Human flourishing and faithfulness not “homosexuality” is the issue

My personality style and pastoral approach include a commitment to “dialogue” and “process.” My farm roots and political organizing experience taught me well to “do whatever it takes” – even when it means virtually unlimited additional time and effort. I had to learn the hard way that an a priori commitment to “doing whatever it takes” is not always healthy or even possible – particularly with the expectation that more “dialogue” and “process” will result in resolution or reconciliation.

In the struggle over “homosexuality” in the church there is need for more “dialogue” and better “process.” But who controls the dialogue by what process matters greatly.

My experience in ministry over the past 30 years, leads me to observe that neither “dialogue” nor “process” focused on “homosexuality” have been honest, healthy, or helpful because we haven’t understood the premises of our dialogue or the nature of our process. In that personal and pastoral context, I offer a few of my observations about why “homosexuality” is so polarizing in the church and is not the issue.

First, dialogue and process about “homosexuality” in the church is always about “them” over whom “we” have power and only let into the conversation when “we” ask “them” to risk vulnerable self-disclosure which “we” have already condemned. For the most part, “they” are simply excluded from the conversation and decisions by which “we” determine “their” fate under the guise of biblical interpretation and church decision-making. I regularly hear the pain of those who bear the burden of being silenced and shunned even hated and harmed across MC USA however much “hate the sin love the sinner” is explicitly or implicitly espoused. Have you ever asked the recipient of your love-hate platitude, “Do you feel loved by me?” That is a real test of love.

Second, “homosexuality” is not an “issue” and is not the issue. “Homosexuality” is not an “issue” – rather these are real lives and the living faith of sisters and brothers in the church who are LGBT. “Homosexuality” is not the issue – rather it has become the lightning rod and litmus test that blinds us rather than binds us to Jesus Christ in the body of Christ.

Third, we have much to explore yet about what it means to be human beings created in God’s image and of human relationships and human sexuality before we can know or say anything intelligible about “homosexuality.” Until we genuinely address these matters of human flourishing and faithfulness, our dialogue and decisions about “homosexuality” are a dishonest diversion and dehumanizing discrimination.

Jesus consistently confronted, challenged, and comforted people depending on their situation in life. The gospel consistently, “comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.” I conclude with three ways I have been confronted and comforted by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

A few years ago a visionary street-preacher and beloved friend from Atlanta’s Open Door Community, Eduard-the-Agitator, was preaching here at Seattle Mennonite Church when he turned to me in the middle of his sermon and confronted me with this question: “Are they throwing rocks at your house yet? If they aren’t throwing rocks at your house, you aren’t preaching the gospel!”

Theologian James Cone once voiced a stark revelation about racism that translates into an equally stark confrontation of heterosexism today: “In order to be Christian theology, white theology must cease being white theology and become black theology by denying whiteness as an acceptable form of human existence and affirming blackness as God’s intention for humanity.”

A beloved monastic mentor and former Abbot humbly said, “The greatest practical heresy of our time is the refusal to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.”

This Eastertide may we truly “Listen to the Spirit that dwells in our hearts!”

Weldon D. Nisly