Day 6 of 365 - the first time judgement appeared

Yesterday we spent some time reflecting on our journey towards understanding that some people had a different sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression than us. I made no assumption about there being any judgement associated with this realization.

Wouldn't it be great if there had been no judgement attached to the realization. Sadly, that wasn't true for me. Hopefully it was true for some of you.

There's a distinction between being aware that something or someone is different, and then taking the step of calling that difference wrong, or dangerous, or weird. Of making a judgement on that difference.

For myself, I first heard negative thoughts about LGBTQ people from school friends. My awareness of being different from others shifted to something more awkward when I learned that calling someone "Lesby" as a play on the name "Lesley" was not OK. That somehow being called, or thought of, as a lesbian was bad.

Action: Can you find an opportunity today to affirm an LGBTQ person that you know? Maybe an LGBTQ United Methodist that you know? The spoken and unspoken messages that LGBTQ people too often receive, both from church and in society, is that they are different and somehow wrong. How can you help change that message today?

Extra Credit: Not everyone is on Facebook, and some are not on Facebook regularly. Is there someone you know who might get some encouragement from joining this journey to General Conference 2019? Maybe consider sending them an email with a link to this post.