On Reverence

I'm starting to write this blog in my backyard, before 7:00 am. It's nice and cool out. Cute little hummingbirds are hovering nearby. The noises of the city are few and more like white noise in the background. That's as good as it gets since our neighborhood is centrally located. Being out here is one of my favorite pastimes, and one I don't get to do frequently these days.

Another pastime of mine occurs solely in my head. I'll listen to pastors give great sermons and wonder if they would change the sermon if they were speaking to LGBT people. I was radio surfing on my drive home and stumbled on one guy speaking of Christians needing to have reverence for God when it came to all the matters we squabble about. He was saying we need to remember that God is in control no matter who is in office.

I wondered if he'd also promote reverence for God when discussing whether or not homosexuality is a sin. The current debate is so focused on trying to convince the other side that you're the one with the right biblical interpretation. People have made great logical arguments invoking historical context, experts on ancient languages, and personal experiences.   

What about God?

Neither side is actually letting God decide the issue.  The closest both sides seem to get is to ask the other side “to prayerfully consider” their interpretation.

That's not reverence. Reverence is knowing that our all-powerful God is control of this whole big messy situation. Reverence is knowing that God loves those we disagree with. Reverence is remembering that the Christians who disagree with us, even the ones who think we are committing a huge offense by showing love to the gay community, also attend a church and praise and worship God.

Reverence is trusting Him to meet people on an individual basis and show them His heart, in His timing, and as He sees fit.

Maybe that's why the debate keeps persisting - maybe God is waiting for us to remember He is in control of all of this.  Waiting for Christians to remember their own cliché - "let go and let God" - instead of going back and forth with arguments based on human logic.  

 

I think our reverence for God is displayed in how we show respect to those who disagree with us.

 

That's easy to say now. We don't currently have anyone damning us to hell on our Facebook page. Hopefully I'll remember this post in a few months when they show up again.

Where Are We Going?

Several people have asked us: now what? We have a great experience at Pride every year but that doesn't place us next to the local LGBT community year-round. So what else are we going to do?

I have to admit I was stumped by that question for awhile, and then I was stumped further by my own head trying to make things too complicated. Thank you God for guidance and direction and confirmations!

We have two major goals for moving forward in the short-term, that is, over the next 12-24 months:

1. Perspectives – We will be interviewing various people with different views on sexuality and/or Christianity and bringing these perspectives to you on our blog. This will include different people who identify as LGBT as well as Christian leaders and scholars. We also will be studying different materials and reading books to bring you what we learn and identify what we need to learn. We will be inviting guests to author relevant blogs as well. These perspectives are not all going to agree, and that is the point. Obviously we are addressing a highly complex issue and a single viewpoint does not serve anyone in any honest way.
   
   
2. Volunteerism – As a way of showing love to the LGBT community as well as to get ourselves out there, we plan on volunteering at local events related to the LGBT community and inviting you to volunteer with us. We need to get elbow-deep in the mud – we can't just sit here at a computer and claim to be “doing something”.

[On a side note, I know many people have been told, over and over, that showing any sort of love is a way of condoning a person's sin. There are big issues in that statement that we need to address separately. For now let us say this: Jesus showed love by getting close to those who religious leaders labeled as unfit to participate in the religion because of their behavior. He ate dinner with them in a culture where meals were much longer and more intimate occasions than they are today. The simple act of eating a meal with them showed them love because He did it in spite of, and maybe even because, the religious leaders labeled them as sinners and sneered at Him for being there. Our endeavor here is to reach out to the local LGBT community and show them Christ-like love. We don't recall any stories where Christ held back from loving someone because He didn't want to condone their sin.]

In speaking with a sister organization in Lexington, and confirmed by another individual doing the same work in Memphis, volunteerism is a cornerstone of growing our own local organization. We do not move that direction lightly. We also will not be doing any in the immediate future for various reasons, but know this: when we truly launch into volunteering, we need at least 6 months of steady activity to have the impact we desire. We will launch that aspect when the time is right.

My heart breaks some days because I can't do this all at once. I wish I was super-human, or at least one of those people whose bodies only need a few hours of sleep every day. But God has laid a path for us to do more in His time instead of my own. As you keep us in your prayers, please include a prayer that we have the strength and patience to endure.

Where have we been?

Well, we haven't posted since September. The “cliffnotes” version is we had a baby. We were about six months pregnant at the parade. Evelyn, a name we picked out before we knew the gender, was born on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who have never had a baby, it is a very physical experience. Hormones go crazy and life revolves around food, swollen ankles, medical tests, and needing tons of rest. Like some cruel joke morning sickness returns in the third trimester. And I was a bit anemic which made me a practical zombie - a zombie with a very large beach ball under my shirt. It was also a high-risk pregnancy due to a blood clotting disorder which can cause malnourishment to the fetus and even miscarriages and stillbirths. And then we had an emergency c-section because of the way the cord was wrapped around her neck. God was with us the whole time, leading us to the right doctors and medical decisions which resulted in a very strong and healthy baby. The pregnancy and birth experience are definitely one of our major life testimonies.

Many months before my pregnancy, I remember researching why God commanded the Israelite women to purify themselves after childbirth and menstruation (for example see Lev. 12). After all, He created our bodies with those abilities so how could they be sinful? And if these activities aren't sinful then why do they require purification?

