Sunday, March 22, 2009

Richardson Funeral Protests

I read with dismay in Sunday’s (3/22) Poughkeepsie Journal that a church in Kansas was sending some of its members to Millbrook to stage a protest at Natasha Richardson’s funeral. The reason for this protest is that Richardson raised funds for research for a cure for AIDS, and this church is virulently anti-Gay.

Such a protest at someone’s funeral is obnoxious and certainly not in the Christian spirit. After all, Jesus ate with sinners and forgave the woman caught in adultery. This protest reminds me of other protests that were just as bad, and those were the anti-war protests staged at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. No matter how noble you feel your cause is, there is also something called consideration for others. Why rub salt into a grieving family’s wounds?

Regardless of your views on the practice of homosexuality, Christians are called to be caring, compassionate, merciful, and loving. This church in Kansas is none of these, and churches like that give Christians a bad name. I suspect this church teaches that AIDS was sent by God to punish the sodomites, and so working towards a cure is going against God’s will. Let me assure you that such a church and such teachings are on the lunatic fringe and are not in the mainstream of Christianity.

Jesus died for Gays and Lesbians just as much as He died for you and me. Although the Bible clearly condemns the practice of homosexuality, the fact is that as Christians we are not to condemn those who are homosexuals. We all sin and fall short of God’s standards of behavior. Why has homosexuality become the unforgivable sin for some?

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