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I go to a Methodist church that's part of something called the Reconciling Ministries Network. That's modern Methodese for "being gay-positive and also interested in fostering diversity within the church and social justice everywhere." It's a big mandate, but my little church makes a strong effort, no thanks (so far) to me on the second half. (I do my merry lesbian best on the first part.) This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the congregation formally identifying itself as "Reconciling," and to that end there've been some special services, and a one-man show about one man's journey through ex-gay-dom to ex-ex-gay-dom. (I really wanted to see that, but I was out of town - no, not in Russia, in Albany. It was for work. There... well, maybe I'll write a post about that later. Anyway.) This past Sunday was the Official Twentieth Anniversary Service, with a guest pastor giving the sermon and a potluck lunch afterwards.
The sermon made me more uncomfortable than any sermon I have witnessed live since I went to church with Denise sometime in 2002 and heard a lot of gratuitous and ignorant statements about the Koh-Ran and the Tally-Ban. It was a combination of the I'm-So-Good/Poor-Me!Sermon, the This-Is-The-Way(but-I-have-no-reason-why)!Sermon, and the Get-A-Load-Of-The-Sinners-Over-Yonder!Sermon (which I'd been fortunate enough to never encounter, in the wild, in such a pure form.) Not at all what I expected in a service about reconciliation, from a speaker the regular pastor (a less neurotic but still sympathetic version of Anne Lamott) introduced as a great friend and like-minded person.
The sermon boiled down to "I'm Soooo Good because I don't even think of myself as a liberal for believing that gay people can and should participate fully in the life of the church! You and I see the beauty of a kiss, because we're not like the fundamentalists, who are evil evil evil and wrong wrong wrong! I'm not going to offer any elaboration on or explanation of that, but just assert it! Because GOD IS ON OUR SIDE!"
God is on our side.
That's a direct quotation.
God. Is. On. Our. Side.
No matter who says that, or in what context, it's going to make me want to head for the hills. ( Read more... )
The sermon made me more uncomfortable than any sermon I have witnessed live since I went to church with Denise sometime in 2002 and heard a lot of gratuitous and ignorant statements about the Koh-Ran and the Tally-Ban. It was a combination of the I'm-So-Good/Poor-Me!Sermon, the This-Is-The-Way(but-I-have-no-reason-why)!Sermon, and the Get-A-Load-Of-The-Sinners-Over-Yonder!Sermon (which I'd been fortunate enough to never encounter, in the wild, in such a pure form.) Not at all what I expected in a service about reconciliation, from a speaker the regular pastor (a less neurotic but still sympathetic version of Anne Lamott) introduced as a great friend and like-minded person.
The sermon boiled down to "I'm Soooo Good because I don't even think of myself as a liberal for believing that gay people can and should participate fully in the life of the church! You and I see the beauty of a kiss, because we're not like the fundamentalists, who are evil evil evil and wrong wrong wrong! I'm not going to offer any elaboration on or explanation of that, but just assert it! Because GOD IS ON OUR SIDE!"
God is on our side.
That's a direct quotation.
God. Is. On. Our. Side.
No matter who says that, or in what context, it's going to make me want to head for the hills. ( Read more... )
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