Bullying & the Church

So Apple released their contribution to the “It Gets Better” project last Friday and it really connected with me. I felt the need to share it and, in particular, one quote from it that spoke to me and really transcended the boundaries of sexuality and gender identity. So watch the video. The quote is underneath it.

“The bullies seem like the powerful people and the successful people, and the secret of the real world is they’re at the peak of their power at 15 and 16. And there will come a time when the bullies are not successful and the people they bullied are. And you just have to out-survive them.”

I dealt with bullying quite a bit when I was in elementary school and junior high. Not because of my sexuality, but because I was a chubby kid with weird glasses and a speech impediment. Some of those wounds take years to heal. I still need to hear this message and I’m 25. I guarantee there is someone in your life, maybe even you, who needs to hear this. It’s one of the reasons I’m going into ministry. The church has been so woefully silent, even so much to be perpetrators, in establishing who’s in and who’s out in society.

I want to be a pastor who says everyone’s in. Everyone’s welcome.

And I want to actually mean it.

Cheers,
Eric