Love Her

So June is here, and as promised Kingdom Dialogues is coming off hiatus. Over the last few weeks I’ve had a number of thoughts about how to kick things off, all of them good thoughts worthy of discussion and better yet none of them terribly controversial. I even had notes ready and then the day comes to publish the first one and what is splashed all over facebook, twitter and the news? Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out. So much for opening without controversy.

Now it’s not going to come as a surprise to regular readers that I support Caitlyn. I’m happy for her and wish her all the best. But the honest truth is that I’m not terribly worried about her. Now please don’t assume that I think for a moment that I know what it’s like living in her skin, walking in her shoes or living a long life of discomfort as Bruce before making her transition. I don’t, I’ve never been there and I’m sure she’s had some very heavy times coming to terms with her identity. But she’s dealt with those heavy times in a place of privilege and in a social circle that has been publicly supportive. So while I am happy for Caitlyn and wish her well – her story brings back to mind the story of Leelah Alcorn and millions more whose names we don’t know who’s transgender experience ended by walking into traffic, hanging at the end of a rope or anything other than the cover of Vanity Fair.

You see, one of the biggest things I hear from those who wonder why I insist on talking about my support for the LGBT community is, in some form or another, why won’t somebody think of the children? It frustrates me to no end because I am thinking of the children. I am thinking of your children. Gay and lesbian youth face more bullying, have higher rates of depression, are overrepresented in the homeless population and ultimately they take their own lives at disturbingly high rates – and all of that is worse with transboys and transgirls. But there is hope, studies are beginning to show that the tides are turning. It seems that growing public acceptance of the queer community is leading to lower rates of bullying in schools which could mark a change in the other statistics too.

But we aren’t there yet. There is still a daily struggle for millions of people whose only “sin” was being born wired a little differently. Gay and lesbian people, especially young people, still face bullying and violence. Bisexual people still face nasty stereotypes. Transgender people still face a struggle over something as simple as feeling safe when they need to pee. Whatever your politics, whatever your theology, whatever your culture – we are all still human and as someone who values life I want to appeal to you respond with an abundance of love, mercy and grace to the LGBT people in your life.

When I talked to my wife this morning about what I was going to write she told me she’d be a terrible blogger because she would only have one thing to say about the news of Caitlyn Jenner’s coming out – love her.

And to that sincere mother from my old church who asked what she should tell her kids if they saw a gay couple in church, I finally have an answer worth giving you. If you are going to explain the sight of a same-sex couple to your kids you should say this: If that’s you 10 years from now, you’re still going to be part of my family and you’re still going to be welcome in this community.

As a last word – if anyone out there reading this is struggling with gender or sexuality issues please, don’t give in to the darkness. You are a beautiful person, I believe that you are the image of God and there are people out there who love you. Reach out and know that you are infinitely valuable and infinitely loved.

The Church Of My Dreams Part 1

I have a dream; it’s about church. Yes, I really am that much of a nerd. But if you have a few minutes I’d like to tell you about it. If you read our earlier post you’ll know that despite the baggage that comes with it, I continue to identify as Christian. For all the flaws in my community it’s still mine and I value both my faith and the people with whom I share it. Now even if you’ve never been in your life, you likely know that Christians have a thing called church. Church is a concept that means different things to different people. For some it’s a building (let’s meet at the church), for some it’s an organization (Anglican Church), for others it’s a group of people (anytime you see the word in the Bible). 250,000 words in the English language and still…

Anyway, when I talk about church I generally mean the group of people. So how does this group of people come together, what makes a group a church? I grew up in an environment that (to oversimplify just a little) taught that it was agreement on theology that made us a church. I don’t really like that answer. If I’m being perfectly honest it’s probably because I’ve grown in a way that has caused me to challenge a few of the theological principles that hold my particular tribe of Christendom together, and since that was the instrument of unity I’m feeling left out. Why can’t we still be a church even though I disagree with some of the things the majority of the group believes? I still love the people, we still profess the same faith in Christ, I still want to accomplish the overall mission assigned to us.

Disagreement over theology seems a stupid reason to break up the band!

So what should hold us together? In my dreams, and one could argue there is a strong foundation in the Gospel for this position, a group of people who love one another is a great starting place. After we have that foundation of mutual love, I think a degree of agreement helps. But where I differ from many is over what we should agree. Where the church of my background suggests that theological agreement is the key, I think that agreement of purpose is a better place to start.

What’s the difference?

If we read the Gospels Jesus seems to be a pretty practical messiah. He healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he cast out demons, he raised the dead. Sure he also taught, but his teachings were less about the high-minded concepts discussed in the theology departments of Universities and Seminaries and more about what it means to love and be loved. I too think that the central theme of our group should be practical. We will still discuss ideas, and even engage in the foolishness of a group of mortals trying to describe the divine. But ideas don’t have to be the thing that holds us together.

If you’ve ever taken theology you’ve likely heard that one of the purposes of church is to provide a community setting for worship. I had one professor who made a point of instilling this idea into the heads of his students. To be fair to the good man, the class was called Worship. Now without getting too off topic and writing an essay on what worship is, been there, done that, got the B on my transcript, let’s say for the purposes of our discussion that, among other things, worship entails demonstrating our devotion to God. To that end I want to share a couple texts from scripture that have formed my thinking on what God wants in the way of service.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,

Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.

There are other things, of course. But because of the way I read the Bible, from the character of God I understand as expressed through Jesus and the inspiration I experience from the Holy Spirit – service to my fellow human beings is service to God. When Jesus walked the streets of Palestine he wasn’t handing out books explaining a theory of what the Kingdom of Heaven could be; he was feeding the hungry and healing the sick at the same time as telling them that the Kingdom of Heaven was already in their midst. It’s actually a pretty ubiquitous message in the gospel. So from my point of view, worshipping God is more about doing good for the people around me and less about being right in my ideas about him.

This is actually great news, because the hungry person doesn’t care if I have good eschatology as long as I can make a good sandwich.

So I dream of a church in which people are brought together by a desire to do good for their neighbours. You might say, well that sounds like a service club more than a church. To that I’ll say two things. 1: Ok. If the worst thing you can say about my church is that we spend too much time serving people you’re not going to hurt my feelings. 2: It is still a spiritual endeavour, the love of Jesus is my motivation for desiring to do this. And love is also vital. The church of my dreams is a community bound by love, not bound by intellectual agreement. When I dream of church I see a group of people who would do anything for the person sitting next to them. They would consider it an honour to help their brother or sister, they would look for opportunities to do good and they would treasure the friendship of those in the community. Generosity, mercy and joy are all pervasive in the community I see when I dream.

Now don’t get me wrong, ideas and the discussion thereof still play an important role in the church of my dreams. But that discussion looks very different than what I see when I meet with churches on the weekend. We’ll save that for another post.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another – Jesus

Weekend Poetry: I Want

I want to change the world but I don’t know where to start

I want to have a church of love and hope

I want a nation of justice and peace

I want to feed the hungry

I want to speak for the oppressed

I want to bring friends together

I want to write and paint and act and play

I want to create space for the creative

I want to adopt the outcasts

I want to comfort the hurting

I want to tear down walls

I want to befriend the victim and be feared by the abuser

I want to celebrate beauty

I want to shine light into darkness

I want to share great stories

I want to inspire great thoughts

I want to empower others

I want to find God’s fingerprints on every life

I want to preach hope and love

I want to change the world but I don’t know where to start and I’m starting right here