Mr.Lopez:
I think we should do away with the word "homophobia". A phobia is a fear of something. The Church doesn't fear homosexuality, we're just saddened and disgusted with that sinful lifestyle. You sadly miss the whole point of going to Church in the first place, which is to worship, pray, and receive Holy Communion. Mass is not a place to go and trumpet your politically charged self righteousness and gay rights agenda. The place to do that would be at any street corner U.S.A., holding up stupid anti-prop 8 signs for people to ridicule. Trying to justify sins like homosexuality and abortion will not be changing the the Church for the "better". It can distract the Church from the true interpretations of the Holy Gospels. All sins, including homosexuality, abortion, and divorce are an abomination. Everyone has the right to get married anyway, but not within the same sex. Please don't try to refer to inter-racial marriage discrimination of the past in future arguments. That's completely different. Prop. 8 has nothing to do with race, just the same-sex issue. And, please don't try and rally your liberal churchgoing friends into making fools of themselves inside Church walls with gay rights instead of Gospel teachings. I don't want to hear it, just like I don't want to hear someone standing up and proclaiming that something like masturbation should be taken off the "sin" list.
The left wing and others of this country are being extremely arrogant be thinking they can change an institution that has been in place for thousands of years. And that is, "marriage is a sanctimonious union between a MAN and a WOMAN". Period. End of discussion. Stop wasting your time, Mr. Lopez.

Hi Mr. R-Winger

Thank you for your comment. I don't really agree with it though and I'll let you know why.

Church is not just about worship, prayer, and receiving communion. It is also about the church community and how each community member treats each other. If you look at the New Testament, many of the letters of Paul and the others deal with how the Christians treat each other in the context of their church community. And most of Jesus's parables and teachings deal with how we treat each other. How do we treat the marginalized, the poor, the so called "sinners"? How a church community interacts with members who are gay and lesbian, how a church community interacts with divorcees, how a church community deals with people who are different, defines in large part how they have absorbed the lessons of love and compassion that is at the heart of Jesus message.

My passion for gay rights derives in large part from witnessing how badly gays and lesbians have been treated and looked upon by Christians during my 8 years in an Evangelical Church. During my time at that church I saw two different responses from Christians: some Christians thought homosexuality was a sin and just hated gays and lesbians. Other Christians thought homosexuality was a sin, but had friends and family members who were gay and lesbian and sincerely struggled to love these people while trying to maintain their principles. Though I disagree with both groups, I have a lot more sympathy with the second group than the first group. I think if there's any chance to challenge homophobia within the Christian church, liberal and gay Christians have to appeal to this second group.

Church history is full of instances of people who have challenged church practices and changed the church for the better. In the Mormon church, for instance, various individuals challenged the church to be more inclusive of African Americans in the 1970s until the Mormon church finally changed its policies. The Mormon Church is better for having African Americans be equal members of the church.

Similarly, the Southern Baptist Convention apologized in the 1990s for its church's past support of slavery and asked African Americans for forgiveness.

After World War II, the depth of the tragedy that was the Holocaust made the Catholic Church do some soul searching for any part it may have had in contributing to antisemitism. This led in 1965 to the papal document Nostra Aetate, which wrote that the Jewish people as a whole were not responsible for the death of Jesus. It also stated the Catholic Church's esteem for Islam and Buddhism.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II made a generalized apology for the wrong that Roman Catholics have made over its history to Jews, Moslems and various other peoples. I think Pope John Paul II did a good thing.

The Catholic Church sees the church as two distinct entitites. There is an invisible church of God and Jesus and Mary and the saints, that is perfect and never wrong. Then there is the visible church of fallible human beings that is capable of mistakes and human error.

When I write that the church should be changed, I do not mean that Christians should stop believing in the central tenets of their particular denomination. I do think though that they should challenge the way other Christians treat and look down on gays and lesbians, divorcees, and other people. Just as Christians in the past challenged church justifications for slavery, for antisemitism, and for racism, I think it's legitimate for individual Christians to challenge the Catholic, Mormon and Evangelical justifications for condemning homosexuals and homosexuality.

If you think I have a lot of gall to challenge the church on this, you're right. I'm not a good Christian. I believe in God and Jesus, but I haven't lived up to the principles of love that Jesus preached. After witnessing things at a Christian Church, though, I know that many conservative Christians do not live up to this prinicple either. I think the Catholic, Mormon, and Evangelical views on homosexuality undermine their more important message of God's love for all. I believe a change of the church on this issue will change the church for the better.

Here are some Catholic, Evangelical, and Mormon groups working to help change attitudes of gays and lesbians within their prospective churches.

SOULFORCE is a group founded by Mel White (a former a former seminary professor and ghostwriter for the Rev. Jerry Falwell) and his partner Gary Nixon to fight homophobia within the Evangelical church. Soulforce promotes activism to show the connection between anti-gay religious dogma and the resulting attacks on the lives and civil liberties of LGBT Americans.

DIGNITY USA fights for the rights of LGBT Catholics within the Catholic Church. Athe United States, Dignity USA worships openly with other GLBT and supportive Catholics, socialize, share personal and spiritual concerns, and work together on educational and justice issues.

NEW WAYS MINISTRY is a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics and reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities. Through research, publication and education about homosexuality, the ministry fosters dialogue among groups and individuals, identify and combat personal and structural homophobia, work for changes in attitudes and promote the acceptance of gay and lesbian people as full and equal member of church and society.

AFFIRMATION serves the needs of gay Mormon women and men, as well as bisexual and transgender LDS and their supportive family and friends, through social and educational activities.

I don't know if I'm leaving the impression that I'm anti-Christian, but I hope I'm not. I am sometimes critical of the church because I care for the church. It does great long term harm when it seems that the church condones and encourages bigotry in any form, whether it be racism, antisemetism, or homophobia. It can make some otherwise kind people do mean things to other people. And it can drive away people from the church. Not just gays, but divorcees, unmarried couples, or anyone who does not fully conform to a narrow standard.