For the faithful who identify as LGBT, rejection by their church can shake not only their confidence but also their very faith.
As Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal works to forge alliances with churches and other faith-based institutions at the heart of various local communities, it also hopes to explore a major rift between the LGBT community and many churches that crosses racial lines.
Disciples of Christ's General Assembly voted in 2013 to embrace gay and transgender members and welcome them to serve in its churches (which includes Bloomington's Centennial Christian Church and First Christian Church, the Twin Cities' oldest continuing congregation). The Unitarian Church, represented in the Twin Cities by Unitarian Universalist Church, has been a traditional haven for openly LGBT Christians, and Normal's New Covenant Community declares its invitation to all "regardless of race, gender, age, or sexual orientation."
But many other traditional churches run the spectrum from condemning homosexuality or same-sex marriage to maintaining a don't ask/don't tell sort of philosophy toward acceptance or membership. In a video continuing to draw popular buzz and heated debate, Rev. Dewey Smith, pastor of the House of Hope Atlanta in Decatur and the House of Hope Macon, Ga., argued church condemnation of the LGBT community is hypocritical "if you look at half of our choirs and a great number of our artists who we call abominations and we call demons."
"We demonize and dehumanize the same people that we use," the African-American clergyman said. "We don't say nothing about the gay choir director, because he's good for business. . . .We have done what the slave master did to us -- dehumanize us, degrade us, demonize us, but then use them for our advantage."
Cheryl Strong, a Bloomington counselor who is black and a member of the LGBT community, was devastated when her former church not rejected her but also refused to participate in a family member's funeral following her coming-out. Now a member of New Covenant Community, Strong is gratified by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding same-sex marriages but remains concerned by continued interpretation of biblical scriptures as condemning such a union.
She argues "same-sex attraction was not specifically addressed by the Bible." Church condemnation imposes celibacy on LGBT worshippers rather than allowing them to choose what she deems "a gift from God."
"Marriage is an institution of love and intimacy," Strong maintained. "By not sanctioning marriage for gays and lesbian It makes it impossible for an LGBT person to even have a hope of having that kind of intimacy that's afforded in any institution of marriage.
"We're all people, and we all deserve to have love. If you choose to be married, it should be between two people who love each other."