"A Personal Question"

While we were enjoying lunch together my good friend, Al, wondered if he could ask me a personal question.  I replied, "Well, you can ask."  So he did.  "I was wondering if your support and involvement with the gay community was because of your children."  The answer was "No."

I think I was born to care about discrimination and respect for everyone.  I grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania.  At the time no African American lived in our town.  There was an unwritten but well understood rule that no blacks were to live in the community.  Racial discrimination is wrong.  An Hispanic Catholic family moved to town and found few friends.  Religious discrimination is wrong.  As a young boy I was often the victim of Bruce the Bully.  Bigger and meaner than most of us we learned to be very creative in not being in the wrong place with Bruce.  Bullying is wrong.  Bill was cruelly called "CQ" by most of the youth.  'County Queer' is not a nickname you want to have!  Sexual orientation discrimination is wrong.  My cousin Ralph was a child we now refer to as "Challenged" or "Special Needs".  Back then, in the cruel moments on the school playground he was called 'Retard.'  Discrimination of individuals who do not fit our definition of 'being like us' is wrong.

In our life as a married couple, Cheryl and I ended up with quite a family.  We have a gay son.  We have a daughter who is Bipolar.  We have adopted, racially mixed children.  One time I was asked which ones were our real children.  Really?  We love and cherish each of our children.  Each child is special and wonderful and just ask me about our grandchildren!

My ministry was built on the grace of God (no one needs it more than me), loving and accepting each person as they are, and standing with them whenever discrimination raises its ugly head.  Not everyone in my churches understood or supported me but that is okay.  If I am going to err in this life, as a pastor and as a person, I will always err on the side of grace-love without strings.  Our failure to see the inherent worth in others comes with painful costs for all of us.  Respect and care for each person is personal to me.  Thanks Al for asking and helping me revisit why I do what I do.