A Child is Listening

Today I would like to offer this excerpt from the excellent film, "Prayers for Bobby." The movie tells the true story of Bobby Griffith, a young man who took his own life in the early 1980s after suffering the rejection of family and friends for being gay. Sadly, Bobby's family wasn't able to accept him during his lifetime, but the film goes on to show their transformation as they learn the truth about the what the Bible actually says about homosexuality and how LGBT people have suffered needless persecution and discrimination as a result of bigotry and ignorance. In this moving final scene, Bobby's mother shares her story at a public hearing, an event which marked the beginning of her own public advocacy work on behalf of LGBT rights.

For me, watching this film was a painful reminder of the ways in which I too participated in a system that oppresses innocent people and attempts to take away their humanity. However, like Bobby's mother, I too have begun to find forgiveness and healing in the possibility of standing up together with my sisters and brothers in the LGBT movement and no longer remaining silent. May the God of love and compassion Mary describes in this speech come to fill all of our lives with hope, freedom, and the courage to stand up for what is right.

Blessings,

Padre Chuck