Friday, July 13, 2007

Straight, Not Narrow: Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Gay Rights

Straight, Not Narrow: Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Gay Rights
"For me, I couldn't ever keep quiet. I came from a situation where for a very long time people were discriminated against, made to suffer for something about which they could do nothing--their ethnicity. We were made to suffer because we were not white. Then, for a very long time in our church, we didn't ordain women, and we were penalizing a huge section of humanity for something about which they could do nothing--their gender. And I'm glad that now the church has changed all that. I'm glad that apartheid has ended. I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human, because of something they could do nothing to change--their sexual orientation. For me, I can't imagine the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecution of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got into trouble precisely because of that. Our church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It is all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching."
Desmond Tutu

4 comments:

  1. Unfortunately the catholic church hasn't changed at all, just the opposite ! the pope goes back to the past ! No marriage for priests, no rights for women to be priest, even the mass should now be helt in latin so that nobody understands anything, this guy is crazy !

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  2. Hey, I'm here...! Clever you, whatever you did worked (and no, you're not a pain in the ass :))

    Now to comment...

    Yes, the Catholic Church is going backwards too. Not that it has ever been a model of innovation anyway.

    Well said, Bishop Tutu! The priorities of today are completely out of whack.

    I'm so glad to be able to access your posts again, Meeyauw. Look forward to the next one!

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  3. Hi it's me I can get in! :o)
    I think these words by Desmond Tutu ring so true. Even outside of the church.... bigotry , loss of rights and freedom of speech and mans in humanity to their fellow man sadly seem to prevail.

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  4. thanks so much for posting this quote! i just may have to post it myself!

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