FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS - CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER 18

'THERE'S A NEW WORLD COMING'


"And that's just the beginning: After that—

   I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions."

(Joel 2:28 - The Message)

As I've been saying from the beginning of the book, it's all about GOOD NEWS!

GOOD NEWS for the future.

GOOD NEWS for you!

As a seer and visionary, I am very excited about where I see the world heading. Oh, I know about all the negative things...about all the suffering and strife in the world...about all of our problems that should have been resolved some time ago.

But I also see many good things on the horizon...changes...sometimes little changes, but changes, nonetheless...changes that continue to move us in the right direction.

Having been a pastor for so long (and the son and grandson of pastors), I have seen a lot of different types of human suffering, first hand, over the entire course of my life. I am very aware that violence and hatred and prejudice and intolerance and injustice are rampant in many parts of the world, and also in our own backyard...and I also am fully aware that religion has had a lot to do with many of those things.

But at this point in my life and ministry, I find that I am considerably and consistently more and more optimistic and less and less pessimistic in my world-view, and in large part that is due to my connection with so many young (and young-thinking) people in my life. The kids in my life, including my own awesome kids, continue to inspire hope for the future within me.

I talk to so many young people who seem to have such a firm grasp on what is really important in life...they are enlightened, and unencumbered with many of the old ideas that have kept previous generations (including my own) in a certain kind of intellectual and spiritual darkness. They appear to have religion and faith in much better perspective than many of their predecessors and elders do, and instinctively possess an understanding of the importance of love and acceptance in the world.

In a word, the young people that I know are much more connected to seeing the big picture, and that makes me hopeful that my kids and grand kids will live in a better world than the one in which I have lived.

A PERSONAL NOTE TO YOUNG PEOPLE

You have your whole life ahead of you...so much to live for...so much for which to look forward!

Be who you are.

Be who you were meant to be, even if it takes you a lifetime to figure out who that person is. One thing is for sure...no one else can figure that out for you...it's your journey...your discovery...your path.

You are the hero of your own story...the star of your own movie...the lead singer in your own band!

The world is not perfect, but it's a wonderful place to live, and there are so many adventures awaiting you...make the decision not to miss any of them.

Believe in God...in something (Someone) bigger than you...and give your life to loving and serving Him. Don't worry about trying to be religious...the God that you know in your heart of hearts is the right One...follow Him...don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Believe in the Gospel...in the True Gospel...the Gospel of God...the Gospel that is only GOOD NEWS...the simple Gospel that very basically consists of two foundational ideas...Love God...Love others (as you love yourself)...living selfishly will never bring you happiness...love is always the answer.

If anyone tells you the Gospel is more complicated than that, don't believe them.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the GOOD NEWS, made up of those two ideas only.

Learn to listen to your inner voice, and trust it.

Do what is right for you.

Believe that God has a plan for your life, and do everything you can to connect with that plan.

Be happy.

Life is too short to live any other way.

Believe that all things are possible.

Believe in yourself.

Maximize your potential in every way possible.

Learn as much as you can...never stop!

Travel...see as much of the world as you can...if more people travelled and met other kinds of people, there would be less prejudice and intolerance in the world.

Think outside the box.

Recognize injustice when you see it, and speak out against it.

Help people.

Always be a part of the solution, never a part of the problem.

Learn to forgive, including forgiving yourself...don't waste your life on bitterness.

Worship God!

Listen to smart people...let them mentor you.

Learn from your mistakes.

Follow your bliss.

Tell the truth.

Celebrate life!

The future belongs to you!



 

A MESSAGE TO GAY TEENS

Dear One,

You're beautiful, just as you are...and God loves you just the way you are!

NEVER let anyone convince you otherwise!

You are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (which is just an old-fashioned way of saying that God created you perfectly, in every way!)

You are not broken.

You are not inferior.

You are not weird.

You are not a pervert.

You're not abnormal.

You are not less than.

You are not an abomination.

You are not going to hell.

You don't need to be "fixed".

In a word, you're AWESOME...

And you're in good company...

Many important historical figures were gay...

...Plato...Alexander the Great...Pope Julius II,  to name a few...

...so were some of the greatest artists who ever lived, such as...

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo...

...as well as some of the most important composers and musicians of all time, such as Tchaikovsky, Leonard Bernstein, and Katharine Lee Bates, the woman who wrote 'America the Beautiful'...

And some of our most important writers were gay...people like Walt Whitman, Thomas Mann and James Baldwin...

I could also mention sports figures like Billie Jean King, or actors like Raymond Burr...or religious icons, such as King James of England (yes, that one!)...

