The world, it seems, is reeling with emotion and opinions as word of four young men accusing Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, of sexual indiscretion with them has been made public.

People want him to say he didn’t do it, whatever “it” means, and they want this to all go away. It won’t though.

Bishop Long needs prayer and love, if the allegations are true or if they are not. He needs prayer and love if they are true because it means that a wrong has been done that he will have to deal with, and we who are Christian are bound to “strengthen our brother” when we are converted. And he needs prayer and love if they are false because he will be dealing with aftershocks of this situation for a time.

But there is a question that I wrestle with, and wonder how many others wrestle with it:What if they are true? What if Bishop Eddie Long were gay? What difference would it make? Why is it that the Church, is so afraid of the reality of homosexuality and why does the church have its own “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy?

It seems to me, as a Christian minister, that there are far more gay people than the world wants to acknowledge, and it also seems that the people who are the most vocal about being against LGBT people are the ones who are most deeply struggling with their own sexuality. Same sex relationships were not uncommon in the ancient world. Eunuchs were young men who were purposely castrated so they would be acceptable male partners for powerful men. The word “homosexual” didn’t even appear in the Bible until the 20th century…and yet, the church has hidden behind ignorance, preached and allowed hatred of gay people, and generally, been a hindrance and not a help in being a haven where these largely dispossessed individuals could find love and acceptance.

What bothers me about Bishop Long is that he has been so outspoken about his disapproval of gay marriage. It is because of sermons and actions by Christian people and specifically, Christian ministers, that too many gay people stay away from church. It is popular in the Black Church to speak against homosexuality; by contrast, if you are a black church which embraces, accepts and loves gay people, you are likely to be ignored, ostracized or minimized. If he were to be gay, his pain would be all the more exacerbated because his words against homosexuality would be judged to be hypocritical. Hypocrisy is hard for people to accept and digest.

What an amazing ministry his would be (and could be, I suppose) if he had spoken as fiercely for the need of Christians to accept and love all people, gays included. I wonder if his 25,000 members would be double …or, ironically, I wonder if the many gay people who are among his 25,000 members (and there are many) came to him and his ministry precisely because he spoke to their hatred of themselves, would have rejected him had he spoken for their right to the Kingdom of Heaven.

There are so many gay people who are still wrapped in self hatred and denial. They are afraid to “come out” and flock to gay-bashing churches hoping to find acceptance. They want to blend in and become invisible, on the one hand, while on the other, they desperately want the need to hide to go away. There are so many powerful people in high places who are gay but dare not say it. And why? Because society …and the Church … is in “don’t ask, don’t tell” mode. Oppressed people frequently hate themselves, taking on the opinion of the oppressors. Black people, because of racism did it and still do it; women as well undermined themselves and still do to some degree because of sexism. Neither blacks nor women could hide;they were who they were and everyone knew it.

But with gays, it’s been different. They have been able to hide, to disguise who they are and keep their painful secret for years. I will never forget when I preached at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas,Texas, and saw old, very old, gay couples come forward to the altar for communion. How long had they had to hide their true selves and their relationship? Why had I thought, up until then, that all gay people were young? Because in church, being gay was about sex and only young people did sex, I thought. And …we never heard a single sermon about gay people or their situations. In church, it was the silent sin. Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t talk about it.

When Bishop Carlton Pearson visited Columbus, Ohio a few years ago, under fire because of his message of the “Gospel of Inclusion,” no church in the city, including the one that had invited him, would have him. I received a call, the caller almost whispering, asking if “the Bishop could come to our church” because the people of his own denomination were railing against him. The very thought that he could preach such nonsense – that all people had a shot at getting into heaven – was deemed blasphemous. No church of any stature would have him.

Would we… let him come…since he was already in the city?

We put on our sign outside telling people he was to be with us, to teach a Bible study and to preach at a mid week service. His message of God’s love for us all resonated with me; it was what I had always believed. People from the city whom I did not know came, looking almost embarrassed, but they came nonetheless. I could tell from the spirit in the Bible study and in the service that people were receiving well what Bishop Pearson was saying. I received it. At the end of the day, I believed and believe, God’s heart and God’s capacity to love is so much more expansive than humans deem it to be. That’s a good thing.

Because of God’s capacity to love, accept and forgive … Bishop Eddie Long is in good company. The firestorm will blow over. He may lose some members, but even if he does, because of this loving God, he will be OK. Perhaps this will be a teachable moment, where more people in the family that God created will understand that no matter who they are, they are special to God.

Maybe Bishop Eddie Long will be able to preach that message in a way he never has before.

The Gospels are clear about this man Jesus, the Christ, loving and accepting all people, even those who were marginalized. The Church still yet has to ingest and digest this message. Eddie Long will be OK because of this God.

The Church, on the other hand, has a way to go in understanding,accepting and teaching this basic tenet – that God is no respecter of persons.

That is a candid observation.

This is not the time to be faint-hearted.

