Tag: LGBT

And He Healed Them All

In the news today:

Health care workers who want to refuse to treat patients because of religious or moral beliefs will have a new defender in the Trump administration.

This, of course, is straight out of the religious right’s anti-LGBT playbook, right along with protecting bakers and photographers and other businesses who want to discriminate. This case, however, stands out for me, because of the direct Biblical implications.

Jesus, among many other things, was a healer. Throughout the Gospels, he heals numerous people, of a variety of ailments: blindness, leprosy, a withered hand, bleeding, even death. He heals people, by touch, who were deemed unclean and unacceptable by the culture of the time. Where other healers wouldn’t go, Jesus went. He loved the unlovable, not in word, but in deed.

thehealericonMost importantly, Jesus never refused to heal anyone.

To take just one example, flip to Matthew 9:20-22. In this story, found in all three Synoptic Gospels, Jesus heals a woman who had “been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years,” via her touching his cloak. By Levitical law, she is unclean, and he is made unclean at her touch. In the time of Jesus, this would have been unthinkable and dangerous. Being unclean was the worst thing a Jew could be, according to the Law of Moses, and the rituals required to become clean again, not to mention the massive inconvenience to a person’s life in the meantime, were onerous.

Yet, Jesus never hesitated to heal her. He did not get angry at the women, call her unclean, worry about his own cleanliness, and by extension, his own soul or salvation under the law. Rather, he simply healed, and by healing, loved unconditionally. In fact, he went so far as to tell the woman that her faith had healed her. That is, the courage and trust that she showed in coming to him, was greatly rewarded.

Those who are sick today, who might be considered unclean or unwanted, because of their gender identity or who they love, also come to health care providers in trust, and with courage, believing they, too, are worthy of their humanity, and thus of being made well and whole. I would hope that any health care provider, and especially those who heal under the name of “Christian,” would emulate the unconditional nature of Jesus, and heal all in need. No conditions, no consequences, no caveats.

This attempt by the Trump administration, and the politicized religious right, to divide and dehumanize, to make “us and them” relevant categories again, to try to institute the same kind of blind dogmatism and legalism that Jesus stood so forcefully against, can not be allowed to take hold. If someone in need comes into their operating room, someone the preacher and the politician on their cable news show told them is “untouchable,” and they go looking for a verse of Scripture for guidance, I hope the only one they find is Matthew 15:30:

“Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others, and laid them at his feet,

and he healed them all.”

Hope and Rage: Responding to Orlando

America has a problem.

Several problems, actually.

We have a problem with guns. We have a problem with Muslims. And we have a problem with LGBTQI+ people.

And this weekend, all three of those problems came together in an orgy of violence and hate-based reactions to that violence.

America has problems. Problems we can’t solve with a paradigm shift in how we understand and engage with the world.

***

13406774_1082534845153426_4820491155348874826_nI first heard the news out of Orlando early yesterday morning, after getting up to get ready to head for work at All Souls. Once I resolved to write about it, my first instincts were anger, frustration and vitriol towards those I know perpetuate these kinds of things in our society.

That was my instinct throughout the day, as news unfolded and the death toll rose about 50. Every time I opened Facebook, I saw the anguished, fearful and rage-filled reactions of my LGBT friends, and their many allies. And so anguish, fear and rage is what I continued to feel as well.

I felt (and feel) rage about the fact that, after hundreds and hundreds of deaths, this country still would rather worship the false god of the 2nd Amendment, and his consort, the false goddess of money, than respect and value the worth of human bodies. It fills me with rage that a small minority of special interests refuses to allow us to engage the very really problem of gun violence, a problem that only seems to exist in America.

I feel rage that this catastrophe will be used to create hate and fear towards our Muslim brothers and sisters, all of whom are love-filled, peaceful human beings, children of God like you and I. Instead of knowing that, elements of our society (led by a certain opportunistic, xenophobic presidential candidate) will use this as an opportunity to spread hate and Islamaphobia, casting the guilt of a small number of violent cretins who misuse the name of the Prophet (PBUH) to spread their medieval ideology onto an entire religion.

