Gays, Fags, Lesbos, and Queers...

…call them anything you like but they have just as much right to their rights as anyone else. Make no mistake about it, this is not a moral issue. It is a civil rights issue. As my blog friends already know, Sunday’s are the day I spend some time with my mom by taking her to church. She (we) is a charter member of this little Episcopal church near our home here in Baja Georgia. All through my youth, I would attend church with mom and for a good deal of that time, we sang together in the choir. I love music and the Episcopal hymnal is a treasure of great composers… Bach, Handel, Mendleson, Schubert, Beethoven, to name a few. If you’ve never tried it, trust me, singing a J.S. Bach counter-point bass line is a real grin. When I left home and joined the military I pretty much left my church going days behind. In spite of all kinds of conjoling and entreatments, I could not be lured back into the fold. Mostly because I recognized all of it for the BS it is, but also because of the utter and complete failure of the priesthood, in all white folk denominations, to provide moral leadership during the civil rights movement. If there was ever a clear-cut, good vs. bad choice, that was it. And they failed us. About ten years ago, when I decided to again spend time with my now elderly mother by taking her to church I again joined the choir. It was a pretty pathetic little group but we had fun, in large part due to a terrific choir director. He was a great director and really fun and funny, “It’s get, not giit. Nevar, not neverrrr.” Rednecks that we are, we tried our best. Then came the ordination of a gay bishop. It drove a rift through the Episcopal Church of America. Many congregations, my hand waving, praise the Lord brother included, left the church over the issue and became part of an African Anglican group. One night we went to choir practice as usual and everyone had just gotten seated when the priest came in and announced that Tony, our choir director, was leaving. It turns out, that a group of our church’s leading congregates, two of whom were in the choir, drafted a letter to our bishop decrying the ordination of gays and stating that homosexuality is anathema to the Christian faith. Furthermore, they read this letter in a church meeting with Tony in attendance. Now, these folks didn’t know Tony was gay, if that’s any excuse. Tony isn’t stupid, he knows how many people feel about gays and he keeps it to himself. But he didn’t know what the word anathema meant so he looked it up when he got home.

anathema;

1. a person or thing detested or loathed
2. a person or thing accursed or consigned to damnation or destruction
3. a formal ecclesiastical curse involving excommunication
4. any imprecation of divine punishment
5. a curse; execration

My mom hated what happened as much as me. But what was she to do? She's 89 years old. Everywhere in that little church are family memories. A priest’s chair given by an aunt. The Baptismal font given by another. A stool made by my father. A stained-glass window with my father’s name on it. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were Baptized there.

I was really pissed and let them know it. Supported by several others, I flat out told the entire congregation what I though of their despicable behavior. I must say, that those responsible were saddened and ashamed of having hurt Tony. But it didn’t change their minds.

After a lot of thought and prayer, mom decided to stick with the church, and I stuck with my mom. I’m doing this for her, not me. I had pretty much decided that when my mom passes away, I would formally withdraw my letter of membership. Then, the other day I saw this in the paper:

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: August 2, 2009

Only weeks after the Episcopal Church ended a de facto moratorium on promoting gay men and lesbians into the church hierarchy, church leaders in Los Angeles nominated two openly gay priests as assistant bishops on Sunday.

The decisions are certain to rekindle the hostilities between the liberal and conservatives factions within the Episcopal Church in the United States and between the church and the Anglican Communion, the generally conservative global network of churches to which the Episcopal Church belongs.

This fight is like any other. With each small victory the line is drawn a little higher. Like the civil rights movement, this is not a fight I’m going to back down from and I hope you will join me.

The idea that people, simply because of accident of birth, can be denied the right to marry, to adopt children, to have health care, emergency room visitation, and a host of other freedoms and rights all the rest of us take for granted is anathema to a civil society.

I’ll leave you with a little story told to me by a good friend, who happens to be gay.

Two gay friends who hadn’t seen each other in several years meet on the street. They’re so excited and engage in animated conversation. One leans close to the other and says, “I got some cosmetic surgery.” The other said, “What did you do?” The first one replied, “I got circumcised.” Delighted, the other said, “Oh show me, show me. I want to see.” So the first descretely took out his wanger and showed it. The other exclaimed, “Oh my goodness! You look ten years younger.”