and you’ll be the herald of the family and of good morals.
This same church full of separated people, full of kids of single parents, full of people who smoked weed up to their ears as teenagers, full of people who lost their virginity before marriage…
Look, it’s not that I support that every gay person should become a pastor and play in the band. I don’t support the celebration of gay marriage inside the Christian community. Just as I don’t support that the band leader be a liar, or that the pastor be an adulterer, or that the deacon be a thief… but all of that happens, and we hug each other, forgive our sins, and help each other. Why can’t we do the same thing with gay people?
Let them have rights, duties… love them, hug them, make them feel loved. Before the cross we were all equal, we are all sinners, with no right to God’s love, who out of kindness gave us his son to die in OUR place… for all of us.
May your gay neighbor feel the same love that you feel when you lie, or evade a tax, and your brother in Christ hugs you and says… get up, let’s go together.
May our church remember the essential: To love God ABOVE all else, and your neighbor as yourself… Love the gay person as if you were gay, as if you felt their pains, the discrimination, the emotional crises, the distance from family, from friends… love them, always love, hug, take them to dinner at your home, cry with them, pray with them, and the spirit that convicts of all righteousness will use this love to cover a multitude of sins…
May we be moved by love, may we be signs of God’s grace, may we be the revelation of the merciful son, and may the weight of the Cross be placed on Christ and judgment left to God, who on the last day will judge all according to their actions.
May the God of love and grace forgive us all, and deliver us from evil.