The list of important historical gay figures goes on and on, but the point of bringing them up is to reinforce the truth that these people undeniably made huge contributions to our culture and society...

...and the world is waiting for you to make your own unique contribution to it!

I hope that you have the love, understanding and support of your family, especially your parents, but even if you don't because of your orientation, let me encourage you to still love and be who you are.

As a gay man, a minister, and a father (and grandfather) myself, allow me to speak to you as a father...always be yourself, and love, accept and respect yourself as the wonderful creation that God brought into this world...your life is very important, and God has a purpose for it!

If your parents support and accept you as you are, then count your blessings...you have amazing parents!

If they don't, then pray the prayer of Jesus for them, Who said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", and move past it as best you can...don't hate them...hatred will never bring anything good into your life.

They may feel that it is their responsibility to try to change you (even though you are who you are, and always will be!)

They may have limited understanding of the Bible, and think that preaching it to you will change you (even though God knew exactly who you were when He created you!)

They may feel that your orientation is their "fault", and are dealing with a lot of unnecessary guilt over it (even though the overwhelming evidence points to the fact that you were born the way you are!)

They may feel sadness at the idea of you not ever getting married or giving them grandchildren (which, in this day and age, is becoming less and less of an issue for gay people!)

They may be afraid that if you're gay you won't have a good life (which you have to show them is a fallacy by living a good life!)

They may simply be afraid of what they don't understand (in which case, help them understand if you can, and if they're open to it!)...

They may be thinking and feeling all of the above.

Just have compassion on them, and show them that you are happy with yourself. The more the people in your life see that you're OK with you, the more they will relax and just let you be yourself. You know the truth about what it means to have same-sex attraction...that it's not a choice, no matter how much straight people constantly insist that it is...so in this case you have to be the bigger person (which isn't easy when you're the kid and they're the adult(s)!...but it is what it is...so get it together and live your life, and if they accept you, great...and if they don't, find people who will, and love and honor your parents for the simple fact that they are your parents. We all want the approval of our parents, but sometimes we just have to take what we can get, and know that God (our heavenly Parent) approves of us.

And don't let anyone use a few Scriptures, taken out of context, to confuse you or clobber you with. Do your homework...find out what the Bible actually says (and doesn't say). Never let anyone use religion to manipulate you or try to control you. Knowledge is power!


And finally, NEVER, EVER, EVER let some ignorant, homophobic bully rob you of any part of your life!

NEVER, EVER, EVER do anything to hurt yourself, no matter how bad the bullying is!

Push back!

Speak up!

Say something!

Get some help!

Tell somebody what's going on!

Don't shut up until you get the help you need!

Make some noise!

Make a difference!

Bullies are cowards who are drawn to your insecurities like sharks are drawn to blood!

The more comfortable you become with yourself, the more powerful you become, and the less likely you will be a target for homophobes.

You have a responsibility to live the life you were meant to live, so never even consider the possibility of ending that life! If you do, you will break all of our hearts, and you will miss out on so much! Don't do something crazy in a moment of despair! There's always hope!

"If God be for us, who can be against us?!"

(Romans 8:31)

You have a responsibility...a responsibility to help create a new world...one in which bullying is simply a thing of the past.

No matter how overwhelmed or scared you may feel, you have to live! You have to be strong! You have to rise above it!

If you let the bullies win, then all those gay kids (and any other kids who are "different" in any way) who will come along in the future will have to deal with the same nonsense!

Don't just survive for yourself...do it for those kids!

Don't ask for trouble, but at the same time, don't forget that this is your world, too, and no one has the right to tell you how you should live in it!

God believes in you.

I believe in you.

And there's a whole world of people out there who will believe in you, too...don't allow some bonehead to steal your world...your life...

Believe in yourself!

Be the thermostat of your life, not the thermometer...

You can determine the life that you will live...

Your best days are ahead of you...


There really is a new world coming, one in which people can just live their own authentic lives in peace, without the threat of someone always trying to control or change them.


Now that's GOOD NEWS!


I speak a blessing over you, and over your family...and over your future...I pray for good friends...a good support system for you...for your protection...for favor with God and man...for your well-being...for your happiness...that love will be in your life...for healthy relationships...that you will continue to walk in truth, and that that truth will continue to make you free...that God will make Himself real to you, and that you will know and believe from the bottom of your heart that He is love, and that He is good!

 

 

 

"I know what I'm doing.
I have it all planned out—

plans to take care of you,
not abandon you,

plans to give you the future you hope for."

