Daily Office Reflection: Toleration

Psalms 40, 54 * 51; Isaiah 10:5-19; 2Peter 2:17-22; Matthew 11:2-15

I do not want to be "tolerated" because I have "chosen" to live a "lifestyle". Those words make my skin crawl and my stomach churn. Honestly they make me white-hot angry. For I have not "chosen" to live a "lifestyle". I was, quite simply, born gay. I was, quite simply, made this way by God. For anyone to simply "tolerate" another individual for being how they were created by God is sin: sin of the deepest kind. For if you simply "tolerate" a person, that means, deep down, you do not want to accept, know or love that individual. There is no greater sin.

There is a lot of chatter on television about the "gay community" being pissed off at the President-elect for his choice to lead the invocation at his inauguration. Some of these talking heads are saying it is hypocritical of the gay community to ask for "tolerance" and then turn around and try to exclude this individual. First, I, as a member of the gay community, am not asking anyone to "tolerate" me or anyone who is gay, lesbian or transgender. I am demanding equality, nothing more, nothing less.

These same talking heads applaud the President-elect's decision on grounds of diversity. The President-elect himself used that word to describe this political choice. Well, where are the anti-semites then? Where are the misogynists then? Where are the ku klux klan? Hate is hate. Anyone who preaches hatred, and for all his smarminess that is what this wealthy orator is preaching against gays and lesbians, should not be granted this kind of honor and international stage to further spread purposeful lies and deceit.

John the Baptist did not put up with this kind of hypocrisy. Neither did Jesus. Jesus says to the people today those in soft robes are not what the people came to see when they went looking for John the Baptist, when they have come looking for Jesus. This misguided, smooth-talking millionaire, in his mega-temple, is exactly the kind of individual Jesus warns us against.

Toleration be damned. I won't accept it.

jfd+

Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.