And it fills me with rage that again – AGAIN – our LGBTQI+ siblings have been targeted by regressives with violence, and have again become victims of hate just because of who they are. Again, they must be explicitly reminded they everyday they have to live in fear. But what really fills me with rage is that the very “leaders” and bigots who fan the flames of hate – who spend all their time bemoaning the supposed dangers of LGBT people marrying who they love, using the restroom and the dressing room, even just existing, those who use religion and “Common sense” to spread hate speech and state that LGBT people are somehow subhuman and unworthy of the same rights and privileges as other human beings – these folks will be taking to Twitter and Fox News to offer “thoughts and prayers” and talk about how we need “Biblical values” right now. These people have blood on their hands, and it is awfully rich of them to act anguished and upset now, when this is merely the logical outcome of their rhetoric and actions.

This is the rage I felt, and that I still feel.

***

IMG_20160612_190404Last night, I attended a beautiful Taize service at Trinity Episcopal Church here in Tulsa. It was just what my soul needed after the feelings evoked by Orlando. The quiet, the dark, the candles, the beautiful music – perfect.

And it was during the times of silence and prayer in that beautiful space, that I began to feel rage dissipate as the primary feeling I had. Instead, as I sat there, and I experienced the love of God, I felt a new feeling: hope.

I know that’s easy for me to feel, as a white male in Tulsa. I didn’t lose any loved ones yesterday. I didn’t have my community, my existence, attacked yesterday, and everyday for years and years.

But hope is what I feel now. Hope that maybe this time, this horrific, terrible, unspeakable event, will be the one that tips the scales.

I have hope that maybe the scale of this atrocity, perpetuated by a man who was on terrorist watch lists but still able to purchase guns, will wake us up to the absolute necessity of common sense rules around the purchase of guns, and a better sense of the culture of violence gun culture creates.

I have hope that it will be this that wakes people up to the fact that the rhetoric and language used by so many in this nation about LGBT people is unacceptable and dangerous. Maybe people’s hearts will be thawed as a result of the very human nature of this tragedy, by the images of bodies no different that yours and mine, cast down and lifeless. Maybe we can take a big step forward here in accepting our LGBT siblings for who they are, acknowledging their inherent worth for who they are.

And I have hope that maybe we will be strong enough and mature enough to not blame our Muslim brothers and sisters for the actions of this man, or the actions of ISIS or Al Qaeda or any other group or person who hijacks their faith for their own selfish reasons. I have hope that, as we watch American Muslims rally with us in support of peace, we will begin to see that they worship the same God the rest of us do, and that at the end of this life, they will join us in the next life just like everyone else. I have hope that we will see past the demagoguery and hate of those asking to lead us, that we will not succumb to racism, xenophobia, fascism, but instead we will rally together as a nation around love and hope.

***

In the face of the great tragedy and sickness we see in Orlando, I have hope. I have rage, but I also, overwhelmingly, have hope.

I have hope because, after leaving Taize last night, I saw images and words from the vigil held here last night at the Majestic club, of people of all walks of life and religions and backgrounds, coming together to support one another and demonstrate that, in the end, love wins. Hate and violence will always fail. Love and acceptance wins in the end, because God is love and we are walking images of that Love and that Love can’t lose.

So, grieve, hurt, cry, scream, rage. Recognize that we have big problems as a society. It’s right to do so, and you should. But have hope. The night is darkest before the dawn, but the dawn WILL come.

More Hate for LGBTQI+ in Oklahoma

I’ve come to believe that Christianity is largely defined by its relational nature. What I mean is, authentic Christianity is characterized by the interpersonal relations it encourages and fosters, especially those between historically alienated groups. We find true justice and mercy not in impersonal, faceless bureaucracies and second-hand charity, but in going to and identifying with those in need, in joining with them in their space and looking within them seeing their Thou, as Buber puts it. Only through this kind of face-to-face human interaction do we experience God, and start to bring the Kingdom here on Earth.

ok captiol lgbtConsequently, much of the bigotry and hatred we see expressed towards people who are different is a result of a deficit of relational interaction. Being tribal beings, we herd together with those like us and view the strange and different as dangerous and bad. It’s basic evolutionary psychology that we have yet to consistently be able to overcome. Only by breaking down walls and barriers, by bringing disparate groups together and facilitating relationships, will we finally begin to defeat the aforementioned bigotry and hatred.

