the Very Reverend Gary Hall,
Dean of Washington National Cathedral
This past Sunday morning at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., churchgoers heard a powerful sermon from the Cathedral’s Dean, the Very Rev’d Gary Hall.
Taking as his text Sunday morning’s gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary (a three-year cycle of scripture readings common to many denominations of Christians around the world), Luke 17: 5-10, Hall began his sermon remembering Matthew Shepard, who on October 7, 1998 was assaulted and left for dead and Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University who on September 22, 2010 plunged to his death from New York City’s George Washington Bridge after a fellow student committed a bias-based cyber-crime against him.
You can watch Matthew Shepard’s story here:
You can read Tyler Clementi’s story here:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/tyler_clementi/index.html
Tyler Clementi, Rutgers University freshman who plunged to his death after an extreme cyber-bullying incident
Dean Hall’s sermon does not mince words in discussing the Church’s response to LGBT+ people:
“In its wisdom, the church came to its senses and labeled both racism and sexism as sinful. And now we find ourselves at the last barrier—call that barrier homophobia, call it heterosexism. We must now have the courage to take the final step and call homophobia and heterosexism what they are. They are sin. Homophobia is a sin. Heterosexism is a sin. Shaming people for whom they love is a sin. Shaming people because their gender identity doesn’t fit neatly into your sense of what it should be is a sin. Only when all our churches say that clearly and boldly and courageously will our LGBT youth be free to grow up in a culture that totally embraces them fully as they are.”
Hall also offers the following words of affirmation — grounded in a deep understanding of and appreciation for Christ’s Incarnation — to those of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, questioning or intersex:
Matthew Shepard, brutally murdered this week in 1998
“It is not only just OK to be gay, straight, bisexual, or transgendered. It is good to be that way, because that is the way God has made you. And the Christian community, the world community, needs you to bring the totality of your being—including and maybe especially your sexual and gender identity—to the table.”
These are words to consider as you weigh your own personal response to your own questions about sexual orientation, gender identity, or that of someone you know and love.
Cemia Acoff, trans* murder victim
You can listen to Dean Hall’s entire sermon here:
http://www.nationalcathedral.org/mp3s/grh20131006_0900.mp3
or watch it here:,
http://www.nationalcathedral.org/exec/cathedral/mediaPlayer?MediaID=MED-6CNCA-JN001R&EventID=CAL-6CGGP-IM000P
or read it here:
http://www.nationalcathedral.org/worship/sermonTexts/grh20131006.shtml
Brandon-Teena, a trans* man who was brutally raped and murdered in Nebraska on December 31, 1993
BJUnity will be marching this coming Sunday afternoon, October 13, 2013 in Atlanta’s Pride March in solidarity with our LGBT+ families and friends from the BJU and fundamentalist environment, and in memory of Matthew Shepard, Tyler Clementi, Cemia Acoff, Brandon Teena and countless other LGBT+ young men and women whose lives have ended tragically simply because of who they were… and in gratitude for our straight allies in God’s Church, like Dean Hall, who understand that “whosoever” in John 3: 16 means everyone.
Jeffrey Hoffman
executive director