God is in The Rain: Gay Youth Arrested Trying to Worship

[Update from Azariah Southworth on the road with Soulforce's Equality Ride] Today we visited Palm Beach Atlantic University. We arrived on campus around 10:00 am to stand vigil. We were met with parents of PBA students and a few current PBA students for brief dialogue. At 11:00 am we attempted to join students for worship on campus.

As we walked to the chapel for service, as invited guest by a few students, we were denied entry by campus security and the city police. At that moment six Equality Riders continued to join students for worship. They were immediately arrested. I have been raised in church my whole life and never in my life would I have thought I would be denied access to a worship service. As six of our fellow Riders were arrested we began to sing, “Just As I Am.” While singing this I realized that I was not being allowed to come “just as I am.” Matter of fact, when we get to the bottom line of it all, I was being denied to join their chapel service because I am gay. It not only hurt me but also confused me because Jesus told us to come as we are. However, PBA told us today we could not come as we are.

After our fellow Riders were arrested, Phil who teaches Psychology for PBA offered me a bottle of water. I declined to take the water by saying, “You are denying to quench my spiritual thirst, why would you be willing to quench my physical thirst?” He responded by saying “That was mean.” However, it was not mean by any matter. It was truth and in that moment I was speaking truth to power and it wasn’t comfortable for him. Phil and I spoke for a few hours and got to know each other. While we were talking it began to rain hard. He stayed for a little while but not long enough to get soaked. We stood through the hours of  pouring rain and became drenched from head to toe. In the matter of 24 hours our bus was vandalized at our hotel, students of PBA shouted hateful comments to us during the arrest, the Christians of PBA denied us shelter from the pouring rain, and we were denied to worship with them.

It is in moments like this I am happy that I understand my faith is not in the church, its members, or “Christianity,” but my faith lies in Jesus Christ alone. If I did not understand that, the treatment we received today would cause me to never have anything to do with Christianity or anything that may resemble it to any degree.

My question to PBA is where is the love of Christ in your actions today? Jesus told us to visit those who are in prison, would you visit our fellow Riders you imprisoned today? Jesus told us to help the needy, I was outside your church doors today but you denied the chance to minister to me. Jesus told us to clothe the naked, I was soaked wet and shivering cold outside your doors today and you stayed inside to remain dry and warm. I challenge you to abandon your obligations and regulations for one moment to fulfill the true calling Christ commands us to fulfill and that is love.

Comments

[pennyjane]

-amen-

[ned]

My God, what a sad story. I am inspired by your courage and strength. And your remark to Phil was right on the mark.

I wonder though: is there any use in having dialogues with religious fundamentalists? Personally I have all but given up on them, and just focus on my own spiritual practice and on serving within my own community.

"There are two for whom there is hope, the man who has felt God’s touch & been drawn to it and the sceptical seeker & self-convinced atheist; but for the formularists of all the religions & the parrots of free thought, they are dead souls who follow a death that they call living."
-- Sri Aurobindo

[pennyjane]

oh come on ned! such cynicism. God's awful big, He can come and get anybody. even those who are already convinced they have Him read can be astonished!

i think you said the magic word though, service...serve where you can, use the gifts you're given and pray for all. God bless with much love and hope, pj

[Riverwolf]

Preach it! Keep speaking that truth!

[Tiff]

This is the college I had my heart set on going to. Thanks God that He had different plans for me. Keep up the good work.

[Sam]

1 Corinthians 5: "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality amongyou and such immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles... and you are puffed up and have not rther mourned that he who has done this deed MIGHT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM AMONG YOU. For I indeed as absent in body and present in spirit have already JUDGED as though I were present concerning him who has so done this deed....when you are gathered together along with my spirit..deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your glorying is not good. DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT A LITTLE LEAVEN LEAVENS THE WHOLE LUMP? THEREFORE PURGE OUT THE OLD LEAVEN THAT YOU MAY BE A NEW LUMP. I wrote to you ...NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH SEXUALLY IMMORAL PEOPLE... I have written to you NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH ANYONE NAMED A BROTHER WHO IS A FORNICATOR...NOT EVEN TO EAT WITH SUCH A PERSON...DO YOU NOT JUDGE THOSE WHO ARE INSIDE? THEREFORE PUT AWAY FROM YOURSELVES THAT WICKED PERSON.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Do you not know that the UNRIGHTEOUS will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters nor adulterers nor HOMOSEXUALS (CATAMITES) NOR SODOMITES... will inherit the kingdom of God. And such (homosexuals etc) were some of you. But you were washed..sanctified..justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

[Sam]

"While singing this I realized that I was not being allowed to come “just as I am.” Matter of fact, when we get to the bottom line of it all, I was being denied to join their chapel service because I am gay. It not only hurt me but also confused me because Jesus told us to come as we are. However, PBA told us today we could not come as we are."
1 Corinthians 6-11:- And such were some of you (as they were) but you were WASHED..SANCTIFIED..JUSTIFIED.
1 cORINTHIANS 13-20: Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord...do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? CERTAINLY NOT... HE WHO COMMITS SEXUAL IMMORALITY SINS AGAINST HIS OWN BODY. your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit...glorify God in your body.

