“Alex (not his real name) is a beautiful young man from Edinburgh, inScotland. When he was about 16 years old he decided he wanted to live in his truth and came out to his parents as gay. Alex’s parents, particularly his father, did not take this disclosure well at all. Alex’s father raged at him, “No son of mine is gonna be a #*#*! Not under my roof! Things deteriorated very quickly and Alex was kicked out of his family home.”

Alex fled to London and ended up sleeping rough and subsequently abused. I met Alex when he was 19 years old.  I was supporting him with housing and access to appropriate health care and therapeutic support.  Alex was now HIV positive as a result of the abuse he suffered. 

I share this story because in many ways Alex changed my life.  Alex’s problems stemmed from harmful and archaic interpretations of biblical texts that bolstered heteronormativity and faith-based bigotry.  I share this story because it illustrates that the rejection of and discrimination against the LGBTQ community is not harm-neutral.  Alex’s story also illustrates the interconnected relationship between faith, sexuality, health, mental health, housing, child protection and safeguarding of vulnerable adults. 

I have learned that affirmation of all people, in this case LGBTQ persons, is at once a gospel imperative, a human rights issue, a safeguarding concern and a matter of human flourishing.  We see this in the ministry of Jesus; every opportunity that Jesus was given to discriminate and exclude was consistently circumvented.  We see this with Jesus’ response to the mentally ill, the physically diseased, people who were non-Jews, women and other outsiders.  Peppered throughout the gospels is Jesus’ loving and inclusive response to minority groups and outsiders.  Such a welcome flew in the face of the Law of Moses and long established traditions of decency.  What Jesus demonstrated through his life and ministry is that the greatest commandment is to love God and one’s neighbour. 

Working through the practical implications of what it means to love the other, I have come to learn that love is ‘other-shaped’:  I cannot love you my way.  If it is genuine love I must love you as you need to be loved; I cannot do what is harmful to you are call it love – I simply cannot hate and negate you ‘for your own good’. 

The ministry of Jesus demonstrates that welcome and inclusion is wholistic: ministry must engage the whole person, their lived experience, the social and physical context.  This is what Jesus’ feedings and healings were about; it is what the parables point to and it is what the earliest Christian communities exemplified.  In Acts 4, we are told,

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.  With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.  Acts 4:32-35 NIV

It is also what engaging with Alex taught me.

Wholistic responses begin with listening.  When serving with marginal communities it is essential to take the stance of a learner.  Often ministers and ministries are accustomed to being the ‘knowers’ and the ‘tellers’.  I get the sense that Jesus was an amazing listener; spending 30 years living and listening, learning about the human experience. 

Wholistic responses require unlearning and relearning.  The Church has thousands of years of unhelpful and damaging theology and tradition to unlearn.  This requires us to look again at Scripture and do the hard work of wrestling with the texts afresh and determining what these Sacred writings mean for us. 

Wholistic responses require leadership from and the engagement of LGBTQ persons as partners and not just ‘objects of concern’.  In Acts 6 when the early Church had a controversy between the majority Hebrew and the minority Hellenised, the Holy Spirit’s response was to select leaders from the oppressed groups and place them in high visibility leadership roles.  This moves us beyond paternalistic, tokenism towards real inclusion.