The last two weeks I encountered two church services which frustrated and hurt me as an LGBTQ+/SSA person. I'd like to share the experiences, because they might be blind spots in your own churches. (These are two different churches, tough luck on my part, I know)
Last week after all the messiness I went to church hoping to hear from God. Instead I was met with a portion of the service being a drama that attempted to coincide with the sermon. Dramas *can* be good. But they can also convey extra things which aren't very good...
They were portraying different misconceptions surrounding God. One misconception was "all love, no truth". The person playing God acted as San Francisco gay as possible, and it was meant to be funny. This incorrect God character was clearly gay and the congregation laughed...
whenever a "gay" mannerism happened. It felt like we were laughing at the "gay minstrel" on stage. It made me deeply uncomfortable because of the negative connotations and the community reinforcement. I felt hurt and pushed out, regardless of whether some people in the church...
did not feel that way. Please be careful with the subtext of what is being conveyed. You may be sending messages you don't want to.
Today was the second week, I thought it would be good because it also had connections with the Seminary :/
I got to service and we were talking about imitating Christ. After some quick comments about the UMC church and homosexuality (that made me feel weird) early in the sermon, he began to preach. Somehow the pastor fit in an entire aside about "transsexuals"...
which seemed to indicate that they were simply peer pressured into their gender dysphoria. He said that he didn't want to get into the issue, just draw an image though and quickly moved on.
This frustrated me because gender dysphoria is a complicated and huge conversation...
If there was a congregant who didn't know anything about Trans/Dysphoria stuff, they would assume dysphoria was completely fabricated and wholly from peer pressure. It also would indicate that the pastor thought fairly low about those people. It just wasn't appropriate for a...
quick sermon illustration because It only made the issue of gender identity confusing while also slipping in subtle worldview perspectives without "getting into it"
This isn't worse than one of my past pastors talking about deceived and confused men who want to be woman
while he fully knew a trans teen was sitting in the congregation (don't get me started), but it was still unhelpful (and would have been hurtful to any person experiencing dysphoria in that congregation)...
Altogether, be careful about your quick quips, asides, extras, and dramas.
ESPECIALLY if you are tempted to make those asides about complicated topics that should not be condensed into small moments.
sorry this thread was so long
Wait no, sorry, I am adding to this.
I "agreed" with the theology regarding sexuality of both churches. They still managed to hurt me.
This is not an issue of theology. This is an issue of kindness.
(Though I think I would disagree on the nature of gender dysphoria on the 2nd)
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