Priscilla Queen of the Desert

This past week I went to go see Priscilla Queen of the Desert. First, I must say that some of the drag queens had very impressive legs and could certainly navigate high-heels better than I can. But my second thought is much more important. Part of what I feel called to do, as a pastor, is create a space for all people, but I'm not sure I can do that where I am at currently, or perhaps even in this annual conference at all. I kept asking myself throughout the show if someone showed up in drag to my church, would they be welcomed. And honestly, I don't know if they would be. I'm serving in an area that is still ripe with comments about "those people" and brash generalizations linking homosexuality to child abuse. And that breaks my heart. It breaks my heart because no matter what I believe or how welcoming I am as the pastor of the church, it really comes down to how the people in the pews treat others and how their ideologies get lived out in their interactions.

I'm getting back into the swing of reading again for pleasure. Last week I read The Help, which has received a good deal of press recently as it was turned into a movie. I haven't seen the movie, but in the book, which takes place in the 1960s, one of the white women in the town goes on a rampage to get the domestic help in homes different toilets, either in the backyard in a shack or in the garage. Her logic was that people of color have different diseases due to the pigment of their skin which can be transmitted through sharing toilet seats. Now we may be taken aback, but wasn't this part of the prevalent logic in the early through mid-1900s that lead to segregation? Now we cringe at the ignorance of those who have come before us. I cannot help but think that we are going to have just as much shame and cringing in the future over the absurd generalizations we make about LGBTQIQA folks in the future. Assumptions that have blocked relationships and that have prevented us from being the body of Christ.

It doesn't really matter what you believe what the Bible says about various sexualities; we can use the Bible justify whatever we want. And that has caused us to cringe as well. The ways we've used the Bible to humiliate and subjugate people and strip away their humanity. Whatever you believe, the Bible is still abundantly clear that we are called to love all people. When will we begin to let the great commandment to love the Lord our God with our entire beings and love others as we love ourselves become a reality? When will the church start to see with the eyes of Christ and respond with the Heart of God with actions lead by the Holy Spirit?