They Said I'm Sorry

I'm Sorry. Probably the toughest short sentence to say for most of us. We don't apologize well, to those we live with and love, much less to total strangers. Yet, back in June, apologize is exactly what a group of Christians did. Every June, Gay Pride Day is an event that occurs in most cities, celebrating people's pride in their various sexual orientations with parades, rallies and other such events. Flamboyant costumes, streakers, music, dancing, floats--and pretty much anything under the sun is fair game to show up at a Pride event. Also always present are Christians. Generally with angry protesting signs in hand. Messages such as "God hates people like you!" "You're going to hell!" "Homosexuality is a sin!" are always found lining the streets of Pride parades. And of course, this is what makes the nightly news. This is the image of Christians so many non-Christians (especially people who are part of the GLBT community) have when they think about people who claim to follow Jesus. No wonder they don't want to have anything to do with us. I wouldn't either. I've had conversations with people who are gay about this very issue. "Sarah, if that's really what God thinks of me, why should I want to have anything to do with Him? If that's really how his followers are going to treat me, why would I want to join them or get to know them?" Countless men and women have turned away from their Savior because the Church as a whole can't seem to figure out how to see past a person's outward behavior. (Yet, we turn a blind eye when someone in our congregation buys their third Lexus but there are people in our community who are still hungry. But that is a whole different post...)

A group of Christians who are taking seriously the idea that Jesus calls us to go out and love others had an idea. At this past year's Pride Parade in Chicago, a group of about 30 young adults from various Chicago churches showed up in matching t-shirts with signs of their own. Their t-shirts were black, and simply read "I'm Sorry." Their signs were a bit different than other "Christian" signs found at the parade that day. Their signs read: "I'm sorry for how the church has hurt you." "I am sorry Christians have judged you." "I used to be a bible-thumping homophobe, I'm sorry." The impact was enormous. These 30 people became the talk of the event. People in the parade waved, yelled "thank you!", blew kisses, ran over to hug them and even led to some follow up conversations between people in the parade and those wearing the t-shirts.

Every time I see Christians on the news picketing something, holding up rude signs, or even resorting to violence and hate crimes in "Jesus' name," I want to run the other way. I don't want the word "Christian" anywhere near me. These folks give me hope. These are the kind of Christians I want to hang out with--people who take seriously the call to love first. I am not saying I'm in favor of homosexual behavior, because I'm not. I believe strongly that God created us male and female for a reason. But I also believe strongly that every single one of us is a sinner, redeemed and saved only by the grace of God, not because of any works we could do. So to be on the side of casting stones isn't our "right" or our place. We've all got stuff in our lives that doesn't line up so well with how God asks us to live, and until we figure out how to follow him perfectly, maybe we should practice our apologizing instead of our condemning.

To read more about this event, click here.