Love triumphed this Pride season, and as we slowly wake up from the daze of parades, shows and tender moments spent with loved ones, we look on a brighter future. Yet battles remain to be fought on familiar ground, as Mississippi legislators attempt to circumvent the country's highest court to deny same-sex couples their right to civil marriage. In fact, the governor and his legislators seemed to have stumbled on a nuclear option-- removing the state from the marriage business all together.
I know Mississippi. My father and his family lived for years along its coast before moving north--less than an hour's drive away from Shiloh, Tennessee. It is at Shiloh that my great-great-grandfather, James Wilburn, lies buried in a mass grave among other Confederate soldiers during that terribly deadly siege on the war's western front. If I can say nothing else, I can say the people of Mississippi are people of respectful conviction--willing to stick to their guns (figuratively and literally) when it comes to their beliefs. However, I can only say that they have offered me, an openly gay man, nothing but the same hospitality and genuine courtesy that has been a hallmark of the South for generations.
Their political leaders do not share the same conviction. Some might call Southern politics a shifting confederacy among branches of the Republican Party. I prefer a more succinct term--a confederacy of dunces. Listen to Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn call for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the official state flag.
"We must always remember our past, but that does not mean we must let it define us," he said. "As a Christian, I believe our state's flag has become a point of offense that needs to be removed. We need to begin having conversations about changing Mississippi's flag."
Like most Mississippians, Gunn follows the lessons of Christ--except when it suits him. Only a few days later, he had this to say about the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage.
"This decision is in direct conflict with God's design for marriage as set forth in the Bible," he said. "The threat of this decision to religious liberty is very clear. I pledge to protect the rights of Christian citizens to teach and operate on the basis of Christian conviction."
Many other Mississippi statesmen seem to face the same problem of using their faith to champion the removal a symbol of hate from their state's banner while twisting that same faith to perpetuate hatred and fear of many of their LGBT constituents. Sorry, Mississippi, but in this case, you can't swing both ways. Either you want to join us in the 21st century, or you may continue to pervert the empowering message of Christ into a dystopian time bubble trapping you in a past long gone.
Though years have passed since I last worshipped, the Gospels still command great power in my heart. Especially Christ's words against the one group he actually seemed to show true contempt for--hypocrites.
Says Matthew 23:13: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."
Gunn is right about one thing. The past does not need to define the people of Mississippi anymore, or any other people of the South. The conviction that convinces you to take down the Confederate flag should also lead you to protect the rights promised to thousands of your constituents by this country's highest court. Southern leaders, open the door--and, if you truly believe, enter a new age with us.