100Revs and Mardi Gras

In February, I blogged about the Australian movement calling itself "100Revs"; the movement has a blog at 100revs.blogspot.com.

The Pride marches in other parts of the world have an equivalent in Sydney's Mardi Gras. When I've taken part in the Helsinki Pride together with people from Yhteys-Gemenskap, we've been greeted with wrath by certain Bible-thumping extreme elements calling themselves Christian.
The Revs in Sydney had similar experiences when they marched. PinkNews reports (27.3.08):

... an anonymous clergym[a]n who marched in the parade spoke about his career being under threat.
While he stopped short of admitting his job was on the line, he spoke about future repercussions:
"It's very untalked about," he said.
"It's things like the revocation of opportunities for future ministry [positions].
"The conservative side were very upset. I still underestimate the level of political sway they have. I've definitely made a few enemies."

I know what he's talking about. And combining "gay" and "Christian" seems to be equally difficult from both sides of the issue, as some of the comments on the Sidney Star Observer show - see here and here. This is regrettable. There seems to be a long way yet to go. But most of the blame for this must be laid at the churches' doorstep because of our homophobia, past and present.
I'm so sorry for that. In my small way, I'm working to change the situation, but it seems to be an uphill struggle at the moment.

100Revs

A group of Australian Christian pastors (and ministers, priests etc) have published what they call "the 100 Revs Statement". In essence they apologise to the gay community for their churches' lack of welcome. The statement is published on the 100Revs blog, and says as follows:

As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.
We ARE a group of Christian ministers who voluntarily and individually bring this apology.
We ARE NOT official representatives of our churches or denominations.
We ARE NOT making a statement on the biblical position on gay and lesbian relationships.
We ARE recognising the lack of hospitality, care and welcome that the churches have offered the gay and lesbian community.

The "Revs" voice an intent to participate in the Mardi Gras event - which by all accounts should have taken place by now, since we already have entered Lent - which seems to be an equivalent of the Pride festivals of other countries, including Finland. To that extent, we have taken that step before our brothers and sisters Down Under - see here and here.

Not everyone is interested in being apologised to, however. In a comment, the pseudonymous Thug says:

Christians are swimming in a sea of blood they've spilled from innocents. No apology that fails to address the magnitude of Christian crimes against GLBT humanity is acceptable.

Maybe so. Sadly so. But it is a start.