What Sin?

What Sin?

I'm exhausted with the old, lame, feeble, "Hate the sin but love the sinner" malarkey! What does that even mean? Once you've judged me to be a sinner, you aren't open to getting to know me, understanding me, or allowing that my feelings may be genuine and my experiences may give me insights to my life that you could never have. You've judged and condemned me a sinner, so what part of me are you loving? What part of me are you bothering to get to know so that you can love me?

If what has boxed me into the "sinner" category is my same-gender love and attraction, then let me say clearly that I shall remain an unrepentant sinner. If my sin is the experience of human sexuality and my joyful expression of that with mutually consenting partners, then I'm not willing to be anything other than a sinner! If your religious view says that my love, attraction, and mutually beneficial relationships are wrong, then whatever might your religion call "Good"? And why would I be interested?

The divine Energy of Life couldn’t possible exclude or condemn me because the person I share my life with also has a Y chromosome!

Now, a far removed, human-looking deity who prefers one nation above all others, one religion above all others, and one gender over the other...that all too human deity (complete with human prejudices) may well also be a homophobe, but I would consider such a deity to be a false god, an idol to be tossed on the scrap heap of other deities who proved far too human and culturally limited to be of use beyond a limited amount of time.

Greed, hatred, violence, racism, misogyny, lack of concern for those who have been marginalized...these I am willing to call sins...these actions and attitudes aren't life giving, joy producing, or peace making. But covenantal fidelity, regardless of the genders involved in the relationship, could never be a sin in any spiritual system I would be wiling to emprace. Affection, attraction, relationship building, even consensual, adult love-making...any religion that sees these joyous expressions as sins rather than virtues (or at very least morally neutral activity) is heading toward its expiration date (though perhaps not fast enough).

If you want to love me, get to know me...and you can't do that by pre-judging me to be a sinner. Hey...you don't even have to love me; but please stop lying about it.


Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Sunshine Cathedral