I love Jesus (not in the imaginary friend way of my childhood, but I love searching for him in history and I love how I come to life when I make certain discoveries...my christology is rooted in a 1st century flesh and blood revolutionary more than in a cosmic Olympian type figure).
Because I love Jesus I am very interested in his revolutionary, anti-imperial politics, in his work as a healer/exorcist/lay philosopher, in his risk taking, in his intimate/personal connection with the God of his understanding, in his insistence on flouting cultural taboos, in his willingness to rethink and dialogue with interpretations of his inherited scriptures and traditions, in people coming to believe he might be the messiah (and his possibly coming to agree with them), with people’s continued experience of him (or his memory or his values) beyond his execution, and I am interested in his personal relationships...
his closeness to a beloved disciple, his friendship with Peter, his place in a chosen family in Bethany, his interesting relationship with a woman from Magdala, his repeated encounters with a mysterious young man in Mark’s gospel, what it meant for him to look at him “and love him”, what it might mean for him to be called “son of David” (whose love for Jonathan was notorious)...
Because I love Jesus I love exploring his life, his intimacies, his sexuality. Like his ancestor David, he might have been bisexual, or he may have been gay, or he may have been straight, or he might have flowed up and down the continuum.
Because I love Jesus, I want to know more about him. Just as those who love me must love the Queer me (because that’s the me there is), to love Jesus is to try to know him, and the him there is to know might be gay or bi...its definitely Queer (regardless of the attractions he felt).
My soteriology is about “wholeness”...and since Jesus is part of the way that I found my path to wholeness (which includes my sexuality), I want to know the whole Jesus (as much as is possible with the years and myths that lie between us) which includes his sexuality. I don’t care if he was celibate or not, that’s none of my business, but he had human feelings and connections and covenants, and those do matter to me a great deal.
Showing posts with label LBGT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LBGT. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Monday, June 13, 2016
Bigotry in the Name of Religion is Still Bigotry and It Has Consquences
The killer in Orlando was apparently outraged by seeing two men kiss in Miami, and his reaction was to kill 49 people in Orlando. Obviously he was mentally ill, and he may have been influenced by extremist ideology, but Heterosexism/homophobia was his primary motivation. Two people expressing affection angered him to the point of committing mass murder. Religious leaders and politicians whose rhetoric continuously dehumanize and demonize same-gender loving people are giving unstable people tacit permission to commit violence. Hate speech, even when disguised as a stump speech or a sermon, fuels the fire of violence. Enough blood has been spilled. I will not "agree to disagree" when it comes to the sacred value of LBGT people. Your opinion is not equal to someone's life. We must insist the bigots own their hatred and its consequences and stop blaming it on "God."
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Not the 1st Night Club Massacre
43 years ago this month a bar that doubled as a church in New Orleans was attacked. It was an act of arson that killed many people. It is devastating that history has repeated itself, that another gay bar In the South has been attacked leading to multiple deaths. Some will use this incident to stoke the flames of homophobia or islamaphobia or to launch a defense of military grade weapons for civilians. But I hope most people will appeal to "the better angels of [their] nature" and not fall into that trap. Let's mourn the losses, and reject the hate, and start to build a better world where all people are valued.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
A Justice Seeking Holy Week
It's Holy Week, and while the pageantry of waving palms, sharing a water ritual, recalling ancient stories, and finally, on Easter Sunday, celebrating the resilience of life, is all quite marvelous, cathartic, therapeutic, and engaging, it is also important to remember that all of it is inspired by a prophetic voice that imperial power tried to silence with extreme violence. That voice could not die, or at least it would not stay dead. It would rise up in the power of community and continuously seek to give people their dignity back.
And so, on this Maundy Thursday of this Holy Week I affirm the sacred value of same-gender loving people. Legislatures may try to silent queer voices, but they will rise to new heights.
Today I affirm the dignity of transgender and gender non-conforming people. Municipalities and state legislatures may try to demonize and dehumanize transgender people but the dignity of trans lives will not be erased by hate speech or fear mongering or oppressive legislation.
Today I affirm the sanctity of women's bodies and women's sovereignty over their bodies. Misogyny may try to control women and limit their choices but Justice will not abandon Her daughters.
