Church advocates for gay acceptance
‘You are welcome here’ is not a phrase GLBT people have come to expect from organised Christianity.
However, a progressive minister at Melbourne’s Pentecostal Bayside Church received a standing ovation earlier this month for preaching just that in a special sermon on how the church should embrace GLBT people.
Bayside Church pastor Rob Buckingham said he wants to “shatter” preconceived ideas that religion must be inherently homophobic.
“I believe the Christian message is for everyone and it breaks my heart that some sections of the church have left people out and even shunned them,” Buckingham told Southern Star.
Based in Cheltenham, Bayside Church is thought to have taken the most prominent stand to date on GLBT acceptance in the worldwide Pentecostal movement.
“I said [GLBT] people were welcome to be with us on this, or any, occasion. At that point the whole congregation applauded,” Buckingham said.
The pioneering pastor has since received an outpouring of support from church-goers and the GLBT community both in Australia and internationally.
“Some of the stories are heartbreaking and I have been in tears a few times this week reading them,” he said.
Buckingham agreed many parts of the Bible are selectively taken literally when it comes to homosexuality.
“I think it’s time we took a closer look at all the Scriptures relating to homosexuality and, at least, stop bashing gay people with the same verses in the Bible,” he said.
“So much of the Bible speaks of the love and grace of God towards everyone. Why not focus on this?”
Buckingham, who lives with his wife Christie and their three daughters, said both the GLBT community and the church need to form some kind of truce to move forward.
“It’s easy to keep our distance and shoot at each other. I am asking people to stop firing and get to know each other.”
GLBT Christian online network, Freedom2b[e], founder Anthony Venn-Brown said the message was “historic”.
“To have a heterosexual, Pentecostal, megachurch pastor get up in front of the congregation and say the things he said and then for the church to give him a standing ovation, I don’t think that’s happened anywhere in the world,” Venn-Brown said.
“This is not about ‘Yes, you can come and find Jesus and we’ll make you heterosexual’. You’re welcome as you are, without an agenda.”
Chillers, it sounds as if you’ve had a bad time of it. Although i agree with your historic analysis we can’t keep up this adversarial attitude. Why don’t we flood the good Reverend’s place of worship and, that way, test his sincerity? Let’s just move forward, gently, gently by supporting our own church, the MCC.
DISCLAIMER: i’M IN NO WAY CONNECTED OR ASSOCIATED WITH THE mcc BUT RECOGNISE THE GOODNESS AND JOY IT PROVIDES ONE SECTION OF OUR COMMUNITY.
Dear Pastor Buckingham, I am sorry that it breaks your heart that some sections of the church have left out homosexuals and sometimes shunned them.
I do not know what will happen to your heart when you realise that Christians have violently persecuted homosexuals for 2000 years.
Homosexuals are still bashed and murdered and discriminated against in Australia.
I notice that you think that the sounds a homosexual makes when he is being beaten to death are shots fired at Christians.
I also notice that you do not invite people into your church who want to kill homosexuals.
Christian doctrine has provoked people into killing homosexuals for 2000 years.
I can see an analogy in what you are doing to what arsonists do when they start bushfires.
An arsonist starts a bushfire and the fire kills and injures people.
Then after 2000 years of lighting fires that kill people one of the arsonists says that he is prepared to welcome the victims of the fire into his house and he is prepared to forgive the victim of the fire for being burnt.
It is not really a sin to be burnt in a bushfire that you started.
I would prefer to see you stop indoctrinating people to kill homosexuals.
I consider that action on your part would be of more use to me that a smile and a handshake and listening to a lesson from the scriptures.
Are you prepared to accept personal responsibility for what Christianity has done to us Pastor Buckingham?
A teensy ray of light in Christendom? I agree with the previous writer who’s found his peace with Christianity with our own church, the MCC. Where else could we find such glittering joy then the Sydney Town Hall on Christmas Eve? Smiling faces. Acceptance. Non-judgemental love?
Forget begging for tiny crumbs of acceptance from pro-gay middle management individuals in churches who’s heirarchy say the opposite.
Instead, make ourselves heard loud & clear, with no ifs or buts, or hand-wringing-whimpering…. by aligning our support to the gay-run worldwide MCC Church. Put your gay money on thier plate each week, instead of funneling it to worldwide gay-hate campaigns.
This is good news indeed. Everyone’s spiritual quest will be enhanced as this artificial barrier to thoughtful spiritual exploration is removed.Of course everyone should accepted, now is the time to stop diverting the faithful into the dead end of fear and hate of imagined foes.
My partner and I were invited to our local Uniting Church and told they pride themselves on the fact the Uniting Church does not discriminate. We live in a remote country area.
For Christians from our community I found a good website http://www.whywouldwe.org
I don’t know all of what was in Mr Buckingham’s speech so in a way it’s not fair to comment. However, I hope it’s full acceptance of gay people and not the ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ stuff used by many Christians who say they accept homosexuals but in reality not homosexuality (I hope that makes sense)..