The Photo A Day prompt for today was "This is really good!" I was going to go for the obvious photo of my dinner (which was delicious, I must admit), but I found something even better than food: the book I'm currently reading.
It's called Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate (by Justin Lee.) I learned about Justin and his book via one of my favorite blogs (Rachel Held Evans), and it has been a great read. It's mostly about Justin's own life as a gay Christian. He was raised in a very stable Christian home and was serious about his faith from a young age. He realized he was gay in high school and went through some pretty heartbreaking stuff in order to try to "fix" this "problem." It's hard to read about all the ways other Christians rejected him, leading him to feel (for a time) that he couldn't be both gay and Christian. I think his story is important for the church to hear--not because it's unique, but because it isn't. The church needs to understand that there are people who are redeemed by the gospel and seeking to serve Christ with their lives, who also happen to find themselves attracted to members of their own sex. We are called to love them in the same way we are called to love everyone else. Because God loves them the same way He loves the rest of us. I earnestly hope for a future in which gay (and lesbian, bisexual, transgendered...) believers are not treated any differently than the rest of us sinners. I want to do my part to make this hope a reality.
A couple other books I've read that have helped me understand LGBT issues as they relate to Christian faith:
Calling the Rainbow Nation Home by E Sundby
Transgendered: Theology, Ministry, and Communities of Faith by Justin Edward Tanis