Members of the Central United Methodist Church of Toledo, Ohio are hitting the streets with a visible and vocal campaign on behalf of religious tolerance and against anti-LGBT discrimination. Perhaps most notable amongst the church’s efforts are a series of billboards that proclaim a very different message from that most of us are used to hearing from the conservative Christian right.
The billboards – large, stark, black and white and impossible to misinterpret – claim that “Being gay is a gift from God;” and according to Rev. Bill Barnard, the message is meant to remind viewers that “all persons are of sacred worth and who they are is the way God created them to be.”
Barnard and other members of the church are pushing an agenda of tolerance and acceptance amidst the current deluge of anti-gay activism pouring forth from many conservative religious groups. As you might imagine, the Central United Methodist campaign is nothing if not controversial.
“The theology of the billboard is inaccurate,” says Trilby United Methodist Pastor Waverly Earley, one of the many opponents to Central United’s agenda. “If you’re having sex outside the relationship of marriage, which is defined by God in the Bible as between a man and a woman,” Earley continues. “We try to love the person, accept them as a person of worth; however the lifestyle is not acceptable to God.”
Correction; the biblical ideal of marriage is between one man and all the women he wants as servants. The women have no souls or rights, nor are they welcome to express ANY opinion. The mormon model is actually the most accurate of the ideals of “traditional” heterosexual marriage. Next comes the catholic model of one wife, pregnant, and also silent and non challenging. Gays, however, want true equality in their marriages, not slavery. We really, really GET IT.