Is a more open, compassionate, and Christian response to gays and lesbians possible?

National Association of Evangelicals, Christianity, and GLBT Rights

The folks from the National Association of Evangelicals and other leading church leaders think so. They articulate this vision in the later pages of the just released “Come Let Us Reason Together:”

Come Let Us Reason Together outlines new, common-ground approaches on the toughest cultural matters, including abortion, gay and lesbian issues, the treatment of human embryos, and the role of religion in the public square.

This community of Christian evangelicals highlights:

Progressives’ and Evangelicals’ shared commitment to human dignity, and also the Golden Rule, has hopeful implications for creating a foundation of mutual respect with regard to one of the most difficult cleavages between these two groups—attitudes about public policies that relate to gay and lesbian people.

We believe that in the midst of real differences, there are shared principles that are rooted in respect for human dignity, and commitments to both the Golden Rule and religious liberty. These shared principles will not resolve the very real differences with respect to many policies, but should provide a shared foundation for more productive discussion.

Human dignity is innate. For Evangelicals and many other religious people, human dignity is grounded ultimately in a belief that all are created in the image of God; for others, it is an innate feature of our shared humanity. For all, human dignity is not a function of what we do but of who we are: all members of a common human family.

Protecting the human rights and dignity of all, even for those with whom one disagrees, is not only a consistent thing to do; it is a proud American tradition and a high moral and religious calling. America was founded on the principle that all have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and one of the deepest insights that is common to virtually all faith and moral traditions is that we should want for our brothers and sisters the same protections, public benefits, and opportunities we want for ourselves.

No legislation to protect the human dignity of gay and lesbian people should or need abridge the religious liberty of religious communities. Religious liberties and civil liberties are grounded in the same constitutional principles and
must go forward together. Religious groups have a constitutionally protected right to manage their own communities, regulate their own religious practices, and express their beliefs publicly on issues around homosexuality.

The Bible leaves the role of judging for God. It suggests that humans should first and foremost love their fellow human beings. The current strategy of building walls on both sides is an abject failure. Only a world in which let go of our fears and stereotypes and we come to the table for both dialouge and compromise do we have a hope of any sort of significant change.

At the end of the day: we’re all God’s children. We’re called to love our brothers and sisters. We’re called to love folks who, just like us are broken. A proliferation of fingerpointing, name calling, stereotypes, and shunning isn’t consonant with the love for our fellow human beings and certainly is counterproductive in terms of evangelism. (John 8:1-11)

Equally, GLBT folks hopefully will recognize that the church isn’t a monolyth and some churches are going through an ideological revolution as it struggles to grasp with the realities of life and faith in 2007. Openness to those changes and realization that the transition to a more open, loving, and diverse church will be less than perfect is critically important.

Thoughts?