When I was a campus minister at SDSU, one of the students who was a member of our campus ministry community, who lived and worked in our facility, was same-sex oriented. She was up front about her orientation, even though in the 1980s this was not an easy thing to do. Most gay and lesbian young people were still in the closet. Our ministry offered and provided them a safe meeting place where they could share their challenges, often religious, parental, or both, in nature.

Even offering space for what we then called “The Gay Dialogue Group,” had its difficulties. In our second year of offering this weekly service to those who chose to participate, we learned the dialogue group made the annual meeting of one of the supporting churches of our ministry. Someone stood up in front of several hundred participants to claim “good church going kids” couldn’t attend our ministry, because of all the gay students there. That was certainly a surprise to us, and all the “good church going kids” who were part of our community. But the hate and misinformation had an impact, as funding that was once secure began to diminish.

And the young lesbian woman who answered the phone after hours, kept our facility floors swept and clean, and baked bread and made soup for everyone for our Sunday evening meals? She was a person with a strong Christian faith, daughter of missionary parents. They spent years in other countries spreading the “good news” of the Gospel. But when their daughter “came out” to them, they didn’t take it as good news. They disowned her. They restricted any communication with her younger sister. That was almost 40 years ago. To my knowledge, the relationships remain broken.

Convictions, rooted in religious beliefs as distinct from religious duties (like love) are problematic. They betray the essence of the Gospels and make a bed for rejection and hate.

The response of Lee Aldrich’s father to the Q club shooting in Colorado by his son, is indicative of the distance we still have to travel in understanding and accepting human sexual orientation. Lee’s father initially seemed more concerned that his son might be gay going to this night club, then that he shot and killed people. He also spoke in an interview how he doesn’t “do gay,” as a Mormon, and then made some unintelligible reference to the Bible.

On the issue of sexual orientation, the Bible can be a problem, particularly for those who don’t read or study it. One of the best scholarly and readable resources is, “What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality” by Daniel A. Helminiak, a Catholic priest. The book examines all the references in Scripture with care and scholarship. I’ll just mention two of the stories from the Bible that are given new insight, when investigated fully.

The first is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is usually read as a condemnation of homosexuality. When one does some serious study, especially as you examine references to the story in other books of the Bible, you begin to understand the sin involved is the sin of inhospitality; not welcoming the stranger; which could be a matter of life and death for travelers in those days. Besides, the story doesn’t describe homosexuality but rather male rape. It’s the violence that happens in prisons, to exercise power over others.

A second story is found in 1 Samuel in the relationship between Jonathan and David. The Biblical material suggests something more than a platonic relationship. Check it out!

The science of sexual orientation is still developing. The usual figure cited for genetic causes for gay and lesbian orientation is 25% to 35%. The rest is attributed to environmental influences. Whatever the origin, it would help if our culture could be more accepting of difference. Whether of race, religion, or sexual orientation, we have a long way to go toward accepting people for who they are, rather than who we want them to be.

We might do well to look to our indigenous forebears on this continent and recognize there are Two-Spirit persons, who accommodate both masculine and feminine energies. In Native American communities, they could have special status as healers, artisans, shamans or chiefs. They are generally strong in spirit!

Even science tells us we all contain some male and female chromosomes. We could be one of six different arrangements that help define our orientation. “Intersex” is a word becoming more familiar in describing the reality for some.

The Q Club shooting in Colorado occurred on a day of remembrance for transgendered persons who had been killed. It will likely be prosecuted as a hate crime. There is no justification in the Bible or the Christian religion for crucifying a certain group of people, although the examples of doing so are as old as the hills.

Those of us in this community are fortunate as, “Diversity Is What Makes Brookings Special!”