how do you fix a gay baby?

oh my.

every friday in history class, our 8th grade students are required to look at articles in the newspaper and write a brief description of what they've read. it keeps them current with events in the world and hopefully helps to inspire a life-long desire to read. most of the kids love this activity...no big deal...they read the sports sections or find out what's on at the movies...

so imagine my surprise, when today, a 14-year old teenage girl raised her hand and asked me, point-blank:

"mrs. gillen, how do you fix a gay baby?"

"excuse me? could you repeat that?"

oh my. you've GOT to be kidding me.

the girl came to my desk and showed me the article in the columbus dispatch. have you read this one yet? unbelievable. i mean, come on. SERIOUSLY.

in short, the rev. r. albert mohler, president of the southern baptist theological seminary, said he would "endorse prenatal hormonal treatment — if such a technology were developed — to reverse homosexuality. he said this would be no different, in moral terms, from using technology that would restore vision to a blind fetus."

he then went on to state that "we should have no more problem with that [treating homosexuality] than treating any other medical problem."

i honestly don't know what to say about this article ~ it disturbs me in so many ways.

i happen to be one of "those people" who believes that a homosexual person can be a christian and absolutely be assured of their place in heaven. i didn't alway think like this. it was much easier to say gay = evil = doomed to hell. as i've previously stated, i used to be "into" labels. they are cheap, and thoughtless, and don't take into account the whole person. and they involve judgement. but, honestly, who am i to judge?

i know what the Bible says about homosexuality, but i also know what it says about love. real love. jesus's kind of love. agape love, as my friend jen reminds us .

we are Christ's beloved. all of us.

in psalm 139 david says that: "you [God] created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

enough said.

post script:

by the way...

if you have never read about father mychal judge, the fdny fire chaplain who died on 9/11, please take some time to do so. he was an amazing man who exemplified Christ's perfect compassion and lived his life accordingly ~ a saint indeed. he was also a homosexual and a recovering alcoholic.