Jerry Kahlert is 80-years-old. He and his wife live in suburban St. Paul, Minn. They have three daughters, three grandsons, one granddaughter and a number of close friends and relatives in the LGBTQ community.

It is ironic to me that a church whose bylaws and guidelines impose discernment when a congregation wants to change conferences has leaders who’ve shown virtually no discernment of the issue behind most recent congregational moves: the sexual orientation and spiritual integrity of some members.

Going into my fourth year as a member of the St. Paul (Minn.) Mennonite Fellowship, here’s what I’ve learned about our LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer] brothers and sisters.

They:

• Worship with the same devotion and intensity as all of us;
• Offer prayers and meditations that reflect Jesus’s call to goodness and compassion, and his commandments to love others as self and to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength;
• Live lives that are living ministries within their call.

They may not be saints, though they’ve undergone some of the same travails. Their faith, severely tested, sustains them. They are disciples of Jesus the Christ, as all believers aspire to be. Why, then, would they turn their backs and mar their virtuous lives?

Well, they aren’t doing that, according to neuroscientists like D.W. Swaab, who report that sexual orientation is determined in the brain in the womb and is unaffected by what happens after birth.[1] That explains why at least one U.S. court of law has found that so-called conversion therapy is both fraudulent and psychologically damaging. For those same reasons, a number of other jurisdictions have outlawed conversion therapy.

Then there’s the observation of the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Rigby, who teaches at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas. “I don’t think Jesus spoke out specifically to the issue of sexuality,” she wrote. Here’s what he did do, she added: Jesus “gave people the space to be who they were as created in the image of God.”[2]

And who were those people Jesus gave space to? Certainly not those he gave up on as sinners. They got no space from him. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and drove them out of the temple, accusing them of turning the place into a den of thieves. The Gospels contain numerous challenges to those Jesus called the religious hypocrites. Throughout Matthew, Jesus confronts the Pharisees and teachers of religious law. The twenty-third chapter of Matthew is devoted to his assessment and condemnation of them. The nub of Jesus’s charge: they impose “impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to help ease the burden” (v. 4), while “ignoring the important things of the law–justice, mercy, and faith.” (v. 23)

Sadly, our church leaders have imposed an impossible demand on our LGBTQ brothers and sisters: The Mennonite church would, in effect, embrace them if they became “straight.” Their faith was ignored and they were denied justice and mercy.

In fairness, the Constituency Leaders Council (CLC) has embarked on a process that could lead to understanding and reconciliation. But that process also could become an exercise in stalling and stringing out a response to this vexing and painful issue.

If that happens, our church leaders should be called out. The church no longer disembowels the infidels. It’s time now to stop tearing the hearts out of our brothers and sisters for their same-sex relationships.

For an idea of how the Mennonite Church USA could justly resolve this issue, please see St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship’s 2015 “Confession of Hope.”

Editor’s Note: At the time of publication, the St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship website was experiencing some technical difficulties. We will update the link above as soon as we are able. 

[1] “We Are Our Brains,” Spiegel & Grau, 2014, pgs. 61-62

[2] Personal communication, July 22, 2015