You see a _______, I see my FRIEND!!!!

When I was 18, I came to a saving faith in Christ. There was no pretense about it, no show, no flash. I only know this because in the 25 years since, I've never been able to shake the cross, even when the path away looked easier.

And I've listened to sermon after sermon about what it means to be holy; what it means to be Godly...and 90% of them have been absolutely right, yet absolutely wrong.

See, they focused on actions, they didn't focus on the heart. They didn't focus on what it means to be Christlike, to give EVERYTHING you have and are in worship. And they didn't (and don't) focus on the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

The current wave of politics has forced my hand. It's forced me to weigh what I know, and what I believe against what it means to be a true light in a world full of anger, of hate, of pain. But more than that, what it means to be a friend.

I won't lie; what I say next will further alienate me from people I know and love dearly. And that pains me. But not as much as seeing friends suffer alone when someone out there genuinely cares about them, about their hurts, and about their ambitions.

You see, the timing of this article was directly prompted by a friend who lamented the fact that it is the 25th anniversary of World AIDS Day, and it has gone unnoticed, even as the faithful gather to worship God. Forgetting, somehow, that the Healer we worship would care very much about those who have suffered and died from this dreaded disease.

This friend lost his partner to AIDS almost a quarter of a century ago. How his partner contracted AIDS is tangential to this discussion, but if somehow you are small enough to think that one person is less deserving of compassion than another because of the way they live their lives, I will mention the person happened to have acquired it from a transfusion.

And this is where my journey becomes painful. I know and love dearly many of the friends I have known within the conservative churches. But as long as you see the poor as parasites, I cannot walk with you. As long as you see those suffering from disease, pain and heartache as sinners unworthy of redemption, I cannot break bread with you. As long as you cannot, will not be the hands and feet of Christ, I must walk a different way. I will be accountable to God for my actions, but I believe this is right.

So without calling that friend out publicly on the blog, TB, if you read this, I want you to know that I love you and care for you. I ache with you and want you to know how deeply pained I am by your loss.