Last week, Washington Adventist University hosted a week-long spiritual revival entitled It’s (not) Complicated. According to the poster taped all over restroom stalls and bulletin boards across campus, the main objective of the revival was to discuss the Christian perspective on dating, relationships, spiritual living, sex, and homosexuality. Due to obligations I have in the university’s choir, I was only able to attend Wednesday and Thursday evening. When I attended on Wednesday, the pastor talked about the myth of finding “the one,” and how we needed to prioritize improving ourselves as human beings over searching for the perfect person. Generally I agreed with what he had to say about maintaining positive and healthy relationships. It was a solid sermon, and I left feeling encouraged.
Thursday evening I heard that the pastor would be talking about homosexuality, the word being spread around like it was a disease. Part of me didn’t want to go because I saw no point in purposely raising my blood pressure, but my curiosity got the better of me. I have personally heard only one or two sermons that vaguely revolved around the concept of homosexuality. During high school I sat through several lectures in Bible classes that made me particularly uncomfortable. Thankfully, I grew up being a part of fairly liberal church families and inclusive youth groups, so I haven’t had to experience as much conflict as many other queer people of faith face. I thought that I should at least see what pastors were saying about people like me these days, hoping I would be pleasantly surprised. Sadly, I wasn’t. Read more...