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What about Bi and Trans People?
Dear
Accepting Evangelicals
When I looked at the
home page I saw this was a group, mainly for lesbian & gay people &
Evangelicals that are accepting of L&G people. I am left with a question where
is the mention of Bi people/evangelicals or Trans people/evangelicals?
Have you thought of how being not mentioned could leave the 2 groups asking if
we are accepted in this group or asking if we are once again conspicuous by
absence of mention?
I can see how & why the group was started up & why the 2 main (if you like)
groups with-in the LGBT community are more prominent or mentioned because I
feel this group is aimed mainly for G&L evangelicals & People who support or
accept L&G evangelicals.
But as a trans man I am left asking where is the acceptance or indeed support
for the bi & trans evangelicals?
I am not claiming that I would not be allowed to join or indeed not be barred
from contributing in some way. But one of my concerns is......would adding or
including the words bi & trans feel to others to complicate things?
This is not a criticism or all the work you do nor all the good things that
people have contributed and are putting into Accepting Evangelicals, but I am
asking because I walk in the shows/live my life as a T.man & I beleive that bi
& t. people are 2 groups of people in the LGBT community including Christian
community who often have a lesser voice, some times no mention.
With peace & Hope to all,
from,Robin.
Benny Hazlehurst
reply:
Dear Robin
Thank you for your
email, and I do accept all that you are saying. When we set up Accepting
Evangelicals we had a long discussion about whether we should use the
traditional 'LGBT' terminology in our material, and decided not to at that
stage. This was because we wanted to reach out to evangelicals who were
uncomfortable with the hard-line conservative approach but who, equally might
also be uncomfortable with much of the LGBT jargon which is also out there –
so we decided to keep it simple.
The problem with
that, or course is the one which you have identified, and I would be grateful
if you would help us to open up this area on our web site. All of us who set
up AE are fully supportive of Bi and Trans people, and including something on
the website would start to demonstrate this without falling into jargon.
As a first step could
we publish your letter on the website, with the opportunity for a fuller
article in due course?
A
Word of Encouragement
Dear Accepting Evangelicals
Thanks for a really interesting 'Accepting
Evangelicals' News-sheet. We do hope and pray that the discussions with the
AofC will prove fruitful, and Wycliffe College declare their
openness to homosexual and female Christians.
Benny's story shows yet again that
meeting/knowing gay Christians is a powerful way that God shows we who were
once homophobic were wrong. Faith in Jesus is the arbiter, nothing else, not
even the scriptures which is idolatry (or bibliolatry). Jesus is the Living
Word. Please wish Benny and Mel, and all in AE God's blessing from us.
George and Julie
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