Dear Christian Private School,

I often enjoy your weekly email. It is typically thought provoking, uplifting and insightful.

It was, however, startling to read this week’s which began with a quote by Adolf Hitler. I won’t even quote it here, despite your intention of using it to illustrate the abuse of power of the government over religion.

I attended public school for my first years of elementary. It was fine. Normal. I had friends. I learned things. And yet, I never pondered my existence.

But when I went to a Christian school starting in the fourth grade, I was taught that I had been created, that I had a purpose, and that I was loved by said creator. The first verse I ever memorized I can still quote from memory: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him, shall not parish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) I felt special. I suddenly had a sense that I fit into a grander scheme of things.

I grew up in a time when homosexuality was spoken about almost as rarely as cancer. You heard whispers about it, and noticed sideways glances, but nothing more. In today’s day and age, cancer touches almost every family; and likewise, almost every family has more than just the one cliché “gay uncle”. By no means, am I equating the two, though some of you in the Christian church would like to say that homosexuality IS a cancer of sorts.

The Bible says we are all God’s children. We are made in his image (Genesis 1:27), but we are not Him. We are imperfect, and we are all different. Yet God created each and every one of us, and He loves us. He knew us before we were in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5).

Even before I typed a word of this post, He knew it altogether. (Psalm 139:4) Therefore He knew who would be straight or gay, to put it in bluntly. He created humanity, not just “heterosexuals”. He would not have created a being merely to isolate, hate, punish or exile them, or have them endure said same abuse by others.

Being a homosexual is just as much an undeniable conviction in your heart as the Amish father you tout about in your post. Jonas Yoder fought in the Supreme Court to keep from sending his children to public school because “their religion involved the rejection of worldly goods, and the educational system put them in a sharp conflict with their way of living in Biblical simplicity”. (Wisconsin v. Yoder, Wiki) The court ruled in Yoder’s favor because they deemed it wasn’t a matter of preference, but rather a matter of conviction, religious conviction.

“A preference is a strong belief, but a belief that you will change under the right circumstances. Circumstances such as: 1) peer pressure, 2) family pressure, 3) lawsuits, 4) jail, 5) threat of death.

A conviction is a belief that you will not change.” (https://bible.org/illustration/conviction-versus-preference)

Being a Christian is a choice; being gay is not.

Perhaps there are no homosexual individuals in your family, to which you must be saying “lucky me”, but it is more prevalent. And NOT just because we’ve made it “okay” to be gay, or because this “okayness” is making people “convert” to gay, bisexual, trans-gender, or other; but rather, because individuals are no longer afraid to be themselves. They are no longer living in fear of being expelled from society, or worse, for being different, for being “imperfect”.

Just as the earth does not have one race, one language, one body type; just as some individuals enjoy reading and writing versus running and sports; just as some are creative, while others are mathematical, and others physically skilled; so there are also individuals with other convictions in their heart.

I believe a good Christian foundation is very important for my children, hence why I decided to send them to a Christian private school.

I believe we all fit together, and no puzzle piece is the same, and THAT’s how God wanted it to be. He gave us similar, but unique traits. That each of us might go out into the world and plant our own seeds. “For neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:7)

I am more concerned about raising a child that does not lie, cheat, steal or harm others, than a child that might potentially be gay.

I don’t think the school needs to add homosexuality or trans-gender teachings to the curriculum, persay. I’m not even suggesting we have special bathrooms or make other accommodations, but I do think we need more compassion, and understanding, and counseling, and less finger-pointing and shaming of our youth—a youth that will learn to hate God and Christianity because of “Christians” who teach them that being different means being separated from God and His blessings.

What really worries homophobic Christians is what other people are going to think and say about them, if they find out their kid, he, she or they, are gay. But you shouldn’t love your child, sibling, friend or relative any less for being different.

Being gay is not a decision to sin, like cursing, or lying, or coveting.

Think of a sin, whatever sin you might commit every so often. Despite knowing it’s a sin, for whatever reason, it always gets the best of you. And you mull over it, and say you’re gonna work on it, and yet you keep coming back to it, because “all have sinned and fall short from the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) But you learn from your mistakes, and try to do better the next day, and more importantly God forgives you. (1 John 1:9)

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own?” (Matthew 7:3-5)

Being a homosexual is not a sin u choose, just as you do not choose to be heterosexual–the thought doesn’t even cross your mind. Why do heterosexuals believe that a homosexual individual can just choose to change? I can no more choose to be straight or gay than I can choose my skin tone, eye color, heart beats per minute, or anything else in my genetics.

I love my children and there isn’t anyone, or any thing, or any Word that could come between us. That is my conviction, and I believe God feels the same way.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).

Sincerely,

Christian Mother of 4