LGBT Pride Month - Fighting the Haters – a Gay Christian Artist’s Perspective

During Gay Pride month it is wise to remember that the extreme right wing of the Republican Party is the group of people responsible for the hate legislation banning lesbian and gay marriage at the state level during the past several years. These are the same people who rationalized the 2005 non-response to Katrina with “The residents of those parishes deserve what happened because they lived in a flood prone area.” They are the same folks who screamed "Drill Baby Drill" leading up to the 2008 election.

And, they are the same people who are proclaiming even now that the Obama administration has browbeaten poor BP corporation with Chicago style political tactics into creating the 20 billion dollar fund to help Gulf coast residents whose livelyhood has been destroyed by the BP oil disaster.

“Why is it important to state the obvious when instead, you should be working toward doing away with such illogical behavior, John? “

Because, dear Alter Ego, in order to fix problems, you must first adequately identify the exact causes. We are not fighting an abstract non-specific thing. We are trying to fix a set of problems caused by a specific set of people with a small range of closely held beliefs and fears. In order to create change we must first discredit those people. Secondly, we must discredit the belief system that supports their illogical behavior.

In the case of the Gulf Oil Catastrophe, the discrediting evidence is there. The facts must be stated and restated as often and in as many different ways as possible. Noses must be rubbed in the oil gushing onto our shores and into our wetlands. Noses must be rubbed in the rotting flesh of the dead fish, turtles, porpoises, whales and birds. Noses must be rubbed in the death and destruction that marked the end of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. Noses must be rubbed in the dismantling of the 29th most important economic region in the world.

In the case of LGBT freedom, the evangelical institutions that foster hate through a discredited and antiquated belief system must also be discredited over and over again.

“Oh, and how do we do that John?”

We do that by insisting that Jesus Christ came to us in order to save all people from the hate, fear, and self-serving behavior of a few people. We do that by insisting that the message of the New Testament is Jesus’ special message that God gives us love, not hate, that redemption is achieved through love. We must always remember that God “gave his only begotten son…” through love for us “…that who so ever believeth in him should have life ever lasting.” We must not argue over the particulars of heaven and hell, angels and demons, whether individual verses in the Old Testament support stingy and hateful beliefs. Rather we must argue that the transformative nature of Jesus Christ’s message in the New Testament changes all that went before. God, through his son, Jesus, gave the human race the means to lose fearful, stingy and hateful behavior in favor of a more mature loving and caring nature.* We do that by stating over and over that God has not changed his message. It is the message written by men that God wishes to change to fit more closely with God’s nature, not mankind’s nature.

God is not man's vision! Rather, God made man in his own visionary belief that we would develop into a people more god-like and capable of sharing God’s universe.

So, LGBT people must reaffirm our love for all God’s creation and demonstrate love toward the heterosexual brothers and sisters who transgress against God’s love for each and every one of us. That does not mean that we passively absorb self-serving and hateful behaviors. God through Jesus Christ asks that we become a transformative power on this earth. We must actively work toward removing faulty self-serving fear and hate where it exists. This struggle will continue to be a long and difficult fight. I have come to accept that I may not see the conclusion of that fight during my life. Never the less, I know that with pride and love LGBT people will win that fight!

*I must qualify my use of the pronoun "his" in relation to my belief that the holy family more clearly represents God in that God is greater than a father (in human terms) could ever be. The loving relations between mother, father, son and daughter as an active system are more clearly like God, and beyond that I cannot know.