A gentleman who resides in the tower behind our church speaks to me each time we cross paths. He keeps threatening to visit and of course I give him the same response, \u201cBy all means come. You are always welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, however, sensing something, I said, But of course you know everyone can\u2019t attend a church led by a woman.<\/p>\n
He went back and forth with how he is from the country and he was trying to grow.<\/p>\n
\n
Mind you, I never said, You probably have problems attending church led by a woman. He volunteered that on his own. Nor am I in the habit of defending the ministry to which God has called me. An older man told me years ago, Reverend, you don\u2019t have to argue or defend yourself. Just do what God has called you to do and God will take care of the rest.<\/p>\n
But then it got, well, interesting. He informed me that the \u201crumor\u201d in the tower is that I am gay and we are the gay church.<\/p>\n
*Sigh*<\/p>\n
I said, Well I am not, but I don\u2019t know why it matters.<\/p>\n
He seems particularly relieved and said, Oh I\u2019m so glad to hear since you are so beautiful.<\/p>\n
Now I am irritated, but for some unknown reason, and to my complete surprise, I remained calm.<\/p>\n
Well, I said, I have no idea what that means nor what it has to do with anything, but let me be clear, so you can get the \u201crumor\u201d straight. (no pun intended)<\/p>\n
Go back and tell them what I said. Yes we do have members of our church who are indeed gay. But that should not surprise you. Every church I know has gay people in it. The difference however, is that here they are not shamed nor condemned. I don\u2019t preach them into hell and they are not expected to be seen but not heard. No one is asked to be in the closet here.<\/p>\n
*again I sigh*<\/p>\n
Well will you marry them, he asked.<\/p>\n
It is not yet legal in the state of Tennessee, but yes I do have a member who is engaged.<\/p>\n
Well, he says, I\u2019m not a theological scholar like you.<\/p>\n
Now I sense the condescension commencing.<\/p>\n
He continues, now with a flirtatious tone in his condescension; maybe I need to come by and study with you.<\/p>\n
(Because since I\u2019m single and not gay, I must also be stupid and thirsty)<\/p>\n
I reply, I teach every Sunday at 9a.<\/p>\n
His response, as I close my car door, \u201cWell you pray for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
*sigh*<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t preach folks into hell but I fully wanted to tell this gentleman to go there on his own.<\/p>\n
While I am not sick of church I am completely sick of people and all of their unchecked judgmental, condemning criticism, both in and out of church.<\/p>\n
Sick of those churches that have distilled the Jesus Movement down to permission to hate and find fault, thus making the ministry we do at\u00a0Freedom\u2019s Chapel Christian Church\u00a0at odds because we seek to love like Jesus did.<\/p>\n
Rev. Dr. Rosalyn Nichols<\/a>\u00a0(Roz) is the pastor of Freedom\u2019s Chapel Christian Church <\/a>in Memphis, Tennessee and the Dr. Henry Logan Starks Advancement Director at Memphis Theological Seminary<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gentleman who resides in the tower behind our church speaks to me each time we cross paths. He keeps threatening to visit and of course I give him the same response, \u201cBy all means come. You are always welcome.\u201d Today, however, sensing something, I said, But of course you know everyone can\u2019t attend a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[88,89,87],"class_list":["post-3226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflections","tag-church-reflections","tag-lgbt","tag-rosalyn-nichols"],"yoast_head":"\n
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