The following is an article that I read in the newsletter of CLGS at the Graduate Theological Union. When I think about what it means for me to be an Ally for my LGBT friends, I realize that it is my responsibility as a Christian and an ally to speak up against the perpetuation of language usage that attacks human beings who are created in the image of God. As Jay says here:
"I cannot sit idly by while the Gospel is once again used as an excuse for unfairness and bigotry. I cannot remain silent while so many believe that Donald Wildmon and Chuck Colson speak for Christians everywhere. I can't just hope for the best; I have to do something before religion as a whole and not just Christianity is painted with those same distorted, violent messages."
Yet, it is not easy, because often times, while I feel strongly about supporting my friends, I don't know how -- I am lost in the midst of a culture war. Language loss. And it is partly because I've grown accustomed to hearing harsh words. And it is partly because I dont' want to merely re-iterate the antonyms and oppositional words without really understanding what I stand for. I hope that over time I will learn how to wield words that build up and construct, words that empower and celebrate, instead of words that attack and tear down.
Copied here for your perusal are the words of Jay Johnson:
I've grown accustomed to words like "effort," "struggle," and "contest," which seem part of my daily routine. But the rhetoric keeps escalating and the words have shifted - "fight," "battle," "war," and even "Armageddon" now fill the landscape. If it weren't so dangerous, it might be funny. I'm not referring here to the Middle East or the geo-politics of the former Soviet Union; I'm talking about marriage, which is no longer apparently about love but armed conflict.
How odd to feel the need to be explicit about this, but apparently more of us need to: The loving and committed lesbian and gay couples I know aren't planning to overthrow the government and they're not stock-piling weapons of mass destruction. They just want to get married. Some of them just want to live out their God-given vocation to ordained ministry. All of us want religious hate-speech to stop before another life is lost to religious hate-crimes (the July 27 shooting at a Tennessee Unitarian Universalist Church is just the latest example: http://www.uua.org/news/knoxville/index.shtml
Meanwhile, here in California money is pouring in from around the country to support the anti-marriage constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, recently made this dire prediction: "If we lose California, if they defeat the marriage amendment, I'm afraid that the culture war is over and Christians have lost." More severely, Chuck Colson described the November ballot initiative as "the Armageddon in the culture war." During a July 30 strategy session, other religious leaders in favor of the amendment spoke of raising up an "army" of believers, putting "soldiers on the street," and being on the "front lines of a battle." One went so far as to call a planned rally right before the election a "blitzkrieg moment."
Do they realize the historical horrors they are evoking with those images? Frankly, that kind of rhetoric takes my breath away. Of course, there's nothing new about mingling religious and militaristic language, but it's no less dangerous for being traditional. I can't help but feel like I'm walking around with a bull's eye painted on my chest, or like fodder for religious target practice. At the very least, something has gone terribly wrong when declarations of love become the occasion for a declaration of war.
As a Christian, I am quite simply embarrassed by all this and deeply troubled. In the service I try to offer as an ordained minister, I seek to follow the Jesus I read about in the Gospels, who urges only the love of God and the love of neighbor as one's self as the essence of faith. That's the same Jesus who announces the coming realm of God with images of partying with feasts and celebrating at banquets (presumably with one's guns and ammunition checked at the door). By pursuing ordination in the Episcopal Church, I didn't sign up to be a religious "soldier" and I refuse to be drafted in a culture war that turns churches into battlefields and talks about prayer like an armed skirmish.
I didn't then and I won't sign up now for violence, not even of "just" the rhetorical variety. But I won't stay on the sidelines, either. There's far too much at stake here. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times (Aug. 24) quotes political analysts who believe that the inter-religious alliances currently forming against same-gender marriage could herald new ways of building political coalitions. At present, the strongest religious voices in that effort come from Mormons, Roman Catholics, and evangelical Christians. But they are also reaching out to Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus.
I cannot sit idly by while the Gospel is once again used as an excuse for unfairness and bigotry. I cannot remain silent while so many believe that Donald Wildmon and Chuck Colson speak for Christians everywhere. I can't just hope for the best; I have to do something before religion as a whole and not just Christianity is painted with those same distorted, violent messages. That's why I work for CLGS.
All of us at CLGS work hard to provide the latest resources and the best education and training possible at the intersection of sexuality and religion. As you'll see in this issue of our e-newsletter, the 2008-09 programming year is overflowing with opportunities, both here on the PSR campus and around the country. Among them are not-to-be-missed marriage equality events.
But these many programs and projects are not "weapons" and we're not marshalling any armies. At CLGS we're committed to the justice-making, peace-loving prophetic witness our religious traditions call on us to make. Of course, we're not naïve about those who would oppose our work. We know first-hand and are reminded every day that we are indeed engaged in a struggle - for some, that struggle is quite literally a matter of life and death. We know that the change we seek to inspire and to live will not happen overnight and we know that we can't do this work alone; we need your help.
Simply put, both here in Berkeley and in our expanding work in locations around the country, we need your time and we need your generous donations of money. We won't be issuing handguns to our volunteers and we're not trying to endow a "war chest." We are instead committed to equipping scholars, faith communities, and activists with the tools they need to transform a society of injustice and violence into thriving communities of safety and equality for all God's children.
Perhaps, like me, you're wondering whether it's time to dust off that old mantra from the 1960s: "Make love, not war." Perhaps, like me, you're committed to the biblical vision found in the prophet Isaiah, a vision of God's own mountain where swords are beaten into ploughshares. If, like me, you believe this world has had far too much of war, whether economic, political, or cultural, then I hope you'll join me in supporting our work at CLGS. The time for warfare is over; the time has come for love, fairness, equality, and justice. With your help, we can make that vision a reality.
The Rev. Jay E. Johnson, PhD Senior Director, Academic Research & Resources
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