{"id":3708,"date":"2016-06-30T14:39:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/?p=3708"},"modified":"2016-08-05T09:59:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T14:59:07","slug":"us-versus-us-lgbt-pope-francis-and-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/teachingnonviolentatonement\/2016\/06\/us-versus-us-lgbt-pope-francis-and-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUs Versus Us\u201d \u2013 LGBT, Pope Francis, and Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"us<\/a>\u201cThere is no they,\u201d writes Andrew Marin<\/a> in his new book Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion and the LGBT Community<\/a><\/em>, \u201cIt is, and always has been, us versus us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marin\u2019s book is a timely and exceptionally well researched. His findings show that 86% of the LGBT community grew up in a house of worship, most likely a church.<\/p>\n

86%. It took a while for that number to sink in. That\u2019s why Marin reframes this discussion from \u201cus versus them,\u201d to \u201cus versus us.\u201d In Marin\u2019s own words, the church has been in a \u201ccivil war.\u201d The battle has been fought primarily by religious people against our LGBT sisters and brothers in the faith. Us Versus Us <\/em>is full of stories about LGBT folk who have grown up in a church.<\/p>\n

Some stories are painful to read. One woman \u201ccame to hate her faith because she believed her faith hated her.\u201d Yet there are also a few stories of hope. One teenager came out to her conservative evangelical church. She felt \u201chorrible\u201d leading up to the conversation with her pastor and the church. Unlike many LGBT people, her story had a happy ending. \u201cTo my complete shock, when I came out everyone told me they loved me. The most memorable response actually came from my pastor. He said, \u2018We are going to learn to overcome hate together. We aren\u2019t going to hate each other. Then we\u2019re going to help our congregation learn to not hate either.\u2019<\/em>\u201d (Itals in original.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beautiful but also painful quote. Beautiful because it speaks to that ability to listen and faithful grow together. Painful because of its honest hatred. For too long, the church has taught religious people to hate the LGBT community. To hate the people sitting next to us in the pews. That we have to learn to overcome hate, when Jesus taught us to love all people, points to the sad state of affairs within Christianity. But not just Christianity. Marin\u2019s book shows the same pattern in Judaism, Islam, and other religions. Sadly, religion is often used as a justification to form an oppositional identity, one that is \u201cus against them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Marin is right. It\u2019s time for the church to apologize and seek reconciliation with our brothers and sisters. He claims, \u201cI believe the responsibility toward reconciliation belongs first with the church, which has much to lament.\u201d<\/p>\n

I received Us Versus Us\u00a0<\/em>in the mail on Monday. Coincidentally, as I read Marin\u2019s statement that the church needs to apologize, Pope Francis apologized<\/a> to the LGBT community on behalf of the Catholic Church. After saying the church should apologize, he explained, \u201cWhen I say church I mean Christians. The church is holy but we are sinners. Christians must say sorry for not having accompanied them \u2026 Christian must say sorry and not only for this. They must ask forgiveness, not just say sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many are cynical. After all, while I love his words, Pope Francis doesn\u2019t seem to be willing to make changes to Church doctrine. Fr. James Martin has a helpful analysis<\/a> of this tension. He writes that Pope Francis\u2019s apology is \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d and continues by stating, \u201cNo pope has spoken like this regarding the LGBT community. Just a few years ago saying that the church should apologize to gays and lesbians would have probably gotten a person censured, disciplined or silenced. Why? Because a few years ago any call for an \u2018apology\u2019 would have been seen as a critique of church teaching on homosexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, as Fr. Martin points out, the Church does teach that and LGBT person\u2019s \u201cinclination is objectively disordered.\u201d In a pastoral, but also prophetic voice, Martin states, \u201c\u2026 for most LGBT people [the phrase] is deeply offensive. (Imagine being told that a deep part of you, the part that feels love, is disordered.)\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed. Imagine being told that you are \u201cobjectively disordered.\u201d How would you respond? Imagine.<\/p>\n

Andrew Marin\u2019s book is important because it helps us imagine. It puts the stories and experiences of the LGBT community before us. Pope Francis says that the church needs to apologize because it hasn\u2019t accompanied LGBT people. In fact, it has marginalized them.<\/p>\n

The Good News for us is that more people within the LGBT community and beyond are speaking up. We can no longer have the categories of \u201cus and them.\u201d Indeed, as St. Paul wrote<\/a> 2,000 years, we \u201care all one in Christ Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems as though we are just catching up to Paul\u2019s wisdom. There is no \u201cus and them.\u201d There is only \u201cus\u201d \u2013 one big human family. And so I\u2019m grateful for Us Versus Us<\/em>. It is an eye opening book that will help us accompany one another a little better.<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Images: Book cover of Andrew Marin\u2019s book Us Versus Us<\/a>. Pope Francis at the canonization for John Paul II (By Jeffrey Bruno from New York City, United States \u2013 \u2192This file has been extracted from another file: Canonization 2014- The Canonization of Saint John XXIII and Saint John Paul II (14036966124).jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=32436736<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is no they,\u201d writes Andrew Marin in his new book Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion and the LGBT Community, \u201cIt is, and always has been, us versus us.\u201d Marin\u2019s book is a timely and exceptionally well researched. His findings show that 86% of the LGBT community grew up in a house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1651,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1955,1895,1954,654,1956],"class_list":["post-3708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andrew-marin","tag-apology","tag-lgbt","tag-pope-francis","tag-us-versus-us"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cUs Versus Us\u201d \u2013 LGBT, Pope Francis, and Religion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cThere is no they,\u201d writes Andrew Marin in his new book Us Versus Us: The Untold Story of Religion and the LGBT Community, \u201cIt is, and always has been, us\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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