Per chance being in Swanston St. Melbourne just after the result of the Same sex marriage plebiscite in Australia was announced. I felt a great sense of pride with my countries openness to equality with the overwhelming “Yes” vote for same sex marriage. But this actually was one of those special moments which really in truth I couldn’t consider per chance. Perhaps it was to witness the happiness that I had fought so hard to support. I had argued with my priest against the Churches position of advising its parishioners to vote "No" until he finally conceded and entered in the church news that people should vote from the heart where the God of love resides.  

My wife had excitedly taken pictures of the happy dancing people rejoicing in their now official agreement to love one another. I noticed a young girl watching us and I had that sense that she could see the love of a straight couple in support. I later wished if only she could have known that we are Christians. However maybe she did sense a presence as I did that the living God was present and looked on in happiness at the expressions of love. But it was a bitter sweet moment for me that as a Christian I had wondered what did the church leaders that pushed for the “No” vote think that they were achieving. The outcome had been very much predicted and for me the "No" voters would have been better to adopt that wise saying “If you cannot say something with love or wisdom then it is better to remain silent.” Pope Francis may have very much done that with his famous quote “Who am I to judge?” However Australia did judge. They said No to church "No"! And they judged "YES" for love! And so the day was a win for love! And since God is love, a win for God! But alas another loss for Christianity and a sense of sadness for me that Jesus message is not received yet again. Being a Christian means following Jesus teachings, but has frequently been altered to following the interpretations of whatever flavor of denomination that people happen to be chained too and why Jesus had said in “Mat 10: 34 ‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”

A week earlier while sitting in the Doctors waiting room a notice appeared on the medical information video which warned “carers” to be alert for a possible increase in suicidal tendencies among LGBT people under stress over the possible result. Suicidal tendencies are, I understand, already much higher than among straight people because of the bullying, judgment and condemnation of people who need Jesus love more than most. It made me wonder about a catch phrase a while back “I love Jesus, but I hate Religion”. Certainly people would not be blamed for abandoning religions that put their “Traditional” Marriage ahead of the needs of the marginalized. We read in Mat 5:- that God is the “perfect” Father! And thus he said in 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” The question that arises can the perfect omnipotent Father prohibit 10% of his children from ever committing to a monogamous one to one love relationship sentencing them to a life of loneliness just because of the way they were born? With modern science and better education it has been found that most of the Fables and Legends of thousands of years ago are no longer a good fit for the complexity of modern day life. One does not get to choose gender or sexual orientation and anything beyond “free will” is not sin in the domain of sin. A reason for a decrease in the young identifying with religion could very well be that with their better understanding and reason one would really need to abandon logic in order to believe the interpretations of the old. However the Eastern Catholics teach the concept of Theosis! “That one is not "saved" but is rather in the ongoing process of becoming conformed to God,” Since Churches are the collective of the individuals within, this concept equally applies to Churches. However we often get the impression that many would prefer that God conform to habitual interpretations. The Russian Orthodox priest Metropolitan Anthony Bloom had said- “The Church must never speak from a position of strength. The Church ought to be, if you will, as powerless as God himself, who does not coerce, but who calls and unveils the beauty and the truth of things without imposing them.” It has been stated that the conservatives have declared war on Pope Francis for being too anti "Tradition", when all that he has done is unveiled the beauty of Gods love without imposing man made laws. With the pope it's a slow process because of fierce resistance from the conservatives. But it has begun with other Jesuits like Frank Brennan from the ABC Q&A debate, and Fr James Martin SJ "Building bridges" Who judge in favor of freedom for people to Love. The most important rule Jesus had given were three words. “Love one another!”
                         Some in the "No" camp had pushed the idea that there were consequences. It’s hard to see any. If the "No" had gotten through would partnerships break up and adopted children be sent to orphanages where in religious organizations the carers are all of the same sex? In reality "Yes" changes nothing, it is only society giving its approval and openness to accept what already exists. Does it open a slippery slope of other types of marriage? Actually more likely the opposite, the "No" would be a reminder of the days when people of different races or creeds were not being allowed to wed. This only adds confirmation to the notion of peoples being of different value in the eyes of God when in truth God loves all equally. Even more cynical was the comment by a "No" leader that she immigrated to Australia because of its freedom, but does not realize that she is bringing her lack of freedom with her to some of those who may have welcomed her to a free Australia.

                         To my fellow Christians I say, could you please remember your Christian duties.

“Your job is not to judge! Your job is not to figure out if someone deserves something! Your job is to lift the fallen.! To restore the broken and to heal the hurting!”

                         To my LGBT brothers and sisters.

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break, but all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say but with intention. So go love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you…. “

(verse by L.R.Knost)