Today I affirm the right of Muslims to live peacefully in this country without vilification or harassment. I affirm their freedom of religion and their civil liberties.
Today I affirm the courage of refugees who risk everything and leave behind all that is familiar to keep their families safe and to build a new life in what are too often unwelcoming environments. I take to heart the biblical mandate to welcome the newcomer.
Today I affirm the imperative of every person who can vote to do so at every opportunity.
Today, let us turn over the tables of hate and division and call out the peddlers of fear and bigotry and let us declare boldly that our society is meant to be a House of Goodness for All People. If this is to be a truly Holy Week, it must be a week where injustice is challenged and hope is lifted up.
Too many people have known their own Via Dolorosa, way of suffering. In Holy Week, let us not be content to accept the suffering, but let us address it and move forward to the promise of Renewal that Easter represents. Amen.
And so, on this Maundy Thursday of this Holy Week I affirm the sacred value of same-gender loving people. Legislatures may try to silent queer voices, but they will rise to new heights.
Today I affirm the dignity of transgender and gender non-conforming people. Municipalities and state legislatures may try to demonize and dehumanize transgender people but the dignity of trans lives will not be erased by hate speech or fear mongering or oppressive legislation.
Today I affirm the sanctity of women's bodies and women's sovereignty over their bodies. Misogyny may try to control women and limit their choices but Justice will not abandon Her daughters.
Today I affirm the right of Muslims to live peacefully in this country without vilification or harassment. I affirm their freedom of religion and their civil liberties.
Today I affirm the courage of refugees who risk everything and leave behind all that is familiar to keep their families safe and to build a new life in what are too often unwelcoming environments. I take to heart the biblical mandate to welcome the newcomer.
Today I affirm the imperative of every person who can vote to do so at every opportunity.
Today, let us turn over the tables of hate and division and call out the peddlers of fear and bigotry and let us declare boldly that our society is meant to be a House of Goodness for All People. If this is to be a truly Holy Week, it must be a week where injustice is challenged and hope is lifted up.
Too many people have known their own Via Dolorosa, way of suffering. In Holy Week, let us not be content to accept the suffering, but let us address it and move forward to the promise of Renewal that Easter represents. Amen.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Remembering Antonin Scalia
It is bad form, and probably bad karma, to rejoice when an enemy falls. So, while Justice Scalia used his power and influence to marginalize, demonize, and dehumanize same-gender loving people, even so, I wish him the peace in death that he denied so many in life. The only condition I place on my blessing is that free from the limits of society and physicality, he might know and deeply regret the pain he caused. And my prayer is that the forces of homophobia and hatred that Scalia represented may never do psychological or spiritual damage to any person or community ever again.
Jesus said to bless those who curse you, and so, I bless Scalia's memory - may it inspire us to always work for "liberty and justice for ALL" and may it serve to remind us that we must be diligent against hate, and while we work against hatred, may we also be intentional about not allowing it to infect our own hearts even when remembering those who were not always just toward us. And may those who loved and who will miss Justice Scalia be comforted in their time of grief. Amen.
Jesus said to bless those who curse you, and so, I bless Scalia's memory - may it inspire us to always work for "liberty and justice for ALL" and may it serve to remind us that we must be diligent against hate, and while we work against hatred, may we also be intentional about not allowing it to infect our own hearts even when remembering those who were not always just toward us. And may those who loved and who will miss Justice Scalia be comforted in their time of grief. Amen.
Friday, January 29, 2016
A Prayer for Metropolitan Community Churches in a Time of Great Need
My prayer for the movement (Metropolitan Community Churches) to which I have given half my life so far. It represents my heart only. The movement has barely more than half the churches it had a decade ago, and morale within the movement seems to me to be at an all time low. This is a pivotal moment for the movement; all heart-felt prayers are needed at this time:
Goddess of Justice, Lord of Love, Healing Presence, Guiding Light:
In this blessed moment we pause to give thanks for MCC Founder Troy Perry's vision, his courage, his willingness to affirm the sacred value of all people. Through him, you opened doors that had been closed for far too long; through the movement he launched, many of us found a home, a family, a purpose, and a reason to celebrate who you called and created us to be.
