Thoughts and Prayers

Credit: 

Jonathan Drake/Reuters

While most who read this were going about our observances of Ash Wednesday, a disturbed young man killed 17 people with an assault rifle at a high school in Parkland, Florida. He injured many more. As the horror of yet another mass killing spread over the media, the usual reactions began to be expressed by those who proclaim to be leaders of our nation: “Our thoughts and prayers are with you.” It was stated various ways but that is the gist of it.

We seem to have gotten overly polite with our condolences at a broad level. Maybe we have become numb and complacent. Maybe we just have no words and blurt out what first comes to mind, which is that our thoughts and prayers are....not unexpected from people who profess a faith in God.

This time there was a very different response from those who witnessed this horror first hand, the survivors of the shooting. They were brutally blunt in making it clear they did not want our “thoughts and prayers”; they wanted action to end such acts of violence. They wanted those who allegedly represented their interests to do something to stop this. 

Those students, those kids, are organizing a response to put pressure on politicians to do something to stop gun violence. Some of the same politicians are dismissing the students and saying they are the pawns of “the left” or some such nonsense. Would they be as dismissive if they had been in that high school at the time of the shooting wondering if they were about to die? Would they be willing to ignore the calls for reasonable gun control legislation if one of their children had been shot? I leave it for them to decide. Maybe attending “Active Shooter” training at an elementary school would be beneficial to them? How do you teach a 6 year old child to survive an attack like this one? You should never have to be in that position, yet we are.

As followers of Jesus Christ we are called to do more than offer thoughts and prayers during times of intense pain and sorrow. We are called to be the face of Christ in working to find a true and effective response to gun violence and mental health issues as well as the rest of the ills that plague our society. We are called to act responsibly and proactively. In my opinion, the survivors of this latest shooting are doing just that. I support them and I join them in their work.

Thoughts and prayers are fine if they are followed closely by responsible actions.

A week after the Parkland, Florida, shooting, we learned of the death of the Rev. Billy Graham. Those of us of a certain age literally grew up knowing about his revivals, especially those of us from the Bible Belt. The Reverend Graham was indeed an evangelist. Thoughts and prayers for his family are absolutely appropriate.

But what about his views about us queerfolk, the place of women in the world, even racial issues. While I am not one to usually cut anyone much slack when it comes to such issues, I have to view the man in the context of his roots and the influences on his life. I am not going to “praise him to high heaven” but I am not going to excoriate him either. He was a flawed human being like the rest of us. He was a product of his environment, for whatever that may be worth.

Remember that he was brought up in a religiously conservative household. He attended the Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace, Florida and was ordained a Baptist minister in Palatka, Florida, in 1939. Have you ever been to Palatka? I doubt it has changed much since 1939! Graham was a product of the Southern Baptist Church and that speaks volumes. It was from their theological tyranny that I fled as a teenager and found The Episcopal Church. Oddly, he would eventually be criticized by that denomination for his ecumenism and broad embrace of other faith expressions. He was also criticized for refusing to maintain racially segregated seating at his crusades. (It still baffles me how one can see and respond to one form of injustice and not to another form, but that is for another discussion. There is also speculation that his views on same-sex marriage were really those of his son Franklin. Who is to know now?)

Billy Graham did stick to what he felt was his calling and that was bringing people to Jesus Christ. That is our calling as well, whether we as Episcopalians want to own it or not! He spent most of his 99 years on this earth responding to that call. It is sad that he apparently never understood that “Just as I am” applied to all, us queerfolk included.

In looking at the broad picture, I can be critical but overall the view is positive. The same can be said of me, of each of us. It is my hope that, at the end of my life (and I hope it lasts 99 years!) what I have done will be viewed over the whole of my ministry and life and I will not be judged based on the times I’ve been a fool or a jackass. 

May you continue to have a holy and blessed Lent. May you also respond in a Christ-like manner to the call for action against gun violence in our society.

I wish each of you a blessed, holy and productive Lent.

Bruce Garner, President

Integrity USA ... The Episcopal Rainbow

The Great Equalizer: You are dust and to dust you shall return

Ash Wednesday was just two days ago and at every service there was the haunting phrase hanging in the background: You are dust and to dust you shall return, as ashes were smudged on the foreheads of the faithful.

