Love Your Neighbor

Letter to the editor:
I liked the column that Art Hall wrote about being a follower of Christ, saying that Pastor Ted slapped people in the face. While I didn’t perceive Pastor Ted that way, today is a day for speaking my faith, hence the letter to the Herald.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
In a local daily newspaper on Sept. 10, the writer Leonard Pitts Jr. discussed Christians and homo¬phobia. I accept his challenge and am willing to speak up.
In 1 Corinthians 13:6 the apostle Paul writes about love. The Living Bible translation goes as follows: “[Love] is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.”
So what is the truth of homosexuality? I have known some employed, law-abiding homosexuals. I also know, at least, three people in my church who have strong opinions that homosexuality is wrong.
One shining movie about Mathew Sheppard, the man who was murdered in gay-bashing fashion was brightened for me by the actor Sam Waterston, of Law and Order fame.
Sam Waterston played the father of Mathew Sheppard. I am glad he was so sympathetic. Would you want your neighbor to be murdered or assaulted because of a consenting sexual activity? You think maybe not, if you call yourself Christians.
So what about following Jesus rather than the homophobic fear of people who are in a minority? Isolation can never be good for relationships between people, like being in a “closet.” Jesus reached out to the poor, the rejected, even the thief on the cross was accepted at the end of his life.
Leonard Pitts Jr. writes that some “Christians are tired of seeing their faith used as a club to batter gay and lesbian people.” I, too, challenge people of faith to love your neighbor as yourself.