MCC told LBGT people that they mattered. MCC was the embodiment of healing love during the worst of the AIDS crisis. MCC let people in the pews realize that "God" is not a boy's name. MCC changed the world.
But somewhere along the way, we collectively stopped believing that we were uniquely called to do a new thing. Somewhere along the way, we decided we wanted to "fit in." We were tired of fighting, especially after surviving and even winning so many battles. We longed for validation from the "mainstream." And increasingly, we got it. Our righteous indignation which fueled holy Queer activism softened, and as our passion waned, our effectiveness began to wane as well.
In a time when religion is being questioned and old attitudes are being challenged, we had a chance to be something different, fresh, beautifully radical. But instead, we turned our fears, frustrations, and uncertainties into internal battles. We fought for internal recognition. We fought for privilege within our diminishing ranks. We fought to protect the status quo. We fought for the thrill of fighting rather than to achieve any noble purpose, and when the thrill was gone, we continued to fight out of sheer habit. And now, the once compelling vision is buried and we see no angel to roll away the stone to let the vision rise to new life again.
The question so many ask today is, "What shall we do?" And that question seems to have many answers. Some will stay in a declining movement. Some will become radically ecumenical and join multiple organizations, not giving 100% of their devotion and support to any. Some will simply slip away. Some will end their relationship with MCC and start new relationships. We see these options being embraced already.
We have worshiped the deity of the past, the golden calf, Apis the bull-god of yesterday, and now our dreams and hopes are scattered; our tomorrows will be beautiful, but also dispersed. What we have known and devoted so much of our lives to is fading before us, and it is impossible to go back, and we seem to lack the courage and vision to be new again as a movement, so we must be new as individuals and as separate parish communities.
Where we failed, forgive us.
Where we allowed fear to win, forgive us.
Where we allowed personalities to trump possibilities, forgive us.
And whatever the future holds, help us to make the most of it and to thrive in the new day.
Bless Troy, your anointed prophet who changed, and in many cases, saved our lives. Bless those who will continue moving forward. We may never again be the MCC slaying the Giants of homophobia, parting the waters of terror in the age of AIDS, turning the water of discrimination into the wine of marriage equality, and showing the world that worship can be prophetic, energetic, empowering, and ridiculously fun, but let us also never forget that we were that MCC, and whatever we do or become next, that history is part of us and will be part of all future successes.
The days ahead cannot be known to us today, but what we can know is that individually, we still have work to do, and in our communities of faith, we still hold a sacred vision, and we know that as we remain faithful to our highest and best understandings, to our deepest and strongest hopes, to our truest longings to be your love in action and your healing hands touching people in this world, you will continue to work through us and lives will still be changed and blessed, and the world will be better because of our faithfulness.
In your good time, heal our grief, but let us not wait so patiently to do good in the world. We'll embrace healing as and when it comes, but we can't wait for healing to continue to build communities of hope, celebration, and Justice-love. So, let us be about our divinely appointed work, help us do it well, and fill our tomorrows with blessings that are better than any we've known so far. That will be a great miracle, but we believe in miracles. And so it is.
Goddess of Justice, Lord of Love, Healing Presence, Guiding Light:
In this blessed moment we pause to give thanks for MCC Founder Troy Perry's vision, his courage, his willingness to affirm the sacred value of all people. Through him, you opened doors that had been closed for far too long; through the movement he launched, many of us found a home, a family, a purpose, and a reason to celebrate who you called and created us to be.
MCC told LBGT people that they mattered. MCC was the embodiment of healing love during the worst of the AIDS crisis. MCC let people in the pews realize that "God" is not a boy's name. MCC changed the world.
But somewhere along the way, we collectively stopped believing that we were uniquely called to do a new thing. Somewhere along the way, we decided we wanted to "fit in." We were tired of fighting, especially after surviving and even winning so many battles. We longed for validation from the "mainstream." And increasingly, we got it. Our righteous indignation which fueled holy Queer activism softened, and as our passion waned, our effectiveness began to wane as well.
