Lesbians & Softball

I haven't kept up with this lately, but I'm gonna start back up.  I'm gonna start back wiht a case of...well, I'm not quite sure what to call it. 

I first heard about this yesterday through twitter, via the Commercial Appeal's (our local paper here in Memphis) Twitter account.  Then Nashville's paper, The Tennessean picked it up, ans I saw it on their Twitter account.  Then The Knoxville New Sentinel got it.  Next thing I know, The Advocate's Twitter has a story about the article.  It hit the national level. 

Bellevue Baptist Church (aka Fort God or Six Flags over Jesus), the church that I attended from the age of 5 until the age of 18, was in the news.  Bellevue, for those of you not in the area, is a megachurch with about 30.000 members.  Actually, I bet that number has dropped because of recent internal scandal, my generation's disillusionment with the place having gone through all the things that happened there.  From teen preganancies that lead to suicide due to the staff's inability to show compassion to sex scandals with church staff.  But that's beside the point.  Big church, got it. 

Being the size that it is, Bellevue has traditionall had giant leagues that play nothing but other Bellevue teams.  But, they had decided to open their adult softball league to non-Bellevue teams.  There was another team that typically played in Bartlett (just north of the church) that had a lesbian coach and a few lesbains players.  The tema captain went to the interest meeting, paid the registration fee, and was all set for the season to start last week.  Then the churhc called the coach to set up a meeting to discuss an issue they were having.  In that meeting, the recreation minister said that they weren't going to allow the team to play because their coach lead a "deviant lifestyle."  I'm guessing that they didn't know there were a few lesbian players too, but that wasn't covered in the article. 

I think that is absolutely ridiculous.  Everyone knows that, as a general rule, Southern Baptists are pretty well anti-gay anything.  Big whoop.  YOU'RE PLAYING SOFTBALL.  What does it matter?  There had already been rules set up for all the teams that there was to be no PDA and no clothing with innapropriate language on it.  Sure, I can go for that.  There could be kids around.  But this was supposed to have been away for Bellevue to involve the greater Memphis community.  Great way to start excluding people before you even get started. 

One fo the articles brought up a great point.  A big part of it is likely that Bellevue couldn't stand the idea that some of it's members might actually see happy, well-adjusted gays and lesbians living a normal life.  And a big part of their platform againt homosexuality is that it's abhorrent and that gay people aren't capable of living a "normal" life.  That's waht was pounded into my head for 13 years.  It's also what lead to 3 suicide attempts.  And as I've realized while getting older, it's a big reason I had such a problem telling even my best friend that I was gay.  I had been conditioned that as soon as I opened my mouth about it, everyone would drop me and run, screaming, in the other direction.  And it terrified me.  But, I have yet to encounter that reaction.  I've told 99% of the people I went to high school with, 1 cousin, my close friend's parents all know, and no one has been anything but supportive.  I know my own family is likely to be a different story, but I feel I have enough support to make it through whatever comes. 

But this whole situation makes me angry.  The idea of children still being treated the way that I was is infuriating!  And didn't Jesus teach that we should love everyone?  And that murder is the same as a lie in the eyes of Jehovah?  So, what is it that makes being gay such an atrocisty?  It jsut doesn't add up. 

I think a quote from Ghandi is the perfect way to end this: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."