One concept I found was that the Israelites weren't viewing things as “good vs. bad” or “sinful vs. not sinful” like we do today. They viewed a spectrum of earthly to spiritual. And yes, pregnancy is a very earthly experience that left me needing a spiritual cleansing, a piecing back together, from all the focusing on my body, the life inside of me, and the hormones that drove my husband and other people crazy.

The point of this is that maybe we've got the wrong mindset. I'm not saying sin doesn't exist, but I am saying that we go too far in thinking every single thing we do must either be all good or all bad. Pregnancy for example is neither good or bad in the context of sin. It is, however, way more earthly than spiritual. The mindset of a spectrum of earthly to spiritual allows for better understanding of each person's lifelong journey with God. Such a mindset fits when looking at why some Christians have cut something out of their lives (alcohol comes to mind as an example) while others lead spiritual lives without removing it. As 1 Cor 6:12 says, things may be “lawful” for Christians to do but not everything will be profitable to the individual. It is something for each person to work out with God. 

Another thing I learned when looking into the Jewish purification ritual is that some things could be purified in still waters while others, including pregnancy, required bathing in fresh flowing waters, also referred to as living water. I had always thought Jesus referring to himself as “living water” was just a nice metaphor. I see now how meaningful it was when He said, “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38 NIV; see also John 4 for another usage). 

The idea that you don't have to undertake rituals to be purified, that a human can directly access God for forgiveness and spiritual renewal was revolutionary and still is revolutionary for many people. This little amazing fact had such a high cost – the life of the pure and perfect Son of God; God who loves each of us so much, right here and now and in all of our sin, that He paid that cost. 

We know this had little to do with the LGBT community. Our next post will be more on-topic as we answer a very important question: Where are we going with this? Yes we know, many have been wondering. We were wondering ourselves for awhile. God has provided an answer and confirmations about where we're headed and we hope you will come with us on the journey.

Further reading:  An interesting explanation of the Jewish water purification ritual, written by Mayim Bialik (better known to some as Blossom or Amy Farrah Fowler): http://www.kveller.com/traditions/Jewish-Living/the-mikveh.shtml

Our Big Gay Weekend

Hi all, and welcome to our blog! Yes, this is our first post!  Look for future announcements on how we'll be using this blog going forward.  We have two blog series in mind.  But that's getting ahead of ourselves.  We just had an amazing weekend attending local Pride events and we want you to know about it.

Friday night was the Pride parade and you probably have seen the pix already.  If not they are on our Facebook page.  We had 20 people there holding signs, passing out info cards, and telling the gay community that we love them.  More often than not, this community hears hate and not love from Christians.  But, they will know we are His followers by our love. 

Some people wonder what this would really accomplish.  On Friday night alone, we had many parade-goers want to take pictures with us.  People marching in the parade would take pictures and stop to hug us.  Some were teary-eyed.  Many thanked us for being there.  One of the grand marshals read our "Love Speaks Louder" poster, our group's name, into the microphone near 4th and Fremont which is the most crowded area at the parade. 

People would ask us who we were and what we were doing.  This led to some great conversations.  In this picture (left), an audience member lady asked about us.  After a volunteer told her what we were doing, she asked our volunteer to pray for her right there on the spot.  This scenario repeated itself multiple times.  We had another audience member give us $20 to donate to the church after hearing why we were at the parade. 

And we did receive some negativity - it came from people who saw posters, expected the worst, and reacted before reading them.  One of our leaders had a soda thrown on her feet from across the street.  Another volunteer had a sign knocked down.  After it was on the ground the individual read it then apologized.  We don't hold their actions against them.  These actions came from hurt caused by how this community has been treated in the past.

That's why this was so powerful.

The next morning we found out that a picture of our group was posted to the Facebook page of QVegas  Magazine (over 33,000 "like" their page).  It was shared by complete strangers, one of whom stated that it was his favorite part of the parade.  We can only imagine how many people have shared it (most shares are blocked by privacy settings), how many people have seen it already, and what it's doing for them.  Our own photo has already reached over 500 people and we only have around 70 followers; imagine how many 33,000 would reach!

On Saturday, we went to Pride's Festival to see what it was like.  It is a bunch of booths, performances, and food vendors.  We ate a funnel cake.  We went contemplating the idea of getting a booth next year.  Didn't plan to stay long.  Just wanted to take some pictures and see what it was like.  Some of what goes on there many would find to be vulgar.  Some is fun, family-friendly entertainment.  There were also two church booths at the fest (Imago Dei, which is a ministry of the Catholic church, and Northwest Community Church which is from the United Church of Christ denomination). 

We ran into a friend.  Our unexpected "tour guide" spent hours with us.  By the end he knew what we stood for very clearly and shared some of his own experiences with Christianity.  In addition, we were able to meet many leaders from LGBT community organizations.  We have known that we will need to build credibility in the community and we feel that doors were opened for us on Saturday.  We also got to meet the owner of QVegas, who played photographer at the parade.  He stated that "the picture" is everywhere.

We also spoke with many people who (because we wore our "I'm Sorry" shirts) ended up recognizing us as "the people with the posters".  We got to have further conversations with them.  They came from a variety of backgrounds but all were thankful for our presence, both Friday and Saturday.

When we went to the festival, we didn't know it but God was up to something.

As for our readers, we want you to know that this is no longer a once-a-year thing.  We need to get involved with this community and we can't expect them to recognize us, let alone trust us enough to discuss tough issues, if we only show up once a year.  This blog will be a launching point for sharing what we're up to.  Most of our work will be spending time speaking to a variety of people in person and sharing the information with you.