It is the fault of us all.

It's the fault of any of us who make jokes about gay people, who

insult them with the use of demeaning names. It's the fault of us

who are silent when others do these things or when they publish lies about

what homosexuality is. And it's the fault of us who don't provide

a safe place and a caring response to those of homosexual orientation.

Who knows how many hundreds

of thousands of lives have been lost, to violence, to suicide, to drugs,

to promiscuity, to AIDS, to shattered self-esteem, to life forever outside

the doors of the church, because we have participated in or by silence

been a part of the demeaning and the ostracizing of homosexual people.

In this respect there is blood

on the hands of the church. At Judgment Day, we will be asked, "Why

were you silent?" Why has the church abandoned these children of

God to despair and to death? When people are lost and dying by the millions,

you don't pontificate about sexual morality; you reach out to them,

you give them a safe place, you listen, you talk, and you love with the

love of Christ.

On the day I read your editorial,

I received this e-mail from a man in England. I think it says everything:

Hi Jeff & Patti,

Thank you for your website.

You mention that 1 in 3 teenage

suicides is believed to be caused by people feeling unable to accept that

they are gay. I know exactly what you mean. For more than 30 years I have

felt seriously suicidal, virtually every day of my life. I still do. It

never really goes away.

You seem to have worked your

way through this situation with the help of your religious beliefs. I

wish I could say the same. But I do not feel welcome in my own family

or in the church we used to attend. I feel I have rejected the church

in the same way it has rejected me. I don't even want a religious

ceremony at my funeral.

But your website has shown

me that there are some good people in the world. Even among the Christians.

Thank you for that.

I have tried to lead a respectable,

worthwhile life. But it has been a lonely journey. And I wish it was over.

Keep up the good work. Take

care.

David

Dr. Martin Luther King was

constantly frustrated by the unbelievable silence of both the Christian

and Jewish religious leaders. He came to the sad conclusion that it's

possible to affirm the existence of God with your lips and deny his existence

with your life. His disappointment led him make this statement: "In

the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence

of our friends."

Jeff Ellis

www.familyacceptance.com