(Jeremiah 29:11 - The Message)

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS - CHAPTER XVII (Part 2)

I think one reason that I have put off writing this chapter for so long is that there could definitely be some question, even on my part, as to whether or not I should even touch this subject.

In the introduction I referred to the standard (and I consider sage) advice given to all authors: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW...and because I believe in that premise, I don't want to get down to the end of this writing and start delving into topics that are beyond my grasp, or my ability to understand or relate to with any kind of real empathy.

But, at the same time, I do want to say everything that I had originally intended to while I have this opportunity.

Specifically, I wanted to deal with the subject of race and homophobia before I send the manuscript off to be printed for public consumption.

Even more specifically, I wanted to deal with both the real and perceived homophobia of the African-American community, and the "Black Church" in particular.

I grew up in a very multicultural and racially diverse world, and am quite comfortable in that environment, so it's no surprise that the church I founded took on some of my personality, including my attitude toward diversity. Our congregation has been racially diverse from its inception in the spring of 1985, and at this point in our history, the demographic of the church body, at least at the original location in Conyers, is predominantly African-American.

One question that I have been asked quite frequently and consistently in the months following my coming out, especially from people of color that are in contact with me from literally all over the world, is this: "Did all the black people leave your church when you told them you were gay?"


Obviously (and thankfully) the answer to that question is "no, they did not."

Timing is Everything

It certainly will be interesting in future months and years to read this chapter in the light of the way that all of this will eventually play out, but at the time of this writing it is an election year, and President Barack Obama is running for his second term in office.

As I said, I had pretty much decided not to write this chapter and just go ahead and send this off to be published...mainly because I'm so behind schedule in getting it done...but just as I was about to put the finishing touches to the manuscript, the President made his public statement endorsing the rights of gay Americans to be married, which subsequently set off a firestorm in the Black Church.

I saw this as a confirmation that I should go ahead and talk about this, even though I have been told in no uncertain terms by some in the African-American community that, as a white man, I have no business and/or authority to discuss this at all.

But I disagree.

I am a minister. I am an American. I am gay. I am a voter. I am a tax-payer. I am pastor to a lot of black people. I honor and respect the Black Church and its important place in American life and unique role in the shaping of American history, particularly in the area of the Civil Rights movement. And I love and pray regularly for my President...even drove all the way to Washington D.C. just to stand out in the freezing cold to attend his inauguration.

Not only is it my right to talk about this, I believe it is my responsibility.

As I write this, as recently as yesterday the NAACP stepped up and officially made the same endorsement for the rights of gay people as did the President a few days earlier, which has brought about even more conflict within the Black Church.

Their explanation for their reason in doing so at this time was that their position was and is basically based on Dr. King's assertion that "a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to just everywhere"...that Civil Rights is really about human rights across the board...that to not make a statement in regards to gay rights, especially now that the President has taken an official stand on gay marriage, would essentially compromise their moral authority as a Civil Rights organization.

Coretta Scott King once said,

"Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union. A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages."

On another occasion she said,

"I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice. But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people." 

But over the last few days, the news and YouTube has been filled with clips of sermons from black pastors, demonstrating the backlash (some call it "blacklash") to the President's comments. One prominent African-American pastor of a large and historic church stood in his pulpit last Sunday, officially denouncing Obama, whom he had previously supported, claiming that the President's support of equal rights for gay Americans was a destructive threat to America equivalent to the terrorist attacks on 9/11. (A white pastor of a large church also told his white congregation the same day that all the gays and lesbians should be quarantined and surrounded by an electric fence until they all died off, but this is about the Black Church, so I won't mentioned that guy...or the white pastor who, a few days earlier told his North Carolina congregation that they should vote against Obama, and if any of their sons were sissies that they should punch them out...but I digress).

Makes you wonder if anyone in the church still just simply preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

I've heard some leaders claim that for gay people to try to relate their struggle in any way to that of African-Americans in this country is not only a travesty...an insult to those who gave their lives for the Civil Rights movement...that it is also "pimping out" the movement, because sexual orientation is, in their view, a choice, and skin color is not.

Some years ago, Elder Bernice King, a minister and the daughter of Dr. King, spoke at an anti-gay rights rally sponsored by Bishop Eddie Long's ministry when she was still employed by his church. In her speech that day she said,

"I know in my sanctified soul that my daddy didn't take a bullet for same-sex marriage."

But her mother, who often spoke at Gay Pride events, was quoted as saying,

"My husband, Martin Luther King Jr., once said, "We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny… an inescapable network of mutuality,… I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be." Therefore, I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people. Gays and lesbians stood up for civil rights in Montgomery, Selma, in Albany, Ga. and St. Augustine, Fla., and many other campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement. Many of these courageous men and women were fighting for my freedom at a time when they could find few voices for their own, and I salute their contributions.”