I have heard people say that they are not going to vote because they are not excited. They wanted President Obama to have done more by now, and more the way they wanted. So, because that has not happened, they are saying they are going to stay home.

I hope that is not the case.

The fact that the Democrats are facing an uphill fight in these mid term elections is no new thing. Nearly every president has to endure this mid time crisis and the real threat of losing the House and or the Senate.

But there is something hugely different in this mid-term election, and that is the internet and Fox News. These two entities have given a platform to angry Americans, mostly white, who feel like they have been ignored, and by golly, they are working to “get their country back,” by any means necessary.

It is very scary to think about people like Sarah Palin running for president, or like Paladino running for governor in New York. The fact is, though, Paladino IS running and Palin looks like she will run. What will our country look like should they win?

There seems to be an ideological block on who “the American people” are. For me, it’s everyone who lives here, is a citizen and pays taxes. That includes Hispanics and Asians and African Americans; it includes rich and poor, the haves and have nots…

But I have this uncomfortable feeling that for Tea Party people, “the American people” are a lot more select group.When they talk about what “the American people” want, I have this feeling that they are not talking about me, or my Hispanic neighbor, or people I know who are on welfare. I have this feeling that “the American people,” for them, is an exclusive, elite group. They are the ones, they feel, who have been marginalized, ignored and forgotten, and it is for them that the Tea Party is bound to fight.

So, what about the rest of us?

Now, the “values voters” chiming in, and again, “the American people” are narrowly defined as those who believe as they do. They have momentum, these values voters, and they have money …and now they have momentum. They have made the word “liberal” almost a cuss word, suggesting that Liberals are loose and without morals.

Gee.

So, as I see it, unless I want this country, which is my country as much as it is the Tea Party’s country, and is as much the country of the poor as it is of the rich, I think that not voting is not an option, no matter how disappointed I might be. The country the Tea Party wants back is a country which far too often ignored “the least of these” so that the profits of the rich could increase. Damn the “least of these.” Let them eat cake!

That’s not what I buy into when I read the words “all men are created equal,” and even if Thomas Jefferson didn’t mean black people and women and whomever was not white and male when he coined that phrase, the fact is that under God, all people ARE created equal.

And so, I would hope those who are faint-hearted would eat some political spinach and get some energy …and vote. We have way too much to lose if we do not.

And that is a candid observation.

Eboo Patel says the forces of inclusion in America have always been stronger than the forces of intolerance. He said he shared that thought with a young Muslim mother who asked him when he thought it would be that her small children would stop being afraid of being bullied because they are Muslim.

I don’t know that I agree with Eboo, though I respect him greatly.

In fact, one of the truths about life is that overall, there is very evidence of people accepting other people who are different. Rev.Dr. James Forbes calls this reality “versusism,” meaning that in this world, there is always a “we” and a “them,” with the “we” group claiming superiority over “them.”

That is sad, seeing as how so much of the world purports to be religious, lovers and followers of God.

I had a private conversation with God not all that long ago, and asked why it is that He made so many different people if He knew they were never going to get along, God’s presence notwithstanding? “Doesn’t it bother you, God, that the Protestants and Catholics don’t like each other, that the Shiites and Sunnis don’t like each other, that the Christians don’t like much of anybody …that white people don’t like black people, Irish and Italians, at least at one time, didn’t care for each other… why in the world, I asked God, didn’t You just make everyone the same? Did You create a diverse world just so you could watch people who say they love you go at each other?

Of course, God didn’t answer.

I think about this all the time, and I wonder where God is in all this human wrangling and disrespect of each other. Where was God when the little black kids in Philadelphia were made to feel unwelcome in a swimming pool last year by white people who didn’t want them there? Or where was God as the Protestants and Catholics went after each other in Ireland?

And where is God now, as anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is growing, with a Christian pastor, no less, threatening to burn their holy book, the Koran?

I know that the Bible says we cannot understand God; that God’s ways and our ways are not ever going to intersect (paraphrasing), but this fundamental “versusism,” which causes people to go after each other, disrespect each other, hurt each other and too many times, kill each other, is bothersome. I thought we were supposed to practice agape love. I know that every major religion teaches that we are to treat others as we would want to be treated. And yet, in the name of God, we mangle each others’ beliefs, souls, spirits and bodies.

There is something wrong here.

Eboo Patel says the forces of inclusion have always been stronger than the forces of intolerance. For me, a more accurate statement would be that the forces of inclusion have always been stubborn, but not stronger. Overall, intolerance enjoys a comfortable berth almost everywhere in the world, not caring who hurts, who is displaced or replaced, who hurts, and who gets lost in the shuffle. And to make matters worse, this intolerance is practiced in the name of God …who represents love, right?

Not only is active intolerance a bane to our world, but the scars it leaves behind take a long time to heal. People live with the memory of the hurt they felt at being excluded and treated poorly just because they happened to be who they were, who God made them.