The words were oddly out of place when the recipient was a child, even more so for a baby. The words were poignant when the recipient was mature in years. Yet no matter the age, the words are the great equalizer. And no matter the station in life, the wealth or poverty, gender, gender expression/identity, sexual orientation or other characteristic, we all return to the dust.

The words used when ashes are imposed are from Genesis 3:19, based on the words spoken to Adam and Eve after their sin and eviction from the Garden of Eden: you are dust and to dust you shall return. No one escapes this fate. All of us eventually return to the dust. Obviously as “Easter people” we look to the resurrection, however and whenever that occurs. But that is on the “other end” of Lent.

I wonder how often (or even if) those in power, political power or otherwise, ever ponder those words that spell out their ultimate fate. I wonder the same of those who treat others so callously or badly. The great equalizer will be the fate of those who try to remove the safety nets from the poor - however meager those safety nets might be. The great equalizer will inflict itself on those who practice racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and yes even on those who perpetrate sexual assault - no matter how long or how hard they try to hide what they have done. The great equalizer will prevail.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., warned us that we must learn to live together as siblings or we would surely perish together as fools.

A former bishop of Alabama, whose name long ago escaped from my memory, was also brutally direct when he said: If we believe what we profess, we had better learn to get along because we will be with each other for eternity. Ponder that for a moment, both from your perspective and then from that of those who would treat us as second class members of the church and society. Eternity. Together.

The great equalizer: We are all subject to its declaration that we are dust and to dust we shall return.

If you have taken on my challenge to make your Lenten discipline contacting all who represent you in secular government and those who have been charged to be your pastor(s), you might, perhaps as an ice breaker, remind them that they, just like you, are from dust and they, like you, will return to dust.

Yes my kindred, there is indeed a great equalizer and all are subject to it.

Amid the somberness of Ash Wednesday, we endured yet another poignant example of our inhumanity to each other with the Parkland High School (Florida) mass shooting. Pray for the all the victims of that senseless tragedy: the dead, the wounded and even the perpetrator. And pray that we will come to our senses and stop allowing perversions of the intent of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution to cloud our judgement about controlling guns whose only purpose is to kill the children of God. I don’t think this was the time intended for the work of the great equalizer… it was far too soon, at least in my mind.

I wish each of you a blessed, holy and productive Lent.

Bruce Garner, President

Integrity USA ... The Episcopal Rainbow

Lent Approaches

This is the last Friday before Lent begins on February 14. As we approach the Lenten season, I am reminded of how Lent was viewed decades ago in my youth and young adulthood: The question was always “What are you giving up for Lent?” I sometimes did give something up for Lent. On the occasion of several Lents I vowed to give up profanity. Well that generally lasted barely until the Second Sunday of Lent. The colorful language just managed to slip in despite my best efforts.

At some point I became aware of another nature of Lent, namely that of taking on some discipline or activity for those forty days. It could be daily prayer, self-improvement, reading specific literature or pretty much any activity that could be considered productive and helpful for the season. I got “hooked” on the value of the Daily Office after a Lent when I took on the discipline of praying Morning Prayer each morning. It stuck.My day begins with prayer following that model.

We seem to be living in a time of little discipline, at least on the part of our elected leaders. Accountability seems to be a “nice idea” rather than something that should be expected and demanded. The wind blows and the position changes. The wind blows and another change. Little thought is given to the impact of such “flexible” thinking on the lives of millions of people.

I urge you to take on some discipline(s) during the upcoming Lenten season. I urge you to make one of your disciplines to be contacting your elected representatives on a very regular basis sharing your thoughts and ideas and how you honestly feel about some of their positions on issues that have a direct impact on you as an LGBTQ+ follower of Jesus Christ. And I urge you to use that language. Make sure they know that you are a person of faith, part of the Jesus Movement.Be persistent. Lent has 40 days. Contact your elected representatives at least one fourth of those days. (Each of the 40 days would be great, but hey, I will take what I can get!)

Elected officials do not hear from nearly enough of their constituents. Often they only hear the harsh meanness of the religious right. Let them hear a more moderate expression of faith. It helps those who need reinforcement. It might convict others to change their thinking. So get out your personal devices, laptops, and desktops and email, tweet, text or whatever form of communication gets you going. Who knows, some might even write an actual letter and mail it!

