Lately, I've been warming up to religion. Like many in the LGBT community, I had managed to avoid the whole thing. I haven't so much run from it. Thank God, I was raised by a Bible-burning, atheist mother -- something that I wrote about in my book Tea Leaves: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters.
But I kept religion at a distance. Then I started going to a nearby Unitarian Universalist church. It started with a crisis, of course, like many religious conversions. I was laid off from a high-stress job. But it was more than that. I was a mess -- physically and spiritually. I felt like I looked: fried. An old friend who was a yoga instructor suggested that my partner and I take her yoga class at the UU church where she is the music director. When my partner began drumming there some Sundays, I went with her. I liked it so much that I became a member and then joined the lay ministers.
To me joining a church was a major leap of faith. I was concerned how many I have known over the years, would take the news. Some were surprised. I overheard someone who we had known for many years saying, "Janet joined a church?" A close friend asked abruptly, "What gives, Janet? A church?" I told her that it was about community, and she could understand that. It's also about diversity -- including sexual orientation, age, gender and race as well as religious, or lack of, background. Fortunately, many of my friends calmed down when they heard it was a UU church the place where people sing Holly Near songs and Sweet Honey in the Rock on Sunday mornings. Becoming a UU has broadened my horizons. For one thing, I found out that many have been damaged by early religious experiences -- even many who were not LGBT. This gave me pause.
I understood intellectually, of course, but it took me a while to really "get" that LGBTQ teens were killing themselves because they thought that they were going to hell. My secular intellectual background translated hell into mythology (starting with Greek mythological creation stories ) and literature (I've always loved the Divine Comedy). These teens, however, were told they were going to hell by their communities. And hell was real to them. They were told that their lives with not worth living.
Traditional Christianity is not my path. But there is hope. Rev. Al Sharpton writing on The Huffington Post addressed the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that was signed by Governor Mike Pence last week, by stating that "My religious conviction compels me to fight for civil rights and social justice; I don't divide the two. Each and every one of us must speak out against this egregious Indiana law."
When I read Gay Conversations With God: Straight Talk On Fanatics, Fags and the God Who Loves Us All by James Alexander Langteaux from Findhorn Press, I had a little snicker. The author was a senior producer and host of the Christian 700 club. He writes that invariably after an "ex-gay" show (where men who had been through so-called reparative, conversion and ex-gay therapy all of which is condemned by the American Psychiatric Association), the "cured" men would hit on him. His response was that it sounded fun, but what would their lesbian wives and their 17 children think. My snicker at this hypocrisy stayed with me as a kind of joy that arose every time I heard anything about the 700 club. I came to think that maybe God (feel free to substitute any other word that works for you, Divine, Great Spirit and definitely She as well as He) wants me to feel that joy. The sad part of the author's experience is that he was struggling with his own sexuality at the time and the ex-gay overtures only made him depressed. But he also talks about his faith in terms of "pure love:"
"Perfect love casts out all fear. And on that final day as you stand in the presence of that perfect love, the last thing you will feel... is queer."
The book is written glibly but leaves no doubt that the author has been through it -- as a result of being gay and Christian.
In The Peace Seeker (Peace Seeker Press) author Susan E. Gilmore goes deeper in relating her struggles between her sexuality and her strong faith in the Baptist religion in which she was raised which instilled her with "an unwavering confidence that the Bible was the infallible word of God and that every word was correct and could be relied on for spiritual truth and everyday wisdom." The Peace Keeper talks about her observation from a young age of the church's position that the role of women "was to be submissive to men." The author is bright, intelligent and driven -- qualities that any organization (including her church) should develop and put to use. Instead, she was thrown out of Bible college for having an "inappropriate" sexual and romantic relationship with another female student. Ultimately, she is accepted by another Bible college and goes abroad to do missionary work.
Since her entire life is based in her religion, the author partners with other Christian women. This is during the late '70s and early '80s and there was a lesbian community in existence. At one point when she comes home and becomes involved with another partner, the two of them attend a church together, but stay in the closet. What follows is a harrowing tale of the couple being broken up by the church members and elders. Susan left that church, but at no point does she consider changing her religion or leaving it entirely. Her faith was that strong.
Susan finds love again with another Christian woman, and together they find a church that embraces them because one of the pastors' mind and heart had been opened because he had a gay brother who had been treated badly by the church. This man checked in with the two women, encouraged them to come out, and accepted them as a couple. It would be nice if this part of the story ended there. However, this pastor's acceptance created considerable division among the congregation. The church leadership, however, encouraged them to stay. Susan generously describes the situation: "Some church members fully accept us; others remain on the path to understanding."
Coming Out in Faith: Voices of LGBTQ Unitarian Universalists edited by Susan A. Gore and Keith Kron was, as I anticipated, a breath of fresh air. The writers in this collection share their experiences of being amazed at being around straight allies who are genuinely not homophobic. Social justice is a strong component of Unitarian Universalism and LGBT rights are important among them.
One of the writers is Drew Johnston who identifies as "a queer bi/trans Unitarian Universalist." Drew relates the experience of transitioning while being a UU minister. Drew attended a potluck dinner and took questions from the congregation. One person asked about gendered pronouns. "Did I prefer male or female .... Then I heard myself finally answer the question. I said I like it when people at least alternate. I said, 'Then I feel seen.'"