“Acceptance Strategy. Ain’t it grand?”

Well it certainly has been an interesting few weeks. First after a community meeting to find some common ground as to how to handle a belligerent homophobe in the Georgia State House, I was told point blank that I had no clue as to how to get things done with legislators. I was also told I had no idea of what it was to be a target every day at work. Huh?

Then a couple of weeks later the Georgia State House passes a resolution honoring an openly gay politician for their work in our community, and our community is no where to be found in the document except in code and the word gay just doesn’t exist. Huh?

One of the local gay news outlets “The GA Voice” has an editorial piece questioning the legitimacy of the honor if it is handed out in code.

“It's one thing to utilize a subtle strategy to pass laws that benefit LGBT Georgians — like a general bullying bill that will help gay students, or a broader bill about hospital visitation when LGBT people are particularly vulnerable in these areas. Such an approach can be necessary to keep progress moving, even slowly, in a hostile legislature.

But I can't help but wonder about the value of a resolution — which is designed to honor an individual — if we have to hide our heroes in the closet in order for them to get it.”

This editorial was met with an immediate response from the author of the resolution, to which the long and short of the response is this:

“Instead of a “closeting strategy,” as your paper suggests, passing this resolution might better be described as an “acceptance strategy. And ain’t it grand?” Huh?

I am sorry folks but this just strikes me as a nicer and cleaner form of “don’t ask don’t tell”!

I may not understand how all the ingredients to making sausage legislation works but I do understand it is not my job or the communities job to make those who seek to do us harm or deny us our rightful place in American society either overtly or covertly comfortable.

In fact as leaders in the community our job is more like the old saying, “to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

I have been a pastor in our community since 1986, I have been married to my “husband” since 1982 and I have been out of the closet for 43 of my 56 years on this earth. Not once have I changed a pronoun, denied I was gay or allow homophobic slurs to go unchallenged. In fact when I answered the call to ministry and thereby becoming a leader in our community I took to heart the words of Jesus when he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,” (Luke 4:18)

So with me it has always been, what you see is what you get. I will admit this has not gotten me a lot of invites into the “halls of power”.

A couple of years ago, I was called for jury duty in Fulton County. For those of you have been through this you know it is a huge cattle call. There are a couple of hundred people put in a room to wait to be called as potential jurists for a trial.

When they call you into a particular courtroom the vetting process begins with the attorney’s. They ask all kinds of personal questions including if you are married or not.

Teachable moment.

When asked if I was married my response was, “Not according to the State of Georgia.” Well the room of 60 or so folks got a small education in meeting a pastor who was gay and had been in a relationship longer than most of the room. The outcome? I didn’t get picked to serve but did give my card out to a half dozen people who wanted or needed a conversation about the whole “gay” thing.

When Representative Bobby Franklin says,

“we're told in 1st Corinthians it rattled off the homosexual, the adulterer, the thief, the liar, and such were some of you, but you've been washed, you've been justified and so forth. It's not what you were. You're not punishing a thought. But do you want an unrepentant drug dealer in the military? Same thing."

This cannot go unchallenged.

So when it was challenged you would have thought the world was about to end.

Had he said that about any other group of people, oh my God there would have been hell to pay! It is not enough they he went to our two openly gay representatives and allegedly apologized to them, saying, “I wasn’t talking about you darlin.”

First of all how sexist is that? Since when does one get to refer to a State Representative as “darlin”?

It also does not matter if most of his colleagues think he is nuts. What he said and what he has done since is vicious, arrogant and unacceptable. We as a community must hold him accountable. Are you reading this closely those of you who live his district? If you are in his district, time to step up and run against him and all his craziness. Your community is calling I pray to God you answer!

Our 2 representatives have faced bullying that is uncalled for in the least and would qualify as assault and sexual harassment in any other work environment. Where is the community outrage? Where is our community support? Do they not need our outrage? Do they not need our calls for dignity and decency? Calls? Hell no… demands!

Maybe that is why at least one of the representatives feels it necessary to have an “acceptance strategy”!

I have often said the folks on the “political and religious right” talk about us like we are not in the room or if they see us in the room they don’t care. They have been given a free ride, cause you know it is “just those homos who God hates.”

If I am correct even though our representatives chose to run and got elected to serve, they did not volunteer to do it alone without us to back them up when the “teachable moments” come.

