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The origins of all Western thinking go back to ancient Greece- eg: plato, Socrates. Christianity has embraced some of the more unhelpful elements of  this same thinking. It misunderstood the essence of what it meant to be human creating a divide ”good versus evil”. Our theology is still steeped in this sort of thinking. Up until the first divide- Constantine the great, Greek verses West- our thinking was still largely influenced by Christianity’s Eastern origins.

 

This changed again around 1000AD- the Eastern versus the Western Church- and then this change was solidified or set in concrete through the influence of Calvinism-protestant verses Catholicism. The by-product of which is a misplaced view of “sin”. This has caused us all a great deal of primal or toxic shame . Many of us carry the burden some even cringe and cower. Our theology- by accident or design it matters not-has, objectified us, we were made to feel like we were objects of ” sin and degradation” . We looked at ourselves and felt unworthy, unwanted even sinful. We took our best part, our Christ-self, and went underground we became closet dwellers because we felt at some level that our authentic-self was NEVER enough we were  “bad” even “evil” .No matter what we did it would always NEVER be enough. Our theology teaches us that goodness can ONLY be found somewhere ”outside myself” -that God is outside ourselves. This leaves us feeling WHO and WHAT we are is somehow bad, dirty, wrong and therefore un-loveable.

 

God loves us based on some future event- when we get “saved”. My point is this; how can we arrive at another conclusion when goodness is ALWAYS found outside ourselves?. The closet is a good place to hide but never a good place to live. “It’s not just gay people who have to come out of their closets. We’re all in our closets. They’ve just given us a good metaphor for what we all have to do. We’re all afraid to come out of our various closets. It’s not the need to be outrageous or rebellious. It’s so much better than that. It’s just permission to be that image and likeness of God that you really are. You are unlike any other image or likeness. It is as if God is saying, “I’m expecting you to return to me simply and totally as you really are!”

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