By Adam Watkins

The Hymn

Refrain:
I am the church!
You are the church!
We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus,
all around the world!
Yes, we’re the church together!

The church is not a building,
the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place,
the church is a people.

Refrain

We’re many kinds of people,
with many kinds of faces,
all colors and all ages, too,
from all times and places.

Refrain

Sometimes the church is marching,
sometimes it’s bravely burning,
sometimes it’s riding, sometimes hiding,
always it’s learning.

Refrain

And when the people gather,
there’s singing and there’s praying,
there’s laughing and there’s crying sometimes,
all of it saying:

Refrain

At Pentecost some people
received the Holy Spirit
and told the Good News through the world
to all who would hear it.

Refrain

The Writing

I no longer recognize the authority of church leaders who would indicate that it is against church doctrine to be affirming of queer people. I am the church. I am not a subject of the church. My life, my work, my theology, and my beliefs are as legitimate as those same aspects of church leaders. I am the church, and I say that love for all people, acceptance for all people, and affirmation of all people is a part of the church. That is simple. That is the truth. No application of mistranslated and misunderstood archaic writings that do not apply to our present society will convince me that this truth is not so.

We are the church together – not you are the church and I do what you say. We are a church of lay leaders and normal people just trying to do their best. No theology that excludes based on sexuality has a place in this church.

I am the church. You are the church. And that church is open – open to all. Get used to it, or find another place to worship and call it what it really is – a place to worship your beliefs, not the God that you profess it to be, a place to worship your country, not the maker of the Kingdom of Heaven where all are equal, and all are loved.

Put me on trial, but know that it is you who are on trial as well. Your actions over the centuries have been repudiated time after time. Crusades and slavery foremost in my mind have shown you conservative, power-hungry, and fearful where the savior has begged you to accept the truth because it will set you free.

Trials for affirming queer people are a sham, and unknowingly, the accusers are the accused.

I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. No one is too old to face new ideas and synthesize them into their view of life. That is what must happen here. I am not subject to your view – we are all subject to each other, and given the choice between leaving entire groups of people in the cold with no love from the church except the insistence that they change before they can enter the doors, and loving those people, the church MUST chose the latter. Love is action, not just words. You can not say that you love others but hate the parts of them that make them unique just because you have some view of scripture that you think makes it right.

Love will be our guide – both in how we believe, how we speak, and how we act. A trial, in itself, is an act of unlove.

This is the truth. I am the church.