Thursday, November 4, 2010

Gay Bullying: Are Believers the Problem or the Solution?



There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the topic of bullying lately, specifically the bullying of gay and lesbian children, teens and young adults. I have had this topic on my mind for the past month and I debated whether or not I would talk about it on this blog, but I decided to go ahead anyway. First, I want to start by saying that I in no way agree with or support homosexuality, but I believe that as believers we aren’t doing enough.

There is an anti-bullying bill called the Safe Schools Improvement Act and it wants to include sexual orientation as a category along with religion and race and it would also provide programs to educate students. However, certain Christian organizations are fighting this because they believe it will lead to a tolerance of the homosexual lifestyle. Also stated was the fact that adding anti-gay bullying to the bill would be telling our children what they should believe morally. The last I checked this was not the responsibility of the school board or the society at large, that is the responsibility of the parent(s). Of course we don’t want schools teaching our children the opposite of what we believe about homosexuality because it confuses them and for some makes it seem ok to indulge in that lifestyle; but we cannot stop people from saying what they want to say and even if we stopped schools, there is still, television, radio, even worse the internet and people in general that state their own opinions. We can’t shelter our children from everything so the best thing I can do for my own is to teach them the standards that we live by and that is whatever the Word says and hope that they make the right decisions for themselves because we cannot do it for them. Are we as Christians so caught up in the fact that these people are sinning, that we lose sight of the fact that we are to be showing them the love of Christ as a way to lead them back to Him? It’s no wonder the homosexual community wants nothing to do with the church because the Jesus that Christians shout at them who is supposed to love them so much is not being demonstrated. Adding anti gay bullying to the bill may cause people to become more tolerant but if we don’t add it, more innocent lives will be destroyed because there is no one there to protect them, and I’m not saying that this bill will protect them because we’ve seen examples that it doesn’t always work to the victim’s advantage. When are we going to get or our moral high horse and really show the LGBT community what the love of Christ looks like. Every time I hear about or read something like this I keep thinking to myself what would Christ do in this situation? It seems so cliché for a Christian to say “WWJD” but maybe we should be asking ourselves that question more often instead of saying and doing what we have been doing.

What if this we’re you child being bullied for whatever reason, what would you be feeling right now? Imagine what all the other children and parents are going through? Are we looking out for the best interest of the children or are we just fighting for the cause? We really need to stop making it about religion and focus on the relationship because this is what Jesus did and that is why He has made and is making such an impact in people’s lives.

I'll end with this quote by Father James Martin: "If pro-life means trying to avoid anything that will threaten any life, from natural conception to natural death, then we should be finding ways to protect all life, which also means preventing suicides, and preventing gay suicides," Martin wrote. "In any event, there is much for us, the church, still to do."


The articles I read for this were: Believers: Problem or solution?, Christians respond to gay bullying, Christian right decries bullying, When a bullies kid grows up, Adult survivors of peer abuse.

2 comments:

  1. to answer your question WWJD… Remember what Jesus did with the Samaritan Woman? What was his attitude? Did he “tolerated” her sin or exposed it? Was he concerned about the woman’s kids that may develop a low self-esteem if their mom would be exposed as an “easy woman”?

    I think we should be careful that our love for the lost would not become tolerance and acceptance of their life style. Let’s not forget that God “discriminates” the gay people…!!! He not just disagree with their life …. but he discriminates till the point of killing them, see Sodom and Gomorrah. Also God is giving permission to a nation (Israel) to have all the gay people put to death that were found among themselves. I think that is very hard core discrimination … reinforced by God … don’t you think ? I am not saying we should kill the gay … but I think we can discriminate and condemn their life style … and in the same time love them as a broken fallen people for whom Jesus died.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sadly the school systems today seem to be pushing any inclusion of God and religion out of the picture and filling more of the equal rights movement. Whether or not this "bullying" is going on I am not sure, since in my own public high school I would be asked, "do you hate gay people?" and I would respond, "I love the people but as a Christian I do not agree with the lifestyle." Then I was told I was racist. In my own high school we had a support group for gay straight alliance and there was much room for students to express their feelings openly. I'm just not sure what they define as "bullying" here-- if it means merely not accepting their lifestyle then we need to redefine the terms.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.