Planning For Pride Fest

I believe God has provided a great opportunity.  Through a mutual friend, I was introduced to another lady who is also passionate about ministering to the GLBT community.  We’ve been discussing what we could do at the upcoming Gay Pride Festival in Denver to minister about God’s grace and love.  She had investigated some different options and one that would work is to hand out sunscreen and to pray for anyone that wanted prayer.  When I told my daughter Brandy about this, she showed me the below picture from Facebook of a group of Christians at the Pride Festival in Chicago.  I later found out my new friend had also seen this and had been inspired by it.

When I mentioned to 3 of my close Christian friends about our plans, I was met with some surprising resistance.  One of their points was that they didn’t think we should apologize for Christians, as if all Christians have treated gays poorly.  They thought it could be perceived as Christian-bashing when there are a lot of churches and Christians that feel and try to show God’s grace and love to everyone, including them.  I thought about adding the word “some” before Christians in our planned statement of “We are sorry Christians haven’t loved you like Jesus does”.  This seemed like it was diluting the message and didn’t seem as effective, but I couldn’t articulate it very well to them.  Then, after telling my new ministry partner about this, she stated very well what I couldn’t say.  She said, “I don’t want to change the signs because I feel like a tendency, as believers who want to extend grace and love, is to distance ourselves from the rest of the Christian community and sort of make it an us-and-them type thing where it’s like ‘these Christians do that, but we’re not like that.’  And I think in order for the power of the apology to be heard, it needs to come from the group that is doing the hurting.  I don’t think we can disassociate ourselves from that, as much as I’d like to.  I think we have to recognize that Christians, of which we are a part of the group, have done the hurting, and so we’re going to do the apology.  And that’s why I don’t want to say some Christians because we are a part of that.”  I totally agree with her!  So, we’re proceeding as planned with printing the original message on labels to place on sunscreen bottles and signs.  We’re also making shirts with “I’m sorry” on them.

The conversation with my 3 friends has stirred up a lot of emotions.  I'm going through some major life events right now including health problems, moving, and an upcoming trial for the murderer of a close friend.  So my waking up at 3 this morning and crying more thinking about this topic, is not all because of this single issue.  However, I do still have a lot to work through around this whole Christianity and gay topic.  It's not only a complicated issue with many different facets, but it also is very emotional for me for multiple reasons relating to my daughters.  I don't even know where to start.  I'm frustrated about how people without a personal tie to this subject don't really seem to care.  I'm confused how to explain the importance of this issue to people that already have a deep seeded prejudice and cultural bias, let alone mix that in with sensitivities around religious issues.  I'm angry at the individuals I've personally encountered that have been blatantly abusive and bigoted towards my daughters, especially when it is done under the name of Christianity.  That is NOT what Jesus would want!  That is NOT being a Christian!  I heard this morning how last week my daughter's sister was crying to her about thinking she's gay and unable to tell either of her parents.  She had made hints to her mother, who said "you're not a dyke are you, because if you are you'll burn in hell".  I just want to shake these type of people and slap some sense into them... okay, I realize violence won't help, but I'm so angry at people like this!!!   I guess I should stop now; more to come later.