Homosexuality and the Scriptures
Arlene Robbins

But having heard from so many people, I decided perhaps it was time to share a little of what really has made the difference in my own understanding of the scriptures and of God.

I’ve made the rounds.

I tried to be a good Jew, but could never get a rabbi to answer my questions because I was a girl (you church-grown women can probably relate). I joined a psychic, self-help organization and got sucked into a bunch of occult stuff. My master’s thesis was on witchcraft in pre-Shakespearean literature. My shelves were lined with occult literature.

Then a friend (who became an MCC minister) spent two years “discussing” things with me (actually we argued a lot). One night during a group meeting I mentioned to a man that this friend had given me some Christian book to read. I saw something in his eyes. Just for a heartbeat of a second. I fled the place in terror and never went back.

I have to use cliches here because the cliches became reality. Eight years after I accepted Jesus as Messiah, I met God, was filled with the Holy Spirit and was washed clean. And I was changed—where it mattered. I met a God who truly is Love, pure and simple. Who wants us. Who reaches out arms to us like a mother to a child—to hold us. Who hurts when we turn away, like a father shoved aside by his own child. Who values each one of us immeasurably.

This is the Creator-God of Scripture who patiently tried over and over and over again in Scripture to teach the people what worship is about. I believe that for people who hate others those cliches are just that, cliches—without meaning. Sometimes I wonder if these people have read the same Bible. I truly, truly do not believe that people who have met this God can hate us.

Because God doesn’t.