Both the Senate and the Legislature in the Commonwealth of PA have recently passed bills to establish an amendment to the state’s constitution that prohibits marriage between two people of the same sex. Fortunately, the two bills differ and therefore, unless they come to an agreement, the amendment cannot be put to the voters for their consideration. What is behind the efforts to restrict the constitutional rights of our neighbors? Why have we become so hateful in recent years? Why does the church refuse to condemn this egregious act? As a matter of fact, why do so many in the church support this type of legislation?

Yes, homosexuals are our neighbors. Some of Jesus' detracters asked him, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus responded with the parable of The Good Samaritan. In order to preserve their ritual purity, the "good" people refused to help the impure person who had been beaten by robbers and was lying in the ditch. Instead they walked on the other side of the road to avoid him. However, one of their hated Samaritans stopped by and gave the man assistance. Then Jesus asked the question, "Which of these was a neighbor to the man in the ditch?" The answer to that rhetorical question is obvious.

One of the things that keeps haunting me is the attitude that exists within our churches toward homosexuals. Like the good people in the parable, the church, in its attempt to maintain purity, condemns the homosexual and tries to cut him or her off from the Body of Christ.

We all have a tendency to dislike people who don’t fit into our notion of what a neighbor should be. Whether they are people of a different religion, a different race, a different life-style, or a different sexual preference, we often try to avoid them. They become the butt of our jokes, and at our worst we do violence to them. Even if we do nothing to harm them, our very withdrawal from them can cause others to escalate our dislike into hatred. Too often we have seen the results of homophobic hatred that escalated into violence.

Jesus made it very clear in his parable of the Good Samaritan just who qualifies as a neighbor, and how we are to treat that neighbor. Jesus gave up his ritual purity many times to help those in need. He ate with tax collectors, prostitutes and the impure, the hated ones of his generation. He touched them all. Therefore, I must do the same. It may not be easy, but I cannot allow the traditional ways in which the church has treated homosexuals to guide my feelings toward them. I need to get beyond that.

The church also needs to get beyond that. How can the body of Christ continue to flourish when part of it is cut off because it does not live up to our vision of who should make up that body? Whether straight or gay, we are all children of God, and each of us deserves to be treated as a child of God.