[ned]

Sam, this may be news to you, but there are nonliteral, intelligent and contextual interpretations of the Bible. I personally think the references to homosexuality in the Bible refer to PEDERASTY, i.e. sex between older men and young boys, and not homosexuality as we know it today. Read Michel Foucault's book "The History of Sexuality" to see that homosexuality in antiquity looked nothing like today's LGBT struggle. By and large, male homosexuality in antiquity amounted to what we would today call rape.

Also -- and this may also be news to you -- everyone in the world is NOT a Christian, or is spiritual, but not in a religious framework.

Finally, as regards this statement:

"your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit...glorify God in your body"

I completely agree -- as a Vedantic-Tantric mystic, my aim has been to alchemically transmute sexuality into union with the Divine. This is a difficult process of inner purification, and frankly, moralism like what you've demonstrated above only gets in the way of it. For this reason some Tantrics used to try to "shock" themselves out of morality because the attachment to social and mental rules actually stunts the purification and sanctification of the body.

[Clayton]

Ned - you rock. :)

[Sam]

Ned,
Nothing of what you have said is 'news' to me. Lucifer has been around for a long long time.
"there are nonliteral, intelligent and contextual interpretations of the Bible" All such interpretations are invalid and useless if they add to the Bible or delete from it or seek to subject it to man made doctrines.
"I personally think the references to homosexuality in the Bible refer to PEDERASTY, i.e. sex between older men and young boys, and not homosexuality as we know it today. Read Michel Foucault's book "The History of Sexuality" to see that homosexuality in antiquity looked nothing like today's LGBT struggle. By and large, male homosexuality in antiquity amounted to what we would today call rape."
The term 'catamites' refers to younger partners of older homosexuals while the term 'sodomites' refers to all those indulging in anal intercourse. Take a look at this:- Romans 1:24-32: - Therefore God also gave them up to UNCLEANNESS in the lusts of their hearts to DISHONOUR THEIR BODIES AMONG THEMSELVES....God gave them up to VILE PASSIONS for even their women exchanged the NATURAL use for what is AGAINST NATURE, likewise also the men leaving the NATURAL USE OF THE WOMAN, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is SHAMEFUL and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due....God gave them over to a DEBASED MIND TO DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT FITTING, who knowing the righteous judgement of God, that THOSE WHO PRACTICE SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, not only DO THE SAME but also APPROVE OF THOSE WHO PRACTICE THEM.
Does even a single sentence look anything like rape or sex between men of different ages? Your personal thought is more in the nature of a fervent hope and is totally at variance with the Bible.
"my aim has been to alchemically transmute sexuality into union with the Divine. This is a difficult process of inner purification, and frankly, moralism like what you've demonstrated above only gets in the way of it"
Christians don't have to go through such convoluted processes to know God. The God of the Bible demands sexual purity. What I've written above is not my idea of morality but is only a reproduction of the Bible. Christians know that they cannot purify themselves and hence confess their sins to Lord Jesus and ask him to purify them.
This may be news to you. Tantriks are practitioners of sorcery and witchcraft. They gather at night on particular days of the year and conduct secret rituals. The biggest news of all for you. In India, tantriks are responsible for the cruel and bloody murders of thousands of young boys. Whenever a building or railway track or bridge is to be constructed, tantriks are consulted and at their behest, the throat of a young boy is slit and his blood spilled on the foundation of the proposed structure.
"For this reason some Tantrics used to try to "shock" themselves out of morality because the attachment to social and mental rules actually stunts the purification and sanctification of the body."
The body is kept pure and sanctified by keeping it free from sexual immorality and depravity. Filthy acts debase the body and don't purify it. Some sort of 'shock' treatment is necessary to induce people to commit unnatural acts. Heavy doses of alcohol, drugs and altered states of consciousness, brought about by meditation, are some of the devices used by gurus and tantriks to push their disciples into group sex. The pure teachings of our Lord will always be a stumbling block and hindrance to the followers of the "prince of darkness'.

[Sam]

"JESUS YOU ROCK ALWAYS."