As a progressive Christian, I believe there are many names for God and many ways to a loving God; this article reflects one of those ways. Take from here what works for you. Celebrate life with joy and peace!
Can you believe we are already into October? What a year this has been so far; with all of our ups and down, all of our tragedies and celebrations we are here, and we are blessed!
I read recently that: “God constantly provides us with miraculous things every day. I just need to be aware, look around, and appreciate them.” How true!
What is our symbol for visibly celebrating equality and diversity? Take a guess? Yes, the rainbow flag! We are a rainbow people! And for quite some time now, the LGBT national anthem has been “Somewhere over the Rainbow!”
What a great symbol. The rainbow is a beautiful occurrence in nature. Light refracted and dispersed by water droplets in the atmosphere is all that a rainbow is. And yet, in sacred literature, it also symbolized something pretty amazing.
In Genesis 9, after a great flood, we see the rainbow as a sign of hope, a symbol of a covenantal promise, and a connection with our Divine Source.
The prophet Ezekiel envisioned the glory of God as a rainbow in the sky. Many colors, overarching the diversity of creation, an inclusive symbol of light and beauty and hope is how the prophetic imagination of Ezekiel presents the experience of God.
In Revelation, that very imaginative and creative writer saw in his mind the presence of God being surrounded by a rainbow.
The rainbow image is one we’ve adopted for our LGBT community and how wonderful to see it now proudly displayed on so many national monuments around the world even our own City Hall. How cool is that for us as people of faith; it’s a double blessing!
Think about it; the Source and Substance of the universe expresses as light and diversity and hope and beauty and we are made in that image; in God’s image! We are a rainbow people!
On the night of June 27, and the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 in the West Village of New York City, a rainbow revolution broke out. It’s the Stonewall story.
A bar that was not gay-owned but that catered to gay people, the most marginalized … homeless youth, drag performers, cross dressers, transgender people and mostly blue collar gays and lesbians … and this bar was raided by the New York City police.
Unfortunately, such raids were common, but somehow, this group of people at this bar, on this particular night, refused to take the harassment. One legend says that because gay icon Judy Garland had died less than a week earlier, and her huge funeral services had just concluded, that her fans were just extra raw that night. That can’t be 100 percent verified, but something happened that night that would forever change history!
On that fateful night, the police came and started to round people up for the paddy wagon, but the unheard of then happened … queers fought back! They chanted, they screamed, they threw rocks and bottles, they lit garbage on fire, and as police would be dealing with one group of rioters, another group would come up behind them.
The Stonewall troops included transgender people and drag queens, and while the police swung their night sticks wigs, false eyelashes and Lee Press-On nails flew through the air. For our community, it was the rocket’s red glare!
Of course, we do not condone violence, but how amazing that people dared to stand up for themselves and insist that they had self-worth and dignity worth fighting for!
At the same time in the late ‘60s, women’s liberation, civil rights, anti-war and many other movements demanding change were happening. The spirit of revolution was in the air. LGBT people were heard and would never again be completely invisible in our society.
Almost a year earlier, another counter-cultural, under the radar, world-changing event took place. In the fall of 1968, a defrocked Pentecostal minister started a church to affirm, give dignity, celebrate and empower same-gender loving people. It would, of course and thankfully, include straight allies of the gay community, and would soon take up feminist causes and in the following decade would care for people with AIDS; and it all began with one country preacher from northern Florida with a message that God’s love was all-inclusive and unconditional.
Since that courageous beginning of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), more and more denominations have made reconciling gestures toward the LGBT community. I am forever grateful for the courage and vision of Rev. Troy Perry who stood up when almost no one else would, and decades before most did, to say that same-gender loving people are valued as much as anyone of the people of God.
And yet, all these decades later, there are still large groups of people who hide behind religion or politics to say their fear or hatred or ignorance of LGBT people is mandated by scripture. It is not!
I like how a fellow MCC minister in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Rev. Durrell Watkins said, “As followers of Jesus, we have a right and an obligation to re-think the oppressive ways that scripture has been interpreted. Jesus valued the human being more than the tradition, the text or the institution.”
Rather than using religion to marginalize people, Jesus wanted spirituality to be used to liberate and empower the marginalized because in the kingdom of God, all people have sacred value and dignity. All people!
We are all children of God, made in God’s image, filled with God’s spirit, and we are all part of the creation that God calls very good! We are a rainbow people.
