LGBT, Forgiveness, and the Church: A Real-Life Redemption Parable

The other night in class, a student shared a testimony of sorts that touched me greatly.

When he came out as a young man (19), his mother disowned him. She no longer wanted him to go to her church because she was ashamed. The church didn’t go out of their way to embrace him, either. That painful rejection of his humanity, his identity, by the very one who was supposed to love and care for him above all else in the world, set him on a difficult and sometimes painful trajectory. Many decades later, his mother asked for his forgiveness. How could a mother reject her own son? She came to understand–even though so late in life–the pain she had caused him and the hole in their own relationship.

Forgiveness.

Now, he cares tenderly for her in her waning years, as she struggles in the throes of cancer. And he takes her to church regularly–the very church whose doors had closed to him way back then, in what should have been precious years of growing in faith. Now, however, for the first time in a long time, he happily calls himself a Christian, having come back into faith, after many years of (understandably) leaving it behind. Or of the church leaving him behind.

That, my friends, is a redemption story. A parable of the redemption that is possible by grace.

The gospels love redemption stories. They are filled with them. And the gospel is about redemption. Reconciliation, healing, wholeness, life. Peace and peace-making. Welcoming the “little ones” (vulnerable outsiders) and embracing the “sinners” (outcasts).

How much better might we all be toward each other, if we could all latch on to the pull of redemption and to the power of forgiveness? Could that be the future of the church?

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/53372476@N04/5718319967″>Vetrata</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a>