The man drowned and the teenagers now stand trial on charges of murder. Even if you believe homosexuality to be a sin, I hope that you would counsel against murder or violence as an appropriate response to that sinfulness. Despite our differences, I do not believe that either of us believes that God has an investment in the murder and maiming of homosexual people. Sincerely yours, Here we are all these years later fighting some of the same battles and being hurt again and again by the hatred that has infected our society and even our churches. Beyond the anger and the hatred, beyond the continuing fight for justice and compassion, beyond the frustration and the disappointment, even beyond the very real damage done to the victims of homophobia, we are called to love our enemies which doesn't mean to agree with them and doesn't mean to lie down so that they can run over us.
Love is a tough and mighty force.
It means engaging. It means standing up and it means holding on, but it also means embracing in prayer the ones who hate and disagree with us. It means finding ways to walk through the midst of anger and violence and hatred and going into the future with the message of love, healing and acceptance. If we are to be true to our Christian identities we must find ways to transcend hate with love even with our enemies and maybe especially with our enemies. That is the toughness and the strength of Jesus Christ.