I find it interesting there was a huge outrage and action on the part of our community when the Eagle was subject of a “raid”.

So now I wonder where is the outrage, the community out pouring of our time, talents and wealth, political and spiritual pressure when we are faced with:

1 in 4 black men being HIV positive

Our young people believing safe sex and relationships are passé because HIV is manageable.

1,000 plus on a waiting list for HIV meds

No shelter in the city allowing Transgender persons a place to lay their head as the gender they identify with.

It is still apparently ok to throw the Transgender community under the bus if it means the rest of the community gets what it wants.

Having no real protection from “hate crimes”.

Having no employment protection.

Having no property protection.

Having few ways of protecting our spouses with insurance.

Living in paralyzing fear our kids will be taken from us.

Allowing our relationships to be trashed in the State Constitution

Watching as immigrants in our state maybe required to show papers to prove who knows what-how far away can having a gay card requirement be? By the way some of those immigrants are GLBTQI and will be killed when they are sent back.

Allowing ourselves to be pushed out of our neighborhoods and clubs by neighborhood associations.

Allowing racism, sexism, ageism and the entire ism’s to go unattended in a meaningful way in our community.

The list goes on, but wait maybe the representative is right after all. Our non-profits are all suffering from a lack of volunteers and money and our leaders are feeling alone because we as the LGBTQIA community as a whole have become a little too comfortable with an “acceptance strategy. And ain’t it grand?”

Thirteen and Counting…

On March 15, 2011 our little contribution to theological chaos will be 13 years old and the last 5 of those years we have made an intentional choice to conduct worship outside.

It was this choice that has moved us from a “gay-centric” church to a church which lives on the edge with all those who find themselves there as well. Of course the population of those who live on the edge of society has far more folks than LGBTQIA folks; yet, it has been interesting that even though we no longer see ourselves as a “gay church” the community label has stuck.

As we literally have become a “Church without walls”, this has been met with smiles, rolling of eyes and about 95% of the time an exclamation of “REALLY?” This is usually followed by, “What do you do when it rains?”

So a while back when I got a call from one of my friends that I have not seen for a long time, you can just imagine the conversation.

Stacy, who is a very conservative Christian, was concerned about my state of mind. She has never liked the fact I was gay and has spent the last 30 years or so praying God would turn me into a butch straight man. Right, like that was going to happen!

She had “bumped” into our website and after being horrified we don’t think “homosexuals” are going to burn in hell, her heart almost stopped when she read our mission statement.

Then she saw where we were worshipping, not just occasionally but 52 weeks out of the year.

She almost yelled at me, “Your church services are held in a park…outside…without walls…where everybody can see who you are…have you lost your mind? Don’t you know that if you are going to be a church and preach all this stuff that will piss good Christian people off, you should be inside where it is safe?”

Well, the long and short of it was I got her calmed down and we had a great conversation about why we moved outside and how the biggest desire of this congregation besides serving God was to “walk the talk”.

After I hung up I wondered how many other people think I (we) are insane. Maybe that is why growth has been a little slow. Yet this is a group of people with real guts to worship in a public park. I say this because:

1. The weather-there is sometimes too much heat; other times not nearly enough heat. Of course there are the times the roof (sky) leaks rather substantially. Of course then there is the wind. Things can and do blow around.

2. In the spring and summer there are plenty of ants, gnats, flies and mosquitoes, the occasional bee or wasp.

3. There are lots of other people in the park, with their kids laughing and carrying on. Cars coming and going.

4. The city garbage people managed to show up each week to empty the trashcans around the pavilion during our worship time.

5. There is a huge soccer league just across from us, which gets pretty loud sometimes.

6. There are also the strange looks you get from some folks as they walk by…

So yeah, I guess it takes some guts to meet outside for church. It takes a person really choosing to be there. It takes a willingness to let God be the decorator, rather then some architect. It takes a conscience choice to dress for the weather rather then for people’s approval.

It means being committed to bring food each time you come for the worship service, rather then having some committee sign people up to serve coffee and cookies after service.

It means that anyone and I do mean anyone, can show up for church and not look out of place. It also means that an important part of the congregation on any given Sunday is our pets.

It means you know where most of Jesus' ministry took place.

It also means one is willing to practice their faith right out in the open for everyone to see.

This also means that the walls that keep many folks out of church are now gone.

