In queerty.com today, there was a great column/question posed on the site: Why Can't the Pope Apologize? (click here). The snippet was in regards to the priests and the sexual abuse cases facing the Catholic Church. What I didn't hear during this Pope's visit was anything regarding an apology for those women who have also faced abuse by the Church, the ordination--or lack thereof--of women as priests, let alone as deacons, or the silencing of many Catholic theologians who have been more progressive in their theological writings.
But then again: along with the Catholic Church, and the Orthodox Churches, what mainline Protestant denomination is truly and fully inclusive of LGBTQ people in their church, among all their diocese, presbyteries, conferences, or other similar ruling bodies, and not just in certain pockets of the country, ordaining and, if a couple chooses, marrying or blessing same sex folks?
Prophecying here: there will be a day and age when all of the Churches will have to go through a "truth and reconciliation" process when those in power will have to come to terms with the neglect and abuse of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and queer expressing people for over two thousand centuries. Treating us as second class citizens is not acceptable or tolerable any longer. The only way forward is this arduous, painful process of lancing the boil of hurt and hate. As this process has been used successfully in South Africa as well as Greensboro, NC, in which there has been racial division, this process--of telling our stories and being heard--will one day bring about a healing of the hurt, agony, and abuse of many of us who are LGBTQ. Respect and love are called for today.
It is time to change.
Peace,
Brett
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