Don’t forget to include your religious leaders as well. If you are in one of the infamous non-marriage eight, contact your bishop during Lent and point out the pain his position is causing for you and those close to you. Make it a part of your discipline for the season to be in regular contact with your bishop… maybe even your commission on ministry or standing committee… whoever it is who needs to hear from you. Make it a discipline.

I wish each of you a blessed, holy and productive Lent.

Bruce Garner, President

Integrity USA ... The Episcopal Rainbow

Done. Check the Box. Well, Not Really

Last week I wrote about The Episcopal Church’s short term memory once we have enacted legislation, especially when it pertains to issues of justice, inclusion and prejudice. There is another aspect of that concept that plays out in how well others really understand us as queer folk. Some folks “get” us and some do not… I’m inclined toward the numbers of those who do not being at least a plurality, if not a majority.

This mentality goes back to what I call the “check box” mentality of our church. That is the mentality that lets us get away with thinking such thoughts as: “We have women’s ordination, so we have addressed and resolved that “issue.” Notions about the deployment of women clergy are no where on the radar screen. The “glass ceiling” related to compensation and benefits didn’t get in the conversation either. How many women fill the positions of cardinal rectors? We changed the canons. Done. Check the box. Well... not really.

We do the same thing about issues of race. We tout our canons that prohibit discrimination in every aspect of the life of our church. But again, where are we on deployment? Having people of color in visible roles of leadership does not mean that we find the same allegedly welcoming attitude at the diocesan and parish level. Because we have passed our canons, we have resolved the “race issue.” So why do I still see the need for training and education on what it means to be the beloved community? Why do we still need to have anti-racism workshops and training? Why are the percentages of people of color, not to mention those in ordained positions way below the percentages of the general population? We passed the canons. Done. Check the box. Well… not really.

Now we come to issues about sexual orientation/gender identity/gender expression. Again, we passed those canons prohibiting discrimination in all aspects of the life of the church including ordination and now even marriage. So….where does that put us? Yes we have some LGBTQ+ folks in leadership in the church at all levels. What does that mean? Did some of them “pass” to get where they are? Are some of them simply tokens to appease general opinion? Back to deployment: How many visible calls are made to LGBTQ+ clergy outside very large metropolitan areas? Two queer bishops is an indicator of the presence of LGBTQ+ people in our church. We passed our canons. Done. Check the box. Well… not really as is evidenced by the situation in the Diocese of Tennessee and seven others.

So why would I ever think that so many just do not “get” us queer folk (anymore than they “get” women clergy and people of color)? It isn’t a long journey to take to answer that question. Aside from the less than tolerant current political climate, having a cisgender white male wonder (sometimes aloud even) why the gays and lesbians and trans folks cannot and do not grow into a perspective other than that of who they are, namely gay, lesbian or transgender? Seriously?

You are going to ask me why I am not willing or not capable of viewing things beyond what you think is my limited perspective as a gay man? Would you ask a black person why they cannot view a perspective other than being black? (In reality many probably would, but let’s not go there for now). Would you ask a woman to view things from a male (invariably white) perspective? (I can pretty much guarantee that many would ask that question based solely on what has been going on for months now about sexual harassment.)

Kindred in Christ, we really do have some serious work to do! And it is not just for us queer folk that we need to do this work. It is for all who would claim to follow Christ and meet with an attitude that finds only one perspective, one race, one cisgender, one sexual orientation to be “the norm.” Our work is for everyone who encounters an attitude that they need to change their outlook and perspective to more closely align with those of the perceived majority. The work is not done. There is no box to check.

What will it take for us to rise up and say that it’s time that we as a church start learning more about what it is like to be the other instead of asking the other why their perspective is so limited? Again, I see this as the ministry of lay people. We have nothing to lose by asking pointed questions. Our ministries, our vocations, our salaries are not on the line. We CAN ask the difficult questions and continue to ask until we get real answers. I would hope that those answers would be based on the ministry given us in the Gospel and in the vows of our Baptismal Covenant.

Do you think we're done? Should we check the box?

So I will close with yet another (probably maddening) question: When will you start asking why the way things continue to remain the way they are for so much of our church? When?

Bruce Garner, President

Integrity USA ... The Episcopal Rainbow