In a time when religion is being questioned and old attitudes are being challenged, we had a chance to be something different, fresh, beautifully radical. But instead, we turned our fears, frustrations, and uncertainties into internal battles. We fought for internal recognition. We fought for privilege within our diminishing ranks. We fought to protect the status quo. We fought for the thrill of fighting rather than to achieve any noble purpose, and when the thrill was gone, we continued to fight out of sheer habit. And now, the once compelling vision is buried and we see no angel to roll away the stone to let the vision rise to new life again.
The question so many ask today is, "What shall we do?" And that question seems to have many answers. Some will stay in a declining movement. Some will become radically ecumenical and join multiple organizations, not giving 100% of their devotion and support to any. Some will simply slip away. Some will end their relationship with MCC and start new relationships. We see these options being embraced already.
We have worshiped the deity of the past, the golden calf, Apis the bull-god of yesterday, and now our dreams and hopes are scattered; our tomorrows will be beautiful, but also dispersed. What we have known and devoted so much of our lives to is fading before us, and it is impossible to go back, and we seem to lack the courage and vision to be new again as a movement, so we must be new as individuals and as separate parish communities.
Where we failed, forgive us.
Where we allowed fear to win, forgive us.
Where we allowed personalities to trump possibilities, forgive us.
And whatever the future holds, help us to make the most of it and to thrive in the new day.
Bless Troy, your anointed prophet who changed, and in many cases, saved our lives. Bless those who will continue moving forward. We may never again be the MCC slaying the Giants of homophobia, parting the waters of terror in the age of AIDS, turning the water of discrimination into the wine of marriage equality, and showing the world that worship can be prophetic, energetic, empowering, and ridiculously fun, but let us also never forget that we were that MCC, and whatever we do or become next, that history is part of us and will be part of all future successes.
The days ahead cannot be known to us today, but what we can know is that individually, we still have work to do, and in our communities of faith, we still hold a sacred vision, and we know that as we remain faithful to our highest and best understandings, to our deepest and strongest hopes, to our truest longings to be your love in action and your healing hands touching people in this world, you will continue to work through us and lives will still be changed and blessed, and the world will be better because of our faithfulness.
In your good time, heal our grief, but let us not wait so patiently to do good in the world. We'll embrace healing as and when it comes, but we can't wait for healing to continue to build communities of hope, celebration, and Justice-love. So, let us be about our divinely appointed work, help us do it well, and fill our tomorrows with blessings that are better than any we've known so far. That will be a great miracle, but we believe in miracles. And so it is.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Holiday Wishes for the LBGT Community
The Holiday Season is meant to be joyful.
During Hanukkah, we recall the story of a limited amount of oil keeping Temple lights burning for eight days in a row. The Hanukkah miracle reminds us that during our times of uncertainty, there is an inextinguishable light of hope within us.
During Christmas we imagine the innocence of baby born in humble circumstances but celebrated by angels; that baby reminds us that we are each a child of God.
Kwanzaa honors African heritage and celebrates the gifts, skills, and contributions of descendants of the West African Diaspora. Kwanzaa challenges us to affirm and appreciate our diverse global family.
And the New Year is a time for releasing the past and looking with hope and expectation toward the possibilities that lie ahead.
No wonder the holidays are filled with gift giving, feasting, prayers for peace, and songs of wonder and joy. It is a sacred season.
However, for LBGT people, it can also be a lonely season. We’ve made many advances in recent years and we’ve overcome many obstacles, and yet there are those who do not celebrate our legal and cultural victories with us. The Right Wing of both politics and religion threaten at every turn to do all that they can to reverse recent advances for LBGT rights and equality. Christian fundamentalists have doubled down on their anti-gay rhetoric. Municipalities have proposed ordinances that would deny many people the protections they need if LBGT folk are included in the mix. And some families, influenced by the worst of politics and religion, have abandoned their LBGT family members, or told them they are welcome home for the holidays only as long as they don’t mention their sexual orientation.
For LBGT people, the holidays can bring up old wounds, or subject them to new insults, new experiences of rejection, or fill them with remorse for not having supportive, loving families that embrace them for they are.
So, to LBGT people who have formed strong, healthy families of choice: Congratulations and Happy Holidays! You are demonstrating the healing power of love.
