More Than Welcome: Learning to Embrace Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Persons in the Church

Rating:
Summary: A painful lesson, a needed kick in the . . .
Review: I won't finish that one.

As an Old Catholic bishop, I am, by definition, out of the mainstream [Old Catholics were formally separated from Rome over 100 years ago for not embracing the doctrines of papal infallibility and the pope's universal jurisdiction over all other bishops -- other differences have arisen since then]. In addition, many of my beliefs and opinions tend to be in the more "progressive" or "liberal" sphere of Christianity. So, I thought I was a pretty understanding pastor, compassionate toward the needs and problems of others outside the mainstream. I received some painful education reading this book.

Author Maurine Waun opens with some personal background, which serves both to explain her personal interest in the topic, as well as to help the reader identify what is (and, as importantly, what is not) being asked of him. She covers some basic problems with the way the Bible has been used to justify hatred of "sexual minorities" (Waun's term for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people), though there are more comprehensive studies available on this aspect.

Waun's knockout punch is the individual stories she presents, and this section was definitely the most painful for me. In six chapters, Waun recounts the stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people relating to pastors, churches, fellow parishioners, and their relatives and friends. It was in this section that I realized my "understanding" of these people's situation had been shallow at best, and actively hurtfull at worst. Over and over, the author lets the stories speak more forcefully than she could, identifying institutional and personal prejudice, bigotry, indifference, and apathy. It was difficult to read of these people of faith, trying to live out a call to follow Jesus as best they could, being repeatedly hurt and shunned by those who profess to love *all* their neighbors as Christ commanded.

Fortunately, Waun does not leave us with that alone. She goes on, in the third section, to identify specific problems the church [speaking as the universal Body of Christ] must address, and specific things individuals should consider when contemplating the Gospel call to "love your neighbor."

I highly recommend this book to all. The question isn't "should we allow gays in the church?" They're there. The question is: how do we follow Jesus' teaching, and love those who are different from us? Waun does an excellent job presenting a Gospel-based, theologically-sound, pastorally-sensitive answer to that question.