It goes without saying that I have great respect and reverence for the iconic widow of Dr. King. Not only did she carry on his mission and live out the essence of his message more than anyone else has before or since, but as an Atlanta native and child of the 60's (and a gay man), I feel very connected to her legacy of courage. Much of the Black Church publicly turned on her when she stood up for gay rights, including many in her own family, but she never apologized for it, or backed down at all for her stance.

That's why I stood for four hours in the rain outside Ebenezer Baptist Church just to pass by her open casket when she died, and then was privileged to be able to attend (with my son, Judah) her historic, six-hour funeral at New Birth Missionary Baptist the next day.

She was an amazing woman, who deeply understood what her husband lived and preached.

Doing the right thing isn't easy, and it often comes with a great price. I vividly remember passing by the "Christian" protesters outside her funeral as we entered the church who held up banners and signs saying "No fags in Dr. King's dream!" and "She's in hell!"

 

What's Goin' On?

Much has been studied and written about why particular oppressed people groups often eventually oppress other people groups. It's a phenomenon that is difficult to understand. Sociologically and anthropologically, this often-repeated historic reality is closely related on a psychological level to the reason that sexually or physically abused children often grow up to be sexual and physical abusers, themselves.

It has never made sense to me.

I would think that if I had been abused in such a way as a child, that I would absolutely reject any impulse I might have to pass on the abuse to another generation. I certainly know that, in my own case, I disciplined my own children quite differently from the way that I was disciplined as a child (not that I was abused...just saying that I didn't do it at all the way my parents did), so it would stand to reason to me that victims of abuse would be anything but abusers!

But, clearly...and sadly...that's not the case.

Nearly every case of child abuse reveals a continuation of a trend in a dysfunctional family

In the same way, I would think that any group that had been oppressed would, if anything, be nothing at all but champions of ending oppression for other groups.

Thankfully, Dr. King understood that principle...and he certainly was not the only one in the African-American community who did...it's just unfortunate that so many leaders in the Black Church apparently have such limited vision in this area.

That's why it was so encouraging to me to see the NAACP take the stand that it did this week.

It's only right.

And when it comes to the Black Church and the stereotype of its gay intolerance, I can only marvel that some men and women who are supposed to be theologians don't realize that the same Bible they use to bash gay people was also used to promote and defend slavery in this country!

I won't go into a study of it here (I'll save it for my next book), but suffice it to say that even in the New Testament, slavery is strongly supported. It certainly was supported by Paul, who clearly believed that some people were born to nobility and some to servitude. Even with his  great revelation of the Christ, he was a product of his times and its ignorance and prejudices. 

As I've said before, it's why the Scriptures must be rightly divided.

Do a little study of the abolitionist movement in this country, and you'll see how much history is repeating itself with the spirit of the way people use the Bible to argue both sides of gay rights.

There was a time in this country that the Jewish community and African-American community were very emotionally connected and mutually supportive, and now they are not so much.

This is an extremely simplistic explanation of the present gulf between those two communities, but, as I understand and perceive it on a very basic level, it boils down to an impasse in the argument of who had it the worse as a people, historically, bringing up the much-debated and unanswerable question: Which is more horrible, the Holocaust or American Slavery?

I've been involved in those kinds of conversations, in which someone inevitably brings up the plight of the Native Americans and the Trail of Tears, and no one ever wins the argument because all of it is horrible.

Man's inhumanity to man never makes sense and can't be rationalized.

But let's say for argument's sake that people of color had it the worse, a premise with which I have no dispute...slavery...the Middle Passage...Jim Crow laws...lynching...modern forms of racism and injustice for minorities...all of it...

To the African-American community at large I say, if indeed your experience has been the worse...the most inhumane...the most unjust...shouldn't that make you even more compassionate and sensitive to the pain of all other disenfranchised and oppressed people?

Martin Luther King and his wife, Coretta, certainly believed that it did...listen again to his description of 'The Beloved Community' and tell me that everyone isn't included in that vision!

And to the Black Clergy, which has been very outspoken in a negative way about me, I say, please rightly divide the Scriptures, and use them only to share the GOOD NEWS...the GOOD NEWS of liberty and love and acceptance and understanding and empathy and being salt and light...be the liberators that you were called to be, and learn from your own experience that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!

Please...if Jesus didn't talk about it, then don't worry about it...in a word, just preach the GOOD NEWS...love God...love others!

Can't we all just get along?