Is, then, the diversity of the world that God created in fact a joke? A test or something? I know God knew from the outset how we would treat each other, so, then, in light of the fact that God teaches us to practice love and forgiveness, what’s up?

I hope little Muslim boys and girls are not haggled by mean-spirited Christians or other religious types as 911 draws near, but my fear is that the forces of intolerance will dance upon the innocence of these children like they are worth nothing to God, and some little Muslim child will carry that scar for far too long.

It’s been the way of the world forever.

And that’s a candid observation.

Well, the more I listen to the criticism of President Barack Obama and his policies being “Marxist,” or “socialist,” the more I scratch my head.

In this Christian nation, it seems that I must not understand what Jesus taught.

I thought Jesus taught us to take care of “the least of these.” So did Yahweh, in the Hebrew scriptures. Over and over, Yahweh admonishes the Israelites, yes, to stop forsaking God by worshiping idols, but God also charges them to “do justice.” In the book of Jeremiah, as just one example many,this God says to the people,”Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out like fire against you.” (Jer. 21:11-12)

Or in the book of Isaiah,God bristles at the claim of the Israelites that they have fasted. He rejects their show of devotion, saying, “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him and to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isa. 58:6-7)

Do those types of words, some from Yahweh, others from Jesus, mean that Jesus was a Marxist? Was or is God a socialist? If one follows what God says, is one a Marxist or socialist?

I am thinking that the desire for money and profit trumps the desire for God for many. The more money we have, the more we want. We cannot be satisfied. There is something in the human spirit that consistently clamors for more. Consider roller coasters. Every year, there is a new one, somewhere, that is higher and faster and more terrifying. There are amusement park rides that feed into this “greed for more” that just seems to be a part of the human psyche.

We want more of everything except God or what God wants. We are more wont to try to manipulate what the sacred texts say in order to satisfy our insatiable desire for “more.” God gets in the way.

Mother Teresa said that there is enough money in the world so that nobody should have to go hungry. The problem is not that there are not enough resources to help “the least of these.” The problem is that the more (in this case) money we get, the more we want, the more we hoard it, the more selfish we get and the more afraid we get that we are going to lose it.

Let’s get back to God, though, and Jesus. Were they Marxist? Socialist? Was their desire for all people to be fed and clothed and housed an indication that their social proclivities were not and are not amenable to one adhering to in an economy based on free enterprise?

Do we who profess love for the Christ do it only with our lips, but in reality, our hearts are far away from God, as is stated several times in the Hebrew scriptures?(God’s complaint). Do we really know this God and this Jesus we say we love?

It would seem that there is a problem, a serious disconnect.

Just a candid observation.

Well, now.

Glenn Beck held his rally, an event he thought necessary to help restore American’s honor, and an event he said was not about politics but was about God.

Every time I see that statement, I literally shiver.

Beck, who said he was unaware that this was the 47th anniversary of Dr. King’s March on Washington, where thousands of people, black and white, gathered in support of social justice and civil rights for black and poor people, lifted Dr. King up as one of his favorite people.

Yet, he and Dr. King seem to be as far away as the east is from the west. Glenn Beck has been a reactionary, vile, fear-mongering voice since the election of Barack Obama. His followers, at the rally today and in general, appear to be people stuck in racism, while Dr. King was working to get people out of the clutches of racism.

Beck said that today, America was turning back to God, and suggested that there be a boot camp for getting people back on track.

Which God is he talking about? There must be two, because the God Beck invokes and the God Dr. King invoked seem to be polar opposites.

Dr. King was a proponent of social justice, one who preached agape love of all people and liberation theology. That is Biblical; Jesus the Christ admonishes those who love and follow him to be concerned with and help “the least of these.” Those words are found not only in the 25th chapter of Matthew, but the directive for those who love God to practice social justice is contained throughout the Bible.

Beck says he doesn’t agree with liberation theology, but if he doesn’t, and if that’s what the Bible teaches, then what God is he referencing when he says America must today turn back to God?

In the Hebrew scriptures, there is a passage found in the book of Jeremiah which I read just the other day: “Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed or my wrath will break out and burn like fire becuase of the evil you have done- burn with no one to quench it.”

That sentiment, or directive, is found throughout the Hebrew scriptures and the Gospels. That would be the God that Dr. King invoked and directed people to think about. Belief in the power of love, in spite of evil, was the foundation of Jesus’ message.

So, I am curious about the God Beck is talking about.

Over and over, since President Obama’s election, we have heard the cry, “We want our country back.” Today, at Beck’s rally, the cry was that it is time to restore America’s honor. Huh? What honor are we talking about? This is a country which has as its legacy bigotry and hatred and discrimination and slavery …and government sanction of all of the above. Is that the America Beck and Sarah Palin want “back?”

I am still trying to figure out all that I feel about Beck and the rally held today, but this one thing I know: the God Beck is talking about and the God Dr. King talked about 47 years ago today in the same space are not one and the same.

And that is a candid observation.