Out of the wilderness we cry, O Lord. God hear our prayer. And how, how shall I sing, sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
My dear brothers and sisters, I rise before you this morning to witness to the redeeming power of Jesus Christ, and to tell the good news that God's spirit is even now at work, reconciling and healing all those whom the Spirit touches. I know that the God who has brought us thus far on our journey will not forsake us until we are perfected in grace.
My sisters and brothers, I rise before you this morning as a proud African-American, as a gay man, as a Christian, a United Methodist, and a child of God, seeking God's will for my life, the life of the church, and the life of the world. I have been asked to provide a witness this morning to the terrible scourge of discrimination faced by gays and lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons all over the world.
Although I am not yet 40 years old, I have enough discrimination and hatred as an African-American man and as an openly gay man, to turn the heart to stone.
While attending seminary in Atlanta in the 1980s, I witnessed the torching of a newly-build Metropolitan Community Church simply because it was a place that welcomed gay and lesbian Christians. I waited for the outcry from the religious community that I naively thought must inevitable come when a house of God is desecrated. The silence was deafening. Lord, have mercy on us!
While working at the General Board of Discipleship in Nashville, Tennessee, I met a gay man in church who had suffered irreparable brain damage after having been savagely beaten by a group of angry young teenagers who came upon him and his lover sitting in their car together. His lover was beaten to death. Lord, have mercy upon us!
And in my own life, I have known the fear of losing my job and livelihood. I have felt the discrimination that comes from being born both African-American and gay. I have started over far too many times and searched far too often in vain for job openings where living proudly and openly, as God created all of us to be, was not a liability, but an asset. I have felt the alienation that must always go hand in hand with discrimination. I know the rejection of being the unwelcome guest, even in God's house, even in this church.
In this very state in which we hold this great conference, a law has been passed which would deny me my civil rights, and not allow me to seek the legal remedies should I lose my job or home simply because I am a gay man. Now those who support this measure argue that they are only protecting all of us against the special rights of a small minority. In response to that, I hear the melodic voice of Coretta Scott King at a recent conference in Atlanta that I attended. Quoting her husband Martin, "We must come to see," she said, "that we are bound in an inescapable web of mutuality, and an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere."
(Applause here)
As United Methodists and the spiritual children of John Wesley, we come from a long tradition that has proudly stood and defended the human and civil rights of all people.
Discrimination and intolerance, no matter how they clothe themselves, and no matter where they occur, are great evils; no matter where they occur all around the world, are great evils. They are not made more holy because some of those who support the repeal of the rights of lesbians and gays have communion with us in God's Church. They are not made more holy. As Christians, we dare not rest with simply supporting the civil rights of gay and lesbian people and all people. To paraphrase Jesus, "Even those who are without the fellowship of God, do this."
Jesus calls us to do more. Jesus calls us to embrace the exile and lift up the downtrodden, and surely, surely, that must include gay and lesbian people.
Let us pray today, my brothers and sisters, for a new understanding of the heart, that will, in the twinkling of an eye, give us an understanding of the sanctity of the human and civil rights of all God's children.
Let us pray that the time will come now, and come quickly, when we will no longer need civil rights laws to protect the least of these, because God's law will be written every human heart.
Let us pray that God's reconciling love will fall on us even now, even here, in this General Conference, and that we will in tearful forgiveness, embrace and comfort each other for past wrongs and as God's free children, reconcile.
And finally, my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters I say, lift up your hearts, for God has not forsaken us, and our liberation must come as surely as morning follows the long night and as spring follows the bitter winter. I say, lift up your hearts, for our salvation is at hand. Now, now is the moment to heal our Church. Now is the moment to cast down the walls that divide us and be made one. Now is God's moment. Now. Now. Amen.
I pray that this is a faithful witness.