To LBGT people who remain in the closet, or attempt to return to the closet at least in part in order to spend time with relatives during the holidays, my heart goes out to you and I beg you to affirm your own sacred value. You may never persuade your relatives that you are who are meant to be, but please don’t let them persuade you that you are not. You are part of the beautiful rainbow diversity of humanity.
And to all allies of LBGT people, loving parents and siblings, cousins and friends, aunts and uncles, grandparents and godparents who love your Queer family member not in spite of who they are, but who love them exactly for who they are, let me tell you that you are heroes and your love and compassion will enrich lives and touch hearts in profound and life-giving ways.
The Holidays are meant to fill us with hope, joy, and goodwill. As LBGT people often need those very blessings at this time of year, my wish for our entire community is that the best of the Season will fill our hearts and bring healing to our world, or at very least to our experience of it.
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins is the Senior Minister of Sunshine Cathedral in Fort Lauderdale.
This column was originally written for the Florida AgendaThursday, December 03, 2015
Religion Will NOT Make Your Straight
Here's what most fundamentalists don't seem to know.
Many LBGT Christians not only gave God permission to strike them straight, but spent years begging God to do so. But God didn't, because not even God can heal what is not sick!
Many LBGT Christians try to love their neighbor as themselves (though their fundamentalist Christian neighbors make it very difficult).
Many LBGT Christians spend every day in communion with God, living lives of kindness and generosity, worshiping faithfully, studying the scriptures diligently (which says so much about them since fundamentalists have used the bible as a weapon against them).
You keep telling gays to ask Jesus to fix them as if that never occurred anyone...what you don't seem to realize is that when they prayed, "Please God heal me!" that God did...God healed them of their internalized homophobia, God healed them of the pain the church inflicted on them, God healed them of their fears, God healed them of the mistaken notion that they needed to be healed.
Jesus won't make a gay person straight (that is both impossible and unnecessary), but the sincere prayer of gay Christians has been heard and answered time and again. Christ is present in their consciousness, the scriptures are alive in their hearts (as a comforting rather than condemning message), and they are committed to the words of the prophet Micah: "This is what God requires of you, ONLY to do justice, love mercy, and live humbly."
The reason gay Christians (and gay Jews and 12 steppers and Buddhists, etc.) are not persuaded by angry arguments is because they have their own experience of love, mercy and grace and no one can take that away from them.
Why Do You Think That Gay's Not OK?
Today's fundy fanatic: "Don't ask me to say that homosexuality is okay, because it is not."
Today's Durrellian retort: "Why is same-gender love not okay? Because there are 6 verses in ancient texts say so (or so you think)? The same texts that call for killing non-virgin women, forbidding women to teach men or speak in church, that forbid tattoos and pork and shellfish, that call for the slaughtering of Canannites, that allow faithful people like Job to be tortured to make a point, that allows men to have multiple wives but forbids divorce, that allows child abuse and slavery...those texts also include 6 verses (that can each be deconstructed to be about forbidding rape, exploitation, and idolatry and never condemning love or even mutual attraction) that you think make same-gender love the most intolerable thing in the world? That isn't just, that isn't compassionate, and that isn't sane. You don't have to like gays, but stop wrapping your fear and hatred in the language of religion. You dishonor your religion when you do, and you hurt gay people who only wish for you to stop and otherwise would never treat you the way you treat them."
Today's Durrellian retort: "Why is same-gender love not okay? Because there are 6 verses in ancient texts say so (or so you think)? The same texts that call for killing non-virgin women, forbidding women to teach men or speak in church, that forbid tattoos and pork and shellfish, that call for the slaughtering of Canannites, that allow faithful people like Job to be tortured to make a point, that allows men to have multiple wives but forbids divorce, that allows child abuse and slavery...those texts also include 6 verses (that can each be deconstructed to be about forbidding rape, exploitation, and idolatry and never condemning love or even mutual attraction) that you think make same-gender love the most intolerable thing in the world? That isn't just, that isn't compassionate, and that isn't sane. You don't have to like gays, but stop wrapping your fear and hatred in the language of religion. You dishonor your religion when you do, and you hurt gay people who only wish for you to stop and otherwise would never treat you the way you treat them."
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