Scott McKenna: God is love, not an easy excuse to discriminate

THIS year's General Assembly of the Church of Scotland will have to take one of its most difficult decisions since first it convened in December 1560. Some have said it is on the verge of a second Disruption.

The Disruption was in 1843: 450 ministers left the church, their pulpits and manses, on the principle of a congregation's right to call its minister. Ministers and elders walked out of the General Assembly. The new church, the Free Church of Scotland, rejected the imposition of a minister on a congregation by a patron. It was a fracture from which the church never fully recovered.

In 2009, an Aberdeen congregation wishes to exercise that historic right: to call a minister of its own choice. It has called the Rev Scott Rennie. Scott is gay and lives with his partner. Once inducted, he intends to live with his partner in the manse. Following objections, the General Assembly must decide whether or not to allow this call to proceed.

Ministers from across Scotland and the world have added their voices to those of the objectors. Many in Scottish society and the World Church are waiting to hear the decision of the Assembly.

Biblical interpretation is hugely subjective: the most dangerous Christians are those who believe that it is not. Jesus said: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by me." In the hands of fundamentalist and narrowly evangelical Christians that verse justifies Christian exclusivity. We are told unless one believes Jesus died for our sins, paid the price for our sins with his life, by dying satisfied a wrathful god we will not be saved. There is nothing of that theology in John's Gospel: he believes to be 'born again' means that we, as followers of Jesus, are called to undergo personal and political transformation, such that those who are excluded, the peasants, children, women and sick, take their place as equals in this world as well as in Heaven. "In my Father's house are many mansions", and everyone will enjoy space, rest and generosity. I believe to be biblical is to be inclusive.

Article 1 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights reads: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." Article 2 reads: "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."

It seems reasonable to extrapolate from the Declaration that individuals cannot be discriminated against on grounds of sexual orientation and personal lifestyle. On the other hand, can an organisation exclude homosexual people from leadership roles on religious grounds as an expression of human rights? This legal question has a way to go before a definitive answer.

The legal question, in my view, is not as important as the biblical imperative. The First Letter of John states: "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." How can the Church manifest love, Christian love, towards all, the heterosexual majority and homosexual minority?

If the Church says a gay person cannot be a minister of the gospel, we send a message, loud and clear, to society that gay people are second-class; gay people are not quite as good as heterosexuals.

Heterosexual people are, in some sense, superior. A large number of gay men by the age of 20 are broken people – because they have had to wrestle alone and silently with homosexual feelings in a heterosexual world. They have felt fear and the prospect of letting their parents down. They have learned at a formative age what it means to be an outsider; they have felt that pain of isolation. Many who attended church have felt the disapproval of their minister. They have been told, in God's eyes, they are unclean. Has the Church ever listened to the pain of gay people, fellow human beings, who speak of their craving for acceptance, love and intimacy instead of the usual contempt and rejection? When a national institution, like the Church, publicly states homosexual people are not good enough to become ministers of Word and Sacrament, in some way deficient and not good enough to take on that leadership role, the Church is, by implication, sanctioning prejudice and abuse against gay people. Paradoxically, the institution founded on love and for love becomes oppressive and abusive.

At the General Assembly, the national church has the opportunity to say to Scottish society that homosexual people are of equal value to heterosexual people, that in God's eyes gay people are loved by God no more and no less than heterosexual people and, because of that, in this church, gay people will enjoy the same respect, rights and privileges. If Scott Rennie has the necessary skills, education and calling required of a minister by a congregation, the General Assembly needs to publicly affirm his ministry. If we do not, then we will be saying, "It is OK to put these people down. It is OK to deny these people respect." Jesus taught us to pray: "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." What do we imagine Heaven to be like? Will gay people be in the basement or will we all sit at the same table? Will only heterosexual people be allowed to serve? In God's Heaven, justice reigns.

• The Rev Scott S McKenna is Minister, Mayfield Salisbury Parish (Edinburgh), Church of Scotland