Are we all equal before the cross

Thou shall not judge. Not only a verse but also a saying, you have either heard or said. How ironic though that it is the church and religious leaders who preach God alone can judge, then do exactly what you and I are warned about.

Last week the Anglican Church rejected a proposal to bless couples in same-sex relationships.

The DRC/NGK last month decided to recall a synod decision that was put on hold after appeals were received. This comes after members of the church threatened with a court case, as the church acted outside of their own rules regarding the appeal. It has almost been a month now and still no implementation took place.

This week all eyes will be on the Uniting Reformed Church, who will again consider a report from a task team. The church had three task teams and been doing studies for 12 years. The church composed a comprehensive report, under the leadership of prof. Allan Boesak and this was accepted in 2005 as guideline. The very same Boesak in 2008 resigned from all positions in the church because of the discriminating attitude towards gays and lesbians, from the church that is meant to be a safe haven.

How ironic is it not that the decision by the church comes days after the controversial American pastor Steven Anderson was banned from entering our country and promote his hate speech. Anderson amongst other things said after the Orlando nightclub shooting “it is good, there are 49 lesser gays” and that “gays should all be killed”.

In the week of the Steven Anderson events the church and the voice of the men and women who are meant to spread the love of God, was silent.

Apart from the conservative view the church will always hold, you cannot help to ask yourself why it takes the church – who preach love – to show love. The answer is that the church must act church orderly, within ecumenical rules.

When it comes to the gay topic though, the church contradicts herself on many points.

That is the first mistake the church does, to discriminate by excluding lesbians, bisexuals and transgender-persons.

The church might have legitimate reasons why they dragging the issue. But in the church that preach everyone is equal in the eyes of God, terms like “they” and “us” are used.

How are we then all equal before the cross?

Long gone are the days that Bible verses were used when referring to “them” and those. Those who still make use of Bible verse have probably not recently read the bible.

It is this year [2016] a decade that South Africa became the fifth country in the world and first in the Southern hemisphere to recognise same-sex relationships. This in itself is a huge achievement for the LGBT-community when acting president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka signed the Civil Union bill into law on 29 November 2006.

While we have the law, there is not a lot of support from the one safe haven in our country – the church.

Many will say sexual orientation is a choice. Unless I bumped my head as a baby I cannot imagine how any person would decide to be exposed to criticism, humiliation, ridicule and discrimination.

A few months ago a reverends was extremely critical towards gays on Facebook. I asked him if he ever made time to talk to a gay person and ask how that person feels and if he would decide to be humiliated every day. I then asked that he first look at home before he criticises others.
What I did not do is out his son.

Before more studies are done, like LGBT-members are some kind of experiment, our religious leaders should learn from this: time has come to drop your title and have a conversation with their brothers and sisters.

• Afrikaans version appeared in Paarl Post of Thursday 6 October 2016