Certainly there's some difference, and it's different again in New Zealand, but none of us have any laurels to rest on. It was a UK magazine that we wanted to use to teach our youth group until I noticed its homophobic messages and had to talk to my minister about how if I was going to use that magazine I'd be challenging those messages so hard. And the broader church I belong to in NZ (though thankfully not my own congregation) still refuses to ordain ministers in a gay relationship.
The message I get out of the article is that as long as the church says homosexuality is a sin, and refuses to ordain gay ministers - even if it speaks against physical violence - it's still sending a strong message that there's a group of people that aren't as good or deserving as other groups. And ultimately such a message is supportive of the attitudes that let people think they can get away with violence. (And which let people actually get away with violence, too.) If we actually want to end the violence, we need to do a heck of a lot more speaking out - not just about the violence, but about the attitudes that support the violence.
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Date: 2010-10-14 11:51 pm (UTC)The message I get out of the article is that as long as the church says homosexuality is a sin, and refuses to ordain gay ministers - even if it speaks against physical violence - it's still sending a strong message that there's a group of people that aren't as good or deserving as other groups. And ultimately such a message is supportive of the attitudes that let people think they can get away with violence. (And which let people actually get away with violence, too.) If we actually want to end the violence, we need to do a heck of a lot more speaking out - not just about the violence, but about the attitudes that support the violence.