It's a good day for tolerance.
President Obama just signed into law a bill repealing the 17-year-old policy of official secrecy and denial in our Armed Services. On the Barack Obama page on Facebook, the following was posted:
We are not a nation that says, "Don’t ask, don’t tell." We are a nation that says, "Out of many, we are one." We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot. We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals that we upheld today.
But while this is a victory for our nation's military and an end to a foolish system of ignoring and denying the real contributions of the LGBT community to our national defense, there is still work to be done.
Exhibit A: The termination of soccer coach Lisa Howe from Belmont University.
Coach Howe, a likeable and moderately successful womens soccer coach, left Belmont on shaky and shady terms around Thanksgiving, spurring controversy at the Christian university about the school's longstanding approach toward the LGBT community. While LGBT members were ostensibly "welcome" as students and even staff, the fact was and is that at Belmont, any form of extramarital sexual activity is considered a sin and therefore against the standards of conduct at the school.
But while the reality is that only a tiny minority of American Christians are innocent of sexual sin (and some would argue that no one is without sin, if you follow the Jesus definition that to "look at a woman lustfully" is already a form of emotional adultery), the school continues to pretend that Howe's case is unique - that her relationship with a gay partner is so extraordinarily unacceptable that she deserves to be shunned from her role as a mentor and coach.
But here's the truly scary thing. It wasn't until Howe announced that she and her partner were expecting a child that Howe was told she had violated school policy. While the details are still shady, reports are that Howe was told that she must either keep her relationship with her partner a secret, or she would be fired.
Here are the original statements from the University, suggesting that Howe had tendered her resignation:
Womens soccer coach Lisa Howe has informed the university of her intent to conclude her employment with Belmont. This was a decision Coach Howe made, Belmont athetics director Mike Strickland said in the statement. Belmont is so grateful for the work Coach Howe has done and her commitment to womens soccer and Belmont Athletics.
The e-mail also included a statement from Howe: I appreciate Belmont University giving me the opportunity to lead the womens soccer program for the last six seasons I want to thank all the student-athletes who worked so hard for and dedicated themselves to me and the program. I am at a point in my life where I am satisfied to move on, and I wish the Belmont womens soccer team continued success.
Belmont was hoping that this announcement would tamp down criticism.
Yeah right. Sort of like Joseph was hoping that, after finding out his virgin wife Mary was pregnant, he would just "divorce her quietly."
Instead, the controversy erupted onto the pages of Nashville's alt-weekly, the Scene, then into the blogosphere, then onto the front cover of the Tennessean. To add fuel to the fire, Belmont board chair Marty Dickens made the following statement to Nashville's largest newspaper:
We do adhere to our values as Christ-centered, and we don't want to make apologies for that.
How is it "Christ-centered" to tell a gay woman and her partner that, just because they are having a baby that means she needs to leave the school?
Is that how Jesus Christ would do things?
Dickens was trying to argue that sex outside of marriage is unacceptable in a Christian community. And perhaps that is a right stand. But what about a couple who live in a state that refuses to allow them to marry? What about a couple who are monogamous, committed, and loving? Is that so reprehensible that it violates Belmont University's standards?
The only thing Lisa Howe did differently is acknowledge publicly that she is a lesbian. That is to say, she admitted that the woman she lives with is more than a roommate, and that the child they are bringing into the world together is "hers" because she's in a committed relationship.
Lisa Howe got fired for telling the truth about herself.
Is that Christian?
Because the Bible I read says things like this:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
That is from I John. Then there's Romans 2:1...
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
And the words of Jesus Christ himself in the Gospel of Matthew:
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
You see, it is not a question of being a follower of Christ. It is a question of what Christ-followers ought to do in response to someone who is different - someone who is a victim of discrimination, or who doesn't fit into the society at large.
I was raised to believe that homosexuality was a sin like stealing. Then, I began to think it was more of a mental illness like alcoholism. But today, after a lot of investigation and soul-searching, I'm pretty well convinced that being gay is like being left-handed (i.e., sinister - look it up!). You might get demonized, but in reality, you're born that way and there is nothing wrong with you.
A church without sinners is a church that is either full of hypocrites or a church with no members. No one is perfect and no one is beyond the grace of God, not even convicted-murderer-turned-Nashville-pastor Maury Davis.
Belmont students and faculty seem to realize that. A significant group of students protested Coach Howe's termination, holding signs that said things like, "Equality is a right not a privilege" and "Discrimination is not love." Other signs said, "Jesus had two dads and he turned out just fine," and, "Jesus loves Coach Howe". The faculty joined in a call for an official school policy that protects students, staff, and faculty from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
As we head into Christmas, the so-called Christians in the Republican Party have supported legislation that gives enormous tax cuts to millionaires while denying unemployment benefits to the jobless. They've said that children of undocumented immigrants don't have a right to serve our nation or gain citizenship rights. They've said that it's best to uphold an official policy of discrimination and denial in our military, while pretending that the military is sexually pure just because gays serve in secret. And now, it appears that a number of Republicans will vote against a peace treaty with our old Cold War communist adversary.
It's telling, isn't it?