How far can the homophobia of certain Christians go? The WorldVision case
Biblical reflections by H. Adam Ackley* published on the Huffington Post (United States) on March 27, 2014, freely translated by Silvia Lanzi
While traveling through Tire and Sidon, Jesus' apostles asked him to send away a woman who was praying for her daughter to be healed. As this continued and knelt screaming “Lord help me!”, Jesus drew an ethnic and religious boundary that dehumanized her: “It is not good to take your children's bread and throw it to the dogs”. But when the woman humbly begged him “Even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table”, Jesus praised her great faith and immediately healed her little girl. This story is told in the two oldest Christian gospels, that of Mark and that of Matthew, and I believe it shows not that Jesus was racist but that, like that Canaanite woman, he had recognized and given an explicit name and above all he had underlined the dehumanizing bigotry of his disciples.
As heartbroken Christians in the LGBT community today we have responded, in virtual disbelief, to the hate campaigns waged by evangelicals like Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Michael (“Dr.”) Brown of Line of Fire and the Coalition of Conscience who successfully encouraged “Christians” to stop offering their aid to WorldVision US humanitarian efforts and attempts because they began to extend health coverage for same-sex spouses of full-time employees. I thought about this Gospel story. Our non-Christian LGBT sisters and brothers are not heartbroken: in fact, they were not surprised at all. Likewise, non-LGBT Christians let the events of the past few days pass away as insignificant – the loss of health benefits of a same-sex spouse – with a relatively small gesture.
Per me è come se l’invito al Grande Banchetto venisse finalmente esteso come ordinato da Gesù in Luca 14: quando i giusti sono troppo occupati per andarci (in questo caso per adempiere la missione di WorldVision di prendersi cura dei più poveri e dei più vulnerabili, come Gesù ha ordinato anche in Matteo 25), sono invitati, accompagnati, fatti sedere ai posti d’onore della tavola del Padrone coloro che di solito sono considerati “sporchi”. Invece, forse i nostri fratelli e le nostre sorelle cristiane non LGBT hanno ragione e ciò che è stato offerto da WorldVision per pochi giorni era solo l’equivalente delle “briciole” del tavolo di quel padrone (le risorse di un’organizzazione cristiana). Anche così, essere invitati infine a vivere apertamente l’esperienza di celebrare e di prendersi cura del proprio coniuge e della propria famiglia come gli altri partner sposati, con il pieno supporto di una comunità cristiana, è stata celebrata con grande gioia nella comunità cristiana LGBT. Mentre i seguaci di Graham e di Brown hanno tolto il loro aiuto ai bambini malnutriti per evitare che anche una minima percentuale delle loro donazioni fosse usata per la copertura sanitaria dei coniugi cristiani dello stesso sesso, i miei fratelli e sorelle LGBT cristiani e io ci siamo impegnati a colmare la mancanza finanziaria impegnandoci ad una donazione mensile e a sponsorizzare i bambini coinvolti in questo fuoco di fila.
Made for the first time to share this Great Banquet and feed these children, how much more keenly should we have felt the stimulus of being rudely sent away again from the Master's table by such stringent limitations. Even worse, WorldVision changed their policy by asking “humbly forgive” for even considering insuring the same-sex spouse of their Christian employees, who are now virtually forced to give up or hide. How strange it is to capitulate to hatred and ask for forgiveness for having expanded grace, for having obeyed Jesus' order to call everyone to the Master's table, for having believed in the loyalty of those whom the "righteous" treat like dogs.
But LGBT Christians try to support WorldVision against homophobic backlash with our financial donations and cannot follow the example of those we have criticized these last two days. The children of the world cannot be caught in this barrage when we are the ones in the front row. We who are homosexuals and Christians do not have "reminders" regarding suffering and hungry people, we simply have to feed them. This is our testimony, as Jesus taught us: “As I have loved you, love one another. By this they will recognize that you are my disciples: when they see the love you have for each other" (John 13.35).
* H. Adam Ackley is a retired university professor and works on suicide prevention among trans people.
Original text: Crumbs From the Table? Still Too Much for Gay Christians According to WorldVision
