Discrimination Equals Death

EDITOR: Thank you for the excellent coverage of the trial of The Reverend Doctor Jane Adams Spahr by the regional jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church, USA. The ruling in her favor calls on every Christian to look at his or her church¹s discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender
(LGBT) persons in a new light.

The prosecution wanted the commissioners to look at Rev. Spahr¹s same-gender marriages as violations of the denomination¹s constitution, which defines marriage as a covenant between a man a woman, and her ordination vows, in which she promised to obey the church¹s rules. The commissioners instead ruled 6 to 1 "that the fundamental message of the Scriptures and Confessions is the proclamation of the Good News of God¹s love for all people, and . . . this proclamation has primacy in the conduct of the church."

Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Corretta Scott King and Jane Adams Spahr knew from personal experience that discrimination equals death.

If it does not kill the body, then certainly the spirit and the soul. Rev. Spahr¹s call as "Lesbian Evangelist" has given her the specific charge to minister to LGBT people and to teach the church to see how its discrimination is hurting, harming, and killing bodies and spirits of people whom God loves. Her top priority has been to follow the teaching of Jesus. She has treated gays and straights, all people, alike.

She is loved, supported and now exonerated.

In the Gospel of Mark, early in Jesus' ministry, he attracted the attention of authority figures who viewed behavior through the lens of prohibitions. Mark reports that they watched Jesus to see if he would violate the "constitution" by healing on the Sabbath. Jesus asked what is "constitutionally" allowed on the Sabbath, to do good or to harm? to save life or to kill? They did not respond, so Jesus restored a useless hand.

Mark¹s report continues with Jesus' opponents, also on the Sabbath, going to King Herod's supporters, who had power as well as authority, to speak the language of killing.

Constitutions, traditions, fears, rumors, and Bible passages can all be used to support discrimination against GLBT persons. The Rev. Jane Spahr and the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Redwoods Presbytery call all Christians to "inclusiveness, reconciliation, and the breaking down of barriers that separate humans from each other."

Being followers of Jesus is doing no less.

Rev Paul Feiertag, ELCA
Hospice Chaplain, Retired

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