The lectionary in Luke passes through apocalyptic pronouncements
from Jesus. It’s a tone we don’t assign to Christ, preferring his
gentleness. Of course it is there, the toughness. It’s all over the Bible, not just the strange
world of the Old Testament. Today the passage from Acts was one of those tough
ones, where Ananias and Sapphira, who hold back a little from the collectivism
of the early Christian community and promptly drop dead. Anything short of total commitment carries the
ultimate price.
Today was the Pride festival in Nashville. We gave out water to the marchers from in
front of the church, and then went down to the festival on Public Square. These days, our church flies a rainbow flag,
and we have a sign on the fence that says “Love Thy Neighbor” with “thy” in rainbow
colors. Marchers stopped to have their
photo taken in front of it. This act of
giving out water was just right for us, it let us not just show support but
care for the people in the march. It
gave us a good reason to interact with everyone and share greetings.
When we went to the festival, we came across a familiar
sight, the counter-protesters, street preachers inveighing against gays. They’re
there every year. It’s part of the
show. Their preaching is literally fire
and brimstone, inspired by the tough talk parts of the Bible, days of vengeance
and all that.
Later that day, my wife and I saw the movie A Very Sordid Wedding. It was fun—to boil it way down, about a gay
wedding in a small Texas town. Much of
the movie concerned the religious, specifically Christian, views on being gay,
in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex
marriage. The local Baptist church is
holding an “Anti-Equality Revival,” but one of the members is coming to terms
with her recently married gay son. She and her kin are making the case that
love is all in the Bible, and that it takes cherry-picking to turn Christianity
into an anti-gay faith.
One thing that strikes me about this movie, set in Texas,
and the events of Pride weekend in Nashville, is the debate about
religion. Wouldn’t it be easier just to
walk away from the church, and all of Christianity. Write it off as sexist, biased, superstitious
and frankly just strange. But in the
movie, and here, people don’t. It still
matters to keep the church. The gay son in
the movie even has a job with Faith in America which gives him a reason to give
some lines about affirming churches.
We
want to keep the church, keep the faith of our families, and don’t see why it’s
not completely consistent with full acceptance of people in different
relationships. The faith as we see it inspires us to come out and celebrate
with the marchers at Nashville Pride. I see Christianity as pushing me into
that embrace.
One of the street preachers is the brother of a former
member of our church. He’s a good
guy. We aren’t close, but I’m always glad
to run into him. I don’t agree with his religious views, but that doesn’t mean
that he doesn’t exist for me or that I would shun him. Living here, we live
together. Somehow. On some level we can’t help talking to each
other. Even if sometimes it’s more
talking at each other. But we’re within
earshot. We are connected.
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