Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Gay Pride Parade 2006
Pride Parade SF 2006
August 24, 2010 by Charlene E Hios | Edit
Back in June of 2006 I was a student at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. I was drawn to experience the gay pride parade of San Francisco from the perspective of one who was no longer a lesbian. I also wanted to interact with the parade participants, to get a feel for what their thoughts were on some issues.
A good friend of mine at the time, Tanja Guerrero, went with me. I also made sure I told the dean of students of my plans to attend the parade and what my reasons for doing so actually were. This way if I should some how get on the news or was spotted by protestors I might know, they would not have the wrong idea.
Let me stop for a moment and say that I am not a big fan of the signs protestors hold up at the pride parades. Unless a person knows Scripture, they are not going to know what is meant with a sign which reads : Romans 1:26-27, Lev 18:20 . . . you get the picture. If a sign is used that reads: God Created Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve, well that just appears hateful and mean. If I ever personally see a sign that reads “God Hates Fags” I promise you I will tear it out of the hands of the holder. I promise you! Yes, I will probally go to jail for inciting a riot. That is okay.
If you are to hold up any sign at a pride parade it should read: God LOVES You and I Do Too! This will certainly provide a loving response, and it may also get some much needed conversation. It will certainly make the gay and lesbian reader curious.
Okay, back to my main thought here!
Tanja and I went to the staging area of the parade where we, in prayer, asked God for some divine appointments. We were blessed to have six of them. Here is what I did with Tanja there for prayer support.
At God’s prompting we walked up to six different people over the course of an hour. We did a cold interview with one woman, one man, a male couple, and a female couple pushing a bicycle built for two which sported a cute sign on the front which read “Dykes on Bikes Rejects” Smile.
With my little Samsung digital DV camera in hand I asked each of the six these same three questions:
“What type of spirituality did you grow up with, if any? What type of spirituality, if any, do you now practice? If you could give a message to the Church, what would that message be?”
As I asked these questions and filmed their replies my heart broke as each of them shared their answers. I wanted to reach out to each of them and let them know how sorry I was for their experiences. The first person was a vendor, a young man from Ireland. He was not gay, he was brought up in the church and he still attends church. The second person was a woman close to my age who I believe volunteered with such social issues as feeding the homeless and clothing them, the third and fourth people were the lesbian couple, one had her PhD and her girlfriend was a dancer, and finally, a gay couple, one of whom would not be video taped. All of them had been involved with the Church growning up. Only the vendor still attended church. The others expressed how the Church had hurt them and though they believed in God they now identified with other spiritualites such a Paganism.
What was their message to the Church you might be asking?
Interesting enough what made me cry was that although none of them knew each other, these six divine appointments all seemed to have the same message. The lady who has her PhD said it best when she said:
If ever there was an organization who has hurt more people, its the Church, they need to be more like Jesus!
Time and time again I have heard those in the LGBTQ community state this and I am torn. Being a former lesbian I still have a hard time with it but mainly because that was not my experience with the Church. I was blessed to have a loving and healing experience with the Church as a whole. I am told my experience is unique. But I do not believe this to be so. The very fact that I experienced a church who was willing to accept me just as I was, a church who focused on telling me about Jesus and a church who did not focused on my personal sin, then one would think there are more experiences such as mine.
Either way, how do we, as the body of Christ Jesus, reach out to those who have felt pushed away by the Church. Usually when someone is hurt by the Church they want nothing to do with people who identify themselves as part of that organization.
I believe the answer is one on one relationships. Members of the Church need to reach out with the love of Jesus Christ to those in their lives who identify themselves as lesbian or gay. Invite them to lunch or for coffee. Maybe go shopping with them, or perhaps catch a game? Invite them over to your house for dinner or perhaps a barbeque. Eventually invite them to attend church with you and your family on a special day such as Easter or Christmas, or to a pagent put on by your church for such Holy Days.
Yes, there is always going to be that question asked of you by your lesbian or gay friend. “Do you think homosexuality is a sin?” Or, “do you think I am going to hell because I am a lesbian or because I am gay?”
How do you answer these questions? I will be back in a day or so with some answers that may help you answer them. Until then, if you would like to post your thoughts on how to lovingly answer these questions, please do so!
Also I will be posting the raw video of these cold interviews soon.
August 24, 2010 by Charlene E Hios | Edit
Back in June of 2006 I was a student at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. I was drawn to experience the gay pride parade of San Francisco from the perspective of one who was no longer a lesbian. I also wanted to interact with the parade participants, to get a feel for what their thoughts were on some issues.
