The other day, while waiting for the bus, I was audience to a man with a bullhorn standing next to the bus stop shelter, expounding upon all of the things we "sinners" do wrong, and exhorting us to come back to Christ.
During part of the diatribe, he mentioned the seventh commandment, "thou shalt not commit adultery", and expanded it to include any type of "fornication", or sex outside of marriage. As I got onto the bus he was proceeding to lump homosexuality in with fornication as covered under the 7th commandment, and I thought, "wait a minute...the only reason homosexuals have to have sex outside of marriage is because the church doesn't allow them to marry."
Which pushed me forward into thinking...what is is about "The Church" (in my case meaning specifically the Church of Christ, Temple Lot, but most of this can be applied to any Christian sect) that puts me so on edge?
The major problem for me is one of discrimination. The Church is sexist, homophobic, and in many cases racist, as well. As long as the Church excludes people from communion (and by communion, I mean the ability to partake in all walks of Church life, including being promoted to clergy) based on sex, race, sexual preference, or any other factors that I might be missing...as long as they do, it will seem to be that there is something fundamentally flawed that would make me a hypocrite to participate.