A lack of respect and love for our neighbors in on display here in my home state of Oklahoma, as it seems to be every year when the Legislature goes back into session. Our House and Senate seem characterized by fear and reactionary legislation aimed at those that are different and not understood and thus scary. Usually, that manifests in discriminatory legislation aimed at LGBT individuals, Muslims, women, or black and brown people. This year is no exception, and I particularly want to focus on the latest hate being directed by our elected leaders towards the LGBTQI+ community in Oklahoma.

This has been a banner year for LGBTQI+ rights in America, with the Supreme Court finally upholding marriage equality for all people, and acceptance becoming more common across the nation and in most arenas of public life. Despite this amazing progress, someone forget to clue in the Oklahoma legislature. Three pieces of legislation in particular are coming to a committee near you:

  • SB1014, which protects us from the nonexistent and imagined scourge of trans people using public restrooms to molest unsuspecting patrons.
  • SB440, which brings back the tired fight for “religious freedom” for your friendly neighborhood bakers and hair dressers and photographers who feel that having to interact with LGBT folks somehow will send them to hell
  • And HB3044, probably the most disgusting of all, which forbids school counselors from providing any counseling or resources to kids who are feeling conflicted or confused about their sexuality. That was authored and introduced by the legendary Sally Kern, who really needs no introduction from me.

It’s that last one that really has my blood boiling and my heart filled with sadness. Questions of sexuality and gender and attraction are some of the toughest things teenagers have to deal with. These feelings can be terrifying, and often times, families are unwilling to help. Especially in the case of those who may be feeling that they are LGBT, families and pastors are often the most unwilling, and the first to condemn. Thus, the school counselor may be the only friendly face they have, the only knowledgeable, supportive adult that may be preventing them from becoming another terrible, tragic statistic. For our state legislators to presume to insert themselves between a counselor and his or her students is unconscious able and immoral. If this piece of legislation gains the status of law, then the blood of every LGBTQI+ child who takes their own life because of the despair and alienation they feel will be on their hands.

Would they feel that these kinds of legislation were called for if, say, it was their child who was LGBTQI+? This brings me back to where I started: this kind of hate and bigotry comes from a lack of relations with those classified as “different.” Our legislators act this way, and thousands of Oklahomans continue to vote for them, because they essentially have no contact with LGBTQI+ people, or Muslims, or black and brown people, or basically anybody who is not a straight, white Christian. If they did, if they had to face up on a day-to-day basis with those they spend so much time condemning, they would be confronted with their lack of love, with their abdication of our Christian, and human, obligation to live in peace with one another. They would be convicted of their hate, and maybe begin to come around. But instead, so many live in bubbles of safety, shunning and hating all that is different, justifying that hate in the name of Jesus and the Bible and whatever else it takes to soothe their souls, knowing deep down that love is the only honest way of living in the world, but unwilling to take that chance.

If this bill passes here in Oklahoma, maybe next year a related piece of legislation should be considered. Maybe we should mandate that every student denied the services of their school counselor should instead get partnered with a legislator who votes for this bill, who then has to sit with them through their anguish and fear, and see what their actions have done. And every family who loses a child due to the feelings of guilt and shame encouraged by our “leaders” should get an hour alone with a legislator to let them know what they think of their legislative cowardice and pandering.

Of course, they would never dream of giving themselves such responsibilities. Instead they will continue to invoke the name of their god in the defense of their hate, and continue to live in their disconnected little bubble, away from the people who they are hurting every time they make that trip to OKC to encode their bigotry in law. And in so doing, they will continue to reject the Way of Jesus, the only way to God, which is through love of neighbor.