Over the years the church buildings and what goes on inside out of sight from the world has come to represent for some people the worst of Christianity.

You have rules for dress.

Rules for who is and isn’t a member.

Rules for who can be in the building and when.

Rules for when the building will actually be unlocked and available for prayer or meditation. I have to say most buildings are locked up tight all week and only open on Sunday.

Rules as to what groups can and cannot use the building.

Rules for building use-“we can’t have homosexuals, drug addicts, homeless people, transgender, drunks, non-bible believing Christians, or other unrepentant sinners occupying the property”.

My God, the fights…fights over whose property is it anyway? Think I am kidding; just ask any Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist or Presbyterian.

Fights over who gave more to the building fund and therefore should have more say in the building use.

Fights over the way the building should look; the fancier the better…the bigger the better.

Fights over the signage; what kind, how big, what should it say?

Fights over how the decorations will be placed or if there should there be decorations.

Fights over the flowers each week and what kind of flowers or plants he or she will bring.

The list is endless and when you really stop and think about all of the aforementioned stuff, it really gets in the way of the message and what church is suppose to be about.

It is pretty hard to worship God when you are upset about what happened at a trustees meeting and you find yourself sitting somewhere other then that special pew by the favorite stained glass window.

Maybe we have lost our minds but God’s actual house is pretty neat to worship in.

God’s house is decorated to perfection every Sunday. The seasonal church colors take care of themselves.

Even if nobody volunteers to be in the choir, each Sunday in God’s house there is a choir from the birds, kids’ laughter and the wind through the trees.

We have truly learned what it is to make a joyful noise!

In God’s house passers-by stop for a moment to say hello, meet the pets or wait until a prayer is finished.

In God’s house folks feel free to share a bite to eat.

In God’s house it will never be locked and is always available for prayer, walks or some alone time.

In God’s house there is room for any and all who want to come. There are no doors, windows or walls to block the movement of the Holy Spirit.

In God’s house there is a wild, crazy and wonderful feeling of peace, community and solitude all at the same time.

In God's house we have given the opportunity to meet and get to know some of the most unique and beautiful people of God's creation, who have taught us far more about unconditional love then we would have ever experienced inside.

Then of course there are the people who make this all work. These are the people who have made a choice to step outside the politically correct and trappings of tradition. For when one is outside, it not only means you are literally without walls, but it also reminds us our faith calls us to be without walls as well. One can actually see life as it is.

We have a core group of people who, with a simple phone call, will help with housing, food, medical, recovery issues, mental health issues, jobs, legal matters, financial needs and transportation.

We have people who have simply opened their homes to those who needed a place to stay; no conditions to length of time, no expectations of being paid…just opened their home.

We have people who, week after week, bring food for those who had none.

We have people who, week after week, have provided rides to doctors, grocery stores, hospitals, to jobs or back home.

We have people who have volunteered to help people move, gave money to those in need with no expectation of ever getting one dime back.

We have those who call the church office week after week to inquire about any special prayer concerns.

We have a few people who walk 2.5 miles to church each and every Sunday regardless of weather.

We have a group of people who can testify to the healing power of God almost daily.

These folks are all heroes because in a world where recognition, wealth, power and control mean everything, it means nothing to them. One’s sexual orientation (straight, gay or somewhere in between), gender identity, race, immigration status, socio-economic standing, a particular gender or faith walk have all taken a back seat to the practice of the Gospel. Except for here most of you will never hear of them in the media or in the power places of the community.

I thank God for these faithful people of God who over the course of 13 years and especially in the last 5 years, have “walked the talk”:

Braden, Allen, Robbin, Rev. Jarrod and Erin, Kim and Sharon, Gareth, Carmen,
Maru, Lance, Monica, Corey, Vicar Alyce, Teresa, Ann Marie, Estelle and Erin,
Christopher, Maura (Spike), Richard, William, Caroline Ray, Rev. Judy, Nancy, Bob, Clinton, Phyllis, Susan, Jeff, Father Warren, Charles, James, Bill, Charles, Wolf, Jennifer, Enrique, Zan and Elizabeth, Bill, Aaron, Tom, Rev. Candace, Rev. Guy Kent
Rev. James Brewer-Calvert, Dixon, Marie, Jenny, David, Dwight, Stanley, Chuck, Darlene, Billy, and many more whose names have faded in this writers feeble mind.