Anchorage Daily News

Not every Christian agrees with Dr. Jerry Prevo. I, for one, can no longer remain silent while I watch Dr. Prevo represent himself as the ideological leader of Anchorage's Christian community.

I am a heterosexual, conservative, Christian woman and am not threatened by two men or women who love each other and wish to live together and live an openly gay lifestyle. Furthermore, I am horrified at the thought that they would be denied fundamental civil rights based on their sexuality.

Now, the "Christian" label gets thrown around quite liberally these days, so let me clarify what "Christian" means to me.

I believe in a triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I believe that God created the earth and man in 6 days and rested on the 7th. (However, I do believe that dinosaurs did, in fact, roam the earth, a very long, long, time ago.) I believe in the deity of Christ Jesus, that He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified on a cross, died, and rose again on the third day. I believe that He ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of God the Father, Almighty.

I believe in a reckoning that will occur at the end of days (whenever that may be) when Christ will return to judge the "quick and the dead." I recognize myself as a depraved sinner, rescued only through the grace of God and the redemptive blood of Christ Jesus.

As far as the term "Conservative" goes, I wait patiently each week for Ann Coulter's column, I am a staunch defender of the rights of the unborn, and the only problem I have with the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan is that we didn't go in sooner.

Needless to say, I'm not your typical gay activist. In fact, I'm not trying to be a gay activist. I am simply raising my hand to say that Dr. Prevo doesn't speak for me; the people who shout hateful and derogatory slurs at gay protesters don't speak for me; and the ignorant people who wave cardboard signs, advertising their paranoid hysteria, don't speak for me.

I watch, bewildered, as local and national churches allocate millions in tithe money to fight gay rights. Since when did fighting the gays become the central focus of the church? Have we taken care of everything else? Have we sheltered all the homeless? Are the hungry fed? Have we comforted the sick? How about Africa? Have they fixed everything on that continent? No need to raise money for vaccines, mosquito netting, or AIDS prevention education? How about pregnant teens and single mothers, do they have the resources they need? Has the Gospel been spread throughout the globe "as the waters cover the sea?"

And one last question, are the current actions of the church toward the gay community leading unbelievers to Christ or driving them farther away?

Homosexuality does not pose a threat to God or the Christian faith. To believe it does demonstrates an extremely limited understanding of who God really is.

If homosexuality is truly a sin, then so be it. The next time you're sitting in your church pew, look around; you are surrounded by sin. Sin doesn't pose a threat to God. He conquered sin and death. I have a very hard time believing that He is worried about a gay rights ordinance.

Somehow I think He might be a bit more troubled about the 12 homeless people who have died in our city over the past 4 months. Imagine if Dr. Prevo and the members of his church chose to make Anchorage's homeless their primary focus. What if Dr. Prevo used the stage that Anchorage has given him to raise funds for the Clitheroe Center, Brother Francis Shelter, The Food Bank of Alaska, Beans Cafe or any one of the organizations in Anchorage who work tirelessly to care for our homeless?

I'd like to see Dr. Prevo as outraged about the death of these "lost sheep" as he would be about a gay couple moving in across the street.

Maybe that will never happen but a gay rights ordinance will happen. Someday it will pass, and someday gays will be given the legal right to marry. When that does happen, the earth will keep spinning, the sun will continue to rise, your straight kids will continue to be straight, and God will remain sovereign.

Geneva Walters is a lifelong Alaskan who works for a local advertising and PR firm.

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