A good friend of mine at the time, Tanja Guerrero, went with me. I also made sure I told the dean of students of my plans to attend the parade and what my reasons for doing so actually were. This way if I should some how get on the news or was spotted by protestors I might know, they would not have the wrong idea.
Let me stop for a moment and say that I am not a big fan of the signs protestors hold up at the pride parades. Unless a person knows Scripture, they are not going to know what is meant with a sign which reads : Romans 1:26-27, Lev 18:20 . . . you get the picture. If a sign is used that reads: God Created Adam and Eve Not Adam and Steve, well that just appears hateful and mean. If I ever personally see a sign that reads “God Hates Fags” I promise you I will tear it out of the hands of the holder. I promise you! Yes, I will probally go to jail for inciting a riot. That is okay.
If you are to hold up any sign at a pride parade it should read: God LOVES You and I Do Too! This will certainly provide a loving response, and it may also get some much needed conversation. It will certainly make the gay and lesbian reader curious.
Okay, back to my main thought here!
Tanja and I went to the staging area of the parade where we, in prayer, asked God for some divine appointments. We were blessed to have six of them. Here is what I did with Tanja there for prayer support.
At God’s prompting we walked up to six different people over the course of an hour. We did a cold interview with one woman, one man, a male couple, and a female couple pushing a bicycle built for two which sported a cute sign on the front which read “Dykes on Bikes Rejects” Smile.
With my little Samsung digital DV camera in hand I asked each of the six these same three questions:
“What type of spirituality did you grow up with, if any? What type of spirituality, if any, do you now practice? If you could give a message to the Church, what would that message be?”
As I asked these questions and filmed their replies my heart broke as each of them shared their answers. I wanted to reach out to each of them and let them know how sorry I was for their experiences. The first person was a vendor, a young man from Ireland. He was not gay, he was brought up in the church and he still attends church. The second person was a woman close to my age who I believe volunteered with such social issues as feeding the homeless and clothing them, the third and fourth people were the lesbian couple, one had her PhD and her girlfriend was a dancer, and finally, a gay couple, one of whom would not be video taped. All of them had been involved with the Church growning up. Only the vendor still attended church. The others expressed how the Church had hurt them and though they believed in God they now identified with other spiritualites such a Paganism.
What was their message to the Church you might be asking?
Interesting enough what made me cry was that although none of them knew each other, these six divine appointments all seemed to have the same message. The lady who has her PhD said it best when she said:
If ever there was an organization who has hurt more people, its the Church, they need to be more like Jesus!
Time and time again I have heard those in the LGBTQ community state this and I am torn. Being a former lesbian I still have a hard time with it but mainly because that was not my experience with the Church. I was blessed to have a loving and healing experience with the Church as a whole. I am told my experience is unique. But I do not believe this to be so. The very fact that I experienced a church who was willing to accept me just as I was, a church who focused on telling me about Jesus and a church who did not focused on my personal sin, then one would think there are more experiences such as mine.
Either way, how do we, as the body of Christ Jesus, reach out to those who have felt pushed away by the Church. Usually when someone is hurt by the Church they want nothing to do with people who identify themselves as part of that organization.
I believe the answer is one on one relationships. Members of the Church need to reach out with the love of Jesus Christ to those in their lives who identify themselves as lesbian or gay. Invite them to lunch or for coffee. Maybe go shopping with them, or perhaps catch a game? Invite them over to your house for dinner or perhaps a barbeque. Eventually invite them to attend church with you and your family on a special day such as Easter or Christmas, or to a pagent put on by your church for such Holy Days.
Yes, there is always going to be that question asked of you by your lesbian or gay friend. “Do you think homosexuality is a sin?” Or, “do you think I am going to hell because I am a lesbian or because I am gay?”
How do you answer these questions? I will be back in a day or so with some answers that may help you answer them. Until then, if you would like to post your thoughts on how to lovingly answer these questions, please do so!
Also I will be posting the raw video of these cold interviews soon.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
The Culture Wars?
The culture wars surrounding the topic of homosexuality have sucked up tremendous resources, have left devastated casualties in their wake, and continue to perpetuate polarization and enmity – most clearly seen in the divide between the Christian community and the gay community. The diversity and divisiveness surrounding gay issues is staggering.
Monday, June 22, 2009
June 24 2009 Synchroblog
1). The culture wars surrounding the topic of homosexuality have sucked up tremendous resources, have left devastated casualties in their wake, and continue to perpetuate polarization and enmity – most clearly seen in the divide between the Christian community and the gay community. 2). The diversity and divisiveness surrounding gay issues is staggering. Even the above statement needs to be unpacked. The sense of polarization is not simply between the Christian community and the gay community as if both of those communities were completely monolithic and mutually exclusive. Rather, we see fractures within the Christian community and disagreements within the gay community. In the midst of this wasteland are gay Christians – a diverse group of people too – who often find very little safe harbour on either side of the divide.
The intensity of this divide is ratcheted up several notches during annual Pride weeks. We’ve all seen the photos of the attempted Christian messages at Pride events. Placards and signs and megaphones. And many of us are grieved. Many of us disconnect and say, “That doesn’t represent the Jesus I know. That doesn’t represent me.”
We want to invite you to join us in a synchro-blog on the Wednesday of Pride week, June 24, to speak up and speak out of your heart to address this terrible divide.
New Direction has been seeking to foster safe and generous space for authentic conversation about faith and sexuality. We have committed ourselves to building bridges. But we cannot do it alone. We need other Christ-followers: gay and straight and everything in between, to speak up and join the conversation, to share the heart of the gospel in the midst of this conflict. We need those beyond the walls of the church: gay and straight and everything in between, to speak up and join the conversation, to share their thoughts on how the church can reach across the divide and build bridges.
If you've seen our DVD resource called, “Bridging the Gap: Conversations on Befriending Our Gay Neighbours” and would like to offer a review that day - that would be great. If you'd simply like to offer your own thoughts on what is needed to break down the dividing walls that continue to wound, alienate and obscure the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ - that is great too. And for those who read this blog who do not identify as Christian - please consider participating! Those of us who do identify as Christian need to hear your perspectives. We need to listen to and learn from each other.
So please, spread share this invitation with others you think would have a thoughtful contribution to make!
Our prayer is that this synchro-blog would model an opportunity for multiple conversations, from multiple perspectives, with a commitment to hear one another with grace, humility and respect.
Tony Campolo says, “I hope that you do much good in building the bridges between conflicting parties on a controversial issue that is destroying the church of Jesus Christ today. What you are doing is of vital importance. My prayers are with you.”
Greg Paul says, “Trying to bring together two groups of people who really don't want to like each other isn't easy. Try to imagine building a bridge across a turbulent river, in the midst of a raging battle - with both sides shooting at you... Such radical reconciliation efforts come only at a cost, but so does the Gospel itself. New Direction, many years ago, was one of those Christian organizations that gay, lesbian and transgendered people loved to hate. In the intervening years, it has become one of the few true bridge builders between evangelical Christians and the gay community.”
For more information & to sign up to participate in our synchro-blog email:
wendy@newdirection.ca
The intensity of this divide is ratcheted up several notches during annual Pride weeks. We’ve all seen the photos of the attempted Christian messages at Pride events. Placards and signs and megaphones. And many of us are grieved. Many of us disconnect and say, “That doesn’t represent the Jesus I know. That doesn’t represent me.”
We want to invite you to join us in a synchro-blog on the Wednesday of Pride week, June 24, to speak up and speak out of your heart to address this terrible divide.
New Direction has been seeking to foster safe and generous space for authentic conversation about faith and sexuality. We have committed ourselves to building bridges. But we cannot do it alone. We need other Christ-followers: gay and straight and everything in between, to speak up and join the conversation, to share the heart of the gospel in the midst of this conflict. We need those beyond the walls of the church: gay and straight and everything in between, to speak up and join the conversation, to share their thoughts on how the church can reach across the divide and build bridges.
If you've seen our DVD resource called, “Bridging the Gap: Conversations on Befriending Our Gay Neighbours” and would like to offer a review that day - that would be great. If you'd simply like to offer your own thoughts on what is needed to break down the dividing walls that continue to wound, alienate and obscure the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ - that is great too. And for those who read this blog who do not identify as Christian - please consider participating! Those of us who do identify as Christian need to hear your perspectives. We need to listen to and learn from each other.
So please, spread share this invitation with others you think would have a thoughtful contribution to make!
Our prayer is that this synchro-blog would model an opportunity for multiple conversations, from multiple perspectives, with a commitment to hear one another with grace, humility and respect.
Tony Campolo says, “I hope that you do much good in building the bridges between conflicting parties on a controversial issue that is destroying the church of Jesus Christ today. What you are doing is of vital importance. My prayers are with you.”
Greg Paul says, “Trying to bring together two groups of people who really don't want to like each other isn't easy. Try to imagine building a bridge across a turbulent river, in the midst of a raging battle - with both sides shooting at you... Such radical reconciliation efforts come only at a cost, but so does the Gospel itself. New Direction, many years ago, was one of those Christian organizations that gay, lesbian and transgendered people loved to hate. In the intervening years, it has become one of the few true bridge builders between evangelical Christians and the gay community.”
For more information & to sign up to participate in our synchro-blog email:
wendy@newdirection.ca
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