Churches source of pain and suffering for LGBTQI+ community, Pride service hears

The mainstream churches have been the source of much pain and suffering for those in the LGBTQI+ community and too often they have been guilty of talking about but not with that community, a special Pride religious service was told on RTÉ this morning.

“Like slavery, like the treatment of women, the Christian church finds itself yet again on the wrong side of history in its approach and treatment of the LGBTQI+ community,” said Teagan MacAodhagáin of the Christian Amach le Dia group in a sermon broadcast on RTÉ One television and RTÉ Radio 1 Extra.

Amach le Dia represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual Christians and friends which aims to provide a place where people of faith who identify as LGBTQI+ can use their gifts and talents to serve God and others.

“It is time to say, ‘No more.’ It is time to say, ‘Not another murder, not another assault, not another suicide, not another hateful, hurtful Church motion, not another witch hunt, not another comment that tears down the humanity in another’,” Mr MacAodhagáin said.

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“In April there was horror when Sligo, a quiet unassuming town in the west of Ireland was cast into the headlines as the scene of not one but two gruesome murders, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of both Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee. The outrage was quietly felt up and down the country with vigils being in various places. But who was not leading those vigils? Whose voices were largely silent in the wake of such abhorrent taking of life? The Church.”

He continued that “former president Mary McAleese expressed her belief that churches in Ireland, ‘all the major denominations’, have a significant role to play in the survival of homophobia in Ireland. This is a sobering indictment of all the main denominations in Ireland.”

When churches decry certain people as undeserving of love “they are providing permission, for others to treat those in the LGBTQI+ community differently”, he said. “The decision that those in a loving relationship are not eligible for full church membership, nor are their children entitled to Baptism, is but one small step from physical violence against the LGBTQI+ community,” he said.

He commended those within the churches who has been supportive of LGBTQI+ people but said that “at the end of the day the record is discouraging, the acceptance is limited and the overriding feeling is one of abject rejection from the church”.

He recalled those church leaders in the United States who contacted Martin Luther King to advise “prudence, patience and obedience to the law” in his campaign for civil rights for black people. Those churchmen “were not adversely affected by the laws of the day. They were not relegated to the back of the bus, they were not allowed only to complete menial tasks in church, they were not subject to suspicion or criticism or violence because of the colour of their skin, or who they loved, or how they identified,” Mr MacAodhagáin said.

“Those men urged caution, urged maintaining the status quo, because the status quo was comfortable for them. But we are not comfortable,” he said.

“We are not designed to be in ghettos. I want to be a fully accepted, fully involved member of my church. I am tired to the core of my being, of my presence, being a problem, my life being an issue to solve, my faith being an obstacle to overcome,” he said.

“The mainstream churches have been slow to consider the position of their LGBTQI congregants; have been the source of much pain and suffering for those in this community, even now limiting our involvement; and too often have been guilty of talking about but not with the LGBTQI community,” he said.

“It is time for the churches of Ireland to make history and extend the hand of Christian fellowship to its gay, lesbian, transgender, non-binary, bisexual and queer siblings. I challenge you to look around your church, be the person to extend that hand, be the person to challenge the hatred, be the person to seek change,” he said.