When I came out, I wanted to experience everything gay and that included gay pride in New York City. It was a wonderful weekend and it included services with guest speaker, Bishop Gene Robinson. The parade was mind blowing. I would have said it could not get better except who knew we would be marching ourselves within the next few years with the Governor of New York as a newly married couple? That was sensory overload and a truly awesome experience!
One of my friends posted on Facebook that weekend ( as if to warn all good New Yorkers ). 'Lock your doors, it's gay pride weekend; bands of gays will be roaming the city and if your doors aren't locked they may come in and redecorate!'
That is a rather gentle stereotype but a stereotype none the less. We all have preconceived notions. I've heard haters say that gay men have 20,000 sex partners in their lifetime. I for one get exhausted just thinking about such a thing and laugh it off as ignorance. Some people think being gay is all about wild, nameless, faceless sex or lisps, effeminate gestures and good decorating. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am certain these haters' heads would probably explode into dust and utter confusion if they were to attend one of our meetings on Gay spirituality. That is, how do we integrate and live faithful lives as gay men and women?
Today ( Luke 11:14-23 ), Jesus does a grand and wonderful thing. Jesus drove a demon out of a man that had made that man mute. When the man began to speak, Jesus was accused of being a demon himself. Anyone who deals in demons must be a demon himself, right? What kind of nonsense is that? And yet we are perfectly willing to cast even grander designs on people based on assumptions and ignorance even today in such an enlightened age ( sarcasm? ).
I once was on jury duty with a young man who was a typical "guido". Please excuse the somewhat derogatