We are not being "mean"

Last week, Equality Ohio, the GLBT lobbying group here, held it's first "lobby day" at the Statehouse to try to bring more attention to the whole GLBT issues thing and essentially - I am not kidding - to make sure that lawmakers "get to know" some people who are, actually, gay (or whatever). I suppose this is in an attempt to try to get lawmakers to back off on some of the "anti-gay" bills that we've been hearing here, but I don't know how well it worked.

First of all, it's not lawmakers trying to be "mean", as one parent said (not about lawmakers, but people in general, because the law lets them be "mean"). It's about good societal policy. And Christians (which most of these "mean" lawmakers are) are supposed to treat everyone with love and respect. But that doesn't mean that we can just gloss over what they do. We're called to love everyone, but St. Paul and the Gospels are kinda clear on how you just can't say "well I'm supposed to love you, so do whatever!"

That's what really get me about these liberal Christian denominations, like the United Church of Christ. I'm sorry, but (everyone in unison!) Jesus didn't come to Earth for us all to hold hands and sing Kumbaya!! I'm sorry! The Gospel of Matthew is full of places where Jesus says "I have not come to bring peace, but the sword" and the section about dividing brother against brother, father against son, etc. How many times do we read about the people saying "this teaching is hard", or whatever? Christianity isn't meant to be easy. It's meant to be hard. And yeah there are certain things we can't do. But we've been through all this before, here. This is just a rehash. It's a lot easier to say we're "mean" than to say we actually have a point, but that's not acknowledged, either. Because we're mean. So there.