[ad_1]
Jamilah Salvador was walking in her first Pride parade this weekend in the Philippines when she encountered something unexpected on arrival. Christians held placards to apologize for how religion had hurt the LGBTQ community.
The 19 – year – old man was walking with thousands of others in the annual parade of the city of Marikina, east of the capital Manila. The parade was completed at Marikina stadium, where Salvador was pleasantly surprised by the Christian group.
"My heart felt really light when I saw them," Salvador told CBS News. "I stopped when I saw them and read all their messages and immediately felt goosebumps all over my body, so my tears began to accumulate."
The main banners held by the group listed the ways "Christians have harmed "The other individual signs have varied with messages such as" God loves you, us too "and" I do not agree with the LGBT community ".
Salvador said that "people absolutely liked" the group's exhibition, explaining that many parades in the parade had intense reactions to the messages. The teenager told CBS News that some people started to cry when they saw the signs, some hugged and talked to these Christians, some took pictures, like me, and others took pictures. are held there in admiration. broken, then posted on Twitter quickly become viral, with other images of participants.
The group that brought the signs to the parade is from the Church of Liberty in Christ Ministries (FICM), an evangelical and Pentecostal church in Makati, Philippines, reports BuzzFeed News
The pastor of the Church, Val Paminiani, said that he had been participating in Pride parades for about four years as part of the organization's "I'm sorry" campaign.
Paminiani told BuzzFeed News, "We apologize for the way Christians have hurt the LGBT community, including using the Bible to condemn and judge them."
The pastor continued, "I thought God condemned homosexuals, but when I studied the scriptures, especially those we call" Clobbering Scriptures "that are carefully chosen in the Bible to condemn LGBT people, I realized that there was a lot to discover, including the truth that God is against anyone.God does not discriminate based on gender. "
Paminiani said that 39 He hoped that other Christians would not use the scriptures to condemn the LGBT community, as this prevents people from participating in the church and Jesus, according to BuzzFeed News.
We pray that more and more Christians will act, speak and love LGBT people as Jesus would do, "he said.
If Salvador's reaction indicates that the pastor's campaign is affecting the community, some Christians have condemn this church accomplishes its miss ten times.
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link