The following article reeks of ignorance of even the most
basic of
relevant Biblical texts on the issues involved. In so many
words,
it reduces Christian faith to feel-good amorality with zero
grounding
in Christian morality or knowledge of scripture.
BR
Huff Po
Jason Collins, Jesus and Coming Out
Posted: 04/29/2013 Jason Collins
rocked the sports world today with these simple words:
I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm
gay.
Collins made his announcement in a piece in Sports Illustrated that
covered his long process of coming out and the supportive
influence of family members and friends on his final
decision.
In the somewhat rambling essay that covered everything from
his aggressive philosophy on fouling opponents to the
importance of wearing the number 98 in honor of Matthew
Shepard; one paragraph stood out as perhaps the most
important of all.
Collins writes:
I'm from a close-knit family. My parents instilled
Christian values in me. They taught Sunday school, and I
enjoyed lending a hand. I take the teachings of Jesus
seriously, particularly the ones that touch on tolerance and
understanding. On family trips, my parents made a point to
expose us to new things, religious and cultural. In Utah, we
visited the Mormon Salt Lake Temple. In Atlanta, the house
of Martin Luther King Jr. That early exposure to otherness
made me the guy who accepts everyone unconditionally.
In this one paragraph we can see the kind of family and
church Collins was raised in. His faith testimony is
particularly compelling in the context of being both black and gay given the importance of
faith within the black community.
Jesus was Jason's model and teacher in tolerance and
understanding in a family and community that took faith
seriously. His Christian values became a source of strength
and courage in his embrace of his sexual orientation, rather
than a location for pain and humiliation.
Collins' experience refutes the polarity we hear so much
of, that to be religious is to be anti-gay or to be gay is
to be anti-religious. Instead it points to the reality that
many if not most LGBT people have some religious or
spiritual beliefs that sustain them in their lives and
loves.
It reminds me of when Anderson Cooper came out in a letter
to Andrew Sullivan and wrote:
In my opinion, the ability to love another person
is one of God's greatest gifts, and I thank God every day
for enabling me to give and share love with the people in my
life.
Cooper and Collins are doing something very important by
including religious talk within their coming out essays.
Essentially they are insisting that God created, supports
and loves them --including their sexuality, not in spite of
it.
The media likes giving the platform to anti-gay voices who can be so hurtful
to young LGBT peoples struggling to come out.
Fortunately we have people like Jason Collins, Anderson
Cooper who were raised in loving families whose religious
beliefs were used to teach positive values of acceptance and
love. And beyond them we have thousands of religious leaders
and congregations who stand ready to welcome LGBT people
into their communities.
Today there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of young people
who are thanking God for Jason's example of a person who can
love his family, love his sport and love God while loving a
person of his own gender.
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