What would you do?

Our love must not be a thing of words and fine talk.

It must be a thing of action and sincerity.

--I John 3:18

Several years back the marketing weasels cashed in on a phrase: What Would Jesus Do?  Everywhere you went you found jewelry, t-shirts, bumper stickers and more emblazoned with WWJD?  It was supposed to make you think when in a situation of uncertainty about what Jesus would do in that situation and, hopefully, act accordingly.

It was certainly overused and an oversimplification. Not mention open to interpretation.  But the idea of stopping and considering your actions when confronted with an ethical dilemma is a sound one, no matter your faith.

Of course, stopping to consider the right action is only the beginning.  Then you have to act.  It's not enough to say you believe a thing, you must act on that belief.  Words are easily given and easily ignored.  Actions will always speak louder than words.

So, it's not enough that I say that I support gay marriage or hate crime legislation or anti-bullying laws. I have to act.  How do I do that?  I send emails to legislators. I call my Representative in Washington. I support GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign by working for equal rights through this blog and being vocal with my support.

I am participating with my church in the Austin Pride festival in June. We'll have a booth with information about our church. As I've spoken about before, I attend a joint United Church of Christ /Disciples of Christ  congregation.  I am active in our Open and Affirming group and it is this group that will manning this booth.

I know many of you who read this blog have issues with Christianity and I respect that.  But I want you to know that the radical hospitality espoused by Christ is the foundation for my involvement in the LGBT movement.  Not all of us are bigoted morons.  Just to prove it to you, take a look at these.

You probably haven't seen them because none of the major networks would run these ads, calling them controversial and containing inappropriate advocacy.  What they did was present a face of Christianity that didn't match the one that everyone believes is the real one.

What I'd like to see the major networks do the next time they have "both sides" of the gay marriage issue represented is to have two clergy members debate- one from the right and one from the left.  I've seen these efforts at "balanced" reporting before.  They generally include someone from an evangelical Christian point of view and someone from the ACLU or a gay rights organization on the other.  Wouldn't it be entertaining as hell to see a UCC minister debate a Mormon elder on prime time TV about  homosexuality or gay marriage or hate crimes against LGBT?  I'd pay to see that.