Ad Dominum

I urge you to watch both of these videos, in spite of their length. (Really begin to pay attention around 3:30 on the first one, and for the entirety of part 2. The vids aren’t high quality, but you’ll get a good taste of their flavor.)

Part 1:

Part 2:

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I attended the festival at Columbus Pride yesterday afternoon with a friend. People have asked me, and I can conceive of others asking, as well, “How can you attend such an event?”

For starters, I attended a festival. Pretty tame stuff. I skipped out on the parties and whatnot.

But why go at all?

1. Solidarity. Standing in solidarity with other people who share the same orientation that I do in their struggles for peace, justice, and equality in the eyes of civil law. Solidarity in facing many of the same struggles- and joys- everyday.
2. Responsibility. Responsibility in seeing injustice, and responding to it. Responsibility in making sure that every voice is heard in the “gay community,” and not just the voices of a few of the loud or unique.
3. Shared sense of “survival.”  Most people who did not grow up gay cannot imagine what it is like. Many people experienced physical abuse at the hands of bullies at school, members of their communities, and even parents and members of their own families. Many more experienced emotional abuse at the hands of the same. Many more than those, I’d say the majority, have experienced spiritual abuse at the hands of family members, and more importantly, at the hands of those people who have been entrusted with the sacred duty of caring for souls and spirits. The videos posted above serve as an example of the kind of spiritual abuse of which I speak, though it can take forms much more quiet and insidious. Off-hand and explicit comments, insensitivity, confusing sacred scripture with social norms, and a variety of other types of irresponsibility are all part of the same cycle of abuse. Others in the community, older than I, witnessed friend after friend die in the scourge, especially in the 1980′s and 90′s. All of these contribute to an incredible sense of, “I don’t know why, but we’re here, we survived, and we’re not crazy. Now we move forward.”
4. It’s not “who you are…” it’s what you do that matters in the end. There’s a saying which comes off as cliche to the core, but in reality it holds much truth: “God doesn’t make junk.”
5. We are all called to love. We cannot love others until we learn to love ourselves. If we cannot see the fingerprints of God on our own person, how can we see those fingerprints all over anyone else?
6. Pride. Not  “sinful” pride, but pride in being unique children of God. No one can be the exact person that you were created to be; only you can be that person. And this is true for all of us, no matter our orientation (or race, or ethnicity, or gender). And for those who have been maligned and ostracized by family, friends, and society, it’s a wonderful feeling to, at times, get together with people who have experienced the same to celebrate not only our uniqueness, but also our shared sense of being human, no matter the voices of others who suppose differently.

Walk justly. Love mercy. Do good. Be you. That’s my agenda. Is it yours?

Happy Pride.

Pax et bonum.