Reasons to Attend a Gay Loved One’s Wedding

Many Christians might not go to a gay loved one’s wedding. I have no doubt Jesus would. Will you?

Countless gay wedding plans are underway. Invitations are in the mail. Maybe one is coming to you – from your lesbian daughter, or your gay son, or an LGBTQ loved one. Will you attend?

Let me give you some reasons why you should…

• You don’t have to have all of this settled first. Even if you’re wrestling with this issue, unsure of what you believe or where you stand, err on the side of love.
• To attend the wedding is to prioritize your relationship over the rules. People supersede rules.
• Not to attend the wedding will not be seen as righteous opposition to gay marriage; it will be seen self-righteous and unloving.
• You will never forget.
• Your child will never forget.
• At every turn, Jesus showed love and grace and favor to people rejected, condemned and shut out by the church and the religious elite. He dined, laughed, and hung out with the very people the religious leaders considered sinners. He interacted with women and gentiles, played with children, spurned by the religious elite.
• God went to those the religious people blocked from coming to God.
• Jesus’ love and compassion to the marginalized and rejected always trumped the law.
• Put others before yourself — sacrifice your own comfort in order to stand on the great command — to love your neighbor as yourself.
• If you are a Mom or Dad of a gay child, your place at the wedding has been reserved since the day your child was born. No one belongs in the chair reserved for you. Don’t let it sit empty at your child’s wedding.
• To lighten this up a bit… If you will not attend because you cannot support gay marriage, then you believe God does not support gay marriage, so God does not view this as a “real” marriage. You can go and just think of it as a party! : )

You were there for their first word, and their first step, and their first day of school, and their school events and games, and their first dance, and their graduation. Those days don’t compare to this one. Be there for their wedding.

Listen to your God-given desire to stand by your child in love. Many Christians might not go. Jesus certainly would.