This message was brought home to me very vividly not long ago when a friend called for help with a young man who had just been thrown out of his home by his mother. Jason was to start a job the next week but he didn't even have a place to stay. With less than $10 in his pocket, Jason was devastated.
The holidays are upon us and the holiday music is echoing in all the stores.
Somehow the tunes have a hollow sound for me knowing that there are others like Jason out on the streets tonight. Statistics point out that too many of the homeless teens are gay. How can a country that is proud of its family values, allow any teen to be homeless during the holidays or any night of the year?
Hale Kipa, one of the youth shelters in Hawaii, recently sustained a 45 percent cut in its budget. Fortunately for the youth, Hale Kipa was able to keep its doors open. But instead of expanding to meet the ever increasing numbers of young homeless, shelters are doing everything just to avoid closure.
Some say the economy is the culprit and that budgets are tight all over.
However, budgets are not at the root of our gay youth being thrown out of their homes. So what is it that causes parents to turn on their own children?
It was with a great deal of sadness that I reflected on the bigotry, hatred and discrimination that is at the root of our homeless gay youth problem. Many of the very churches that proclaim the love of God and celebrate the birth of God's son at Christmas time, are the most outspoken against the dignity of our gay population.
Isn't it about time that we take a hard look at the result of our words of hate? There is a real connection between the hate speech against all gays that echoes from the pulpits of some churches and the action of parents around our islands when they disown their own children. The parents are only putting into action the words preached to them on Sundays, and in Bible studies.
Another student of social work told me how her pastor devoted a portion of his sermon on gay bashing and how hard it was for her to sit and listen to his tirade. She said she's a Christian and she does not agree with his message of hate.
It makes me wonder if Jason's mother was in that specific church that Sunday and heard the pastor's message.
I recently shared with a local pastor my desire to see a state law that would criminalize the actions of parents who disown their children because they were gay. He told me that no one could legislate laws that would address family relationships. I told him that I thought the law had already been written in the Gospel, which calls for us to love one another.
There are other Jasons around us. His plight taught me so much. I found out as I searched for shelter for him, that the one agency that would accept a young person of his age, was open from Mondays to Fridays. Jason needed shelter on a Saturday. Even if I had started looking for help on Friday when his mother threw him and his belongings out of the house, the agency was closed for the day.
What we need is a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week open line. Budgets are tight ,so if we have this increased service we also would need more rooms at the inn to handle the calls for help. This would be possible if we truly valued and respected all God's creations. This would be possible if our families really valued each of their relatives, both the gay and the straight.
This season when you enjoy the re-enactment of the first Christmas, remember the Jasons of the world. When the play tells the tale of no room at the inn, remember Jason's story.