A Spiritual Challenge to the LGBTQI Community: Pray!

Darlings, we are some of the most spiritual people on the planet. You know this. I know this because I live it and so do you. What's my point? I've had it with the outrage about Rev. Rick Warren getting his two minutes in the freezing cold sunshine during the invocation at Obama's Inaugural.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't like his theology or his politics. That's not the point. The point is that I'm tired of living in outrage. I'm tired of hearing about this gay mucky-mucky "decrying" Obama's choice. Or that queer activist feeling "disappointed" in Obama. Or that by this choice Obama has "ruined" his inauguration. Okay, I get it--we're outraged.

Where does outrage stop and genuine spiritual practice begin? I'm asking, really.You know and I know that prayer changes things in a big way. Prayer is, in fact, the one thing I am certain changes things. We've all seen it. Impersonal prayer for the highest good for all concerned carries a big dollop of miracle when it's answered.

So what are we doing, LGBTQI prayer warriors? Are we expending our energy in outrage or are we using our own varied forms of prayer to lift up Obama, the inauguration, and our beloved community for the highest good for everyone, everywhere, every when? No exceptions.

Where there is no vision, sang the Psalmist, the people perish. I far prefer my own paraphrase: where there are no people, the vision perishes. Here's a new vision -- catch it if you can!

Gay Christians enter into their prayer closets, and affirm the highest good for us all.
Lesbian Jews wrap themselves in their prayer shawls, and give thanks for the manifestation of the highest good for us all. Bisexual pagan priestesses remember that Nature holds only the highest good for us all. Transgendered shamans, honored two-spirits, dance their prayers for the highest good for us all. Queer Buddhists sit in their meditations, watching their thoughts and remembering the highest good for us all. Intersex recovery folk invoke their Higher Power for highest good for us all. Queer-curious people of all faiths ask for their own highest good and that of all others. Closeted, fearful gay people all over the world pray in the silence of their isolation that the highest good for all us come to be.

You see the pictures, don't you?

I truly understand and appreciate the outrage, Beloved Ones, but I know better than to think it ultimately serves us. And so do you. Instead, come with me into the sacred space of prayer as best you know how. Remember that the highest good for all is really that -- highest -- and for all.

Oh, and bless the misguided, hate-filled Rev. Warren as well. God knows how to change his hardened heart and mind. We don't.

And take comfort -- he's getting only two minutes of his fifteen minutes of fame. Even if these two aren't to our taste, let's get to work to change the remaining thirteen.

Visit Susan Corso's spiritual blog or subscribe to Seeds at www.susancorso.com.

Comments

[JohnFromCensornati]

"You know and I know that prayer changes things in a big way. Prayer is, in fact, the one thing I am certain changes things. We've all seen it"

I don't know that. In fact, I'm fairly certain that the opposite is true. It does nothing at all.

[aceholiday]

i do not know, and have definitely not seen, prayer work. its probably not best to assume such things. non believers are people too.

[Alex02139]

Prayer does raise a lot of cash for preachers of all sorts.

[Sioen]

I'm praying for the men and women, boys and girls, who will be beaten or killed because of the bigotry spouted by Warren and not publicly disavowed by Obama.

Queers of all stripes are still killed in America just for existing. And language like Warren's -- that we are unnatural and don't deserve full human rights? That's the punk that lights the fire. Language like that gives people the dehumanizing wink-wink they need to beat us in the streets.

So you do whatever you need to do because you're "tired" of the outrage (that sounds so patronizing that I want to scream, honestly). But stop defending the choice of Warren as just some small thing that we should get over. Because I'm tired of the blood and the bodies.

[BartLA]

Exactly. I'm praying for the lesbian who was brutally gang-raped in San Francisco simply for the fact she was gay.

[M1]

I accept your challenge.

[Trevoro]

You and Rick Warren can compete all you want for god's attention.

Those of us who understand that prayer is meaningless in the political sphere will choose action.

[aceholiday]

applause

[Klondie]

You can pray and be outraged...problem is Rick warren is amaster at taking any acknowledgment of his moral authority and parlaying that into leveraging legislation against those of us praying.

I'll pray...but I will all so act... to see this does not turn out to be the greatest tool this man has ever received to be able to leverage his beliefs into law and against me ...or women or Jews...or anyone else's equality his beliefs think should take a back seat to his religious right.

Otherwise we become Iran. So yes pray but don't lose the outrage. It's not the little prayer...it's what Rick Warren does with those honors and the highest honor a President perhaps could bestow (not to mention the most watched event in history will have Rick Warren as the moral judge and certifier) to the people who got obama elected...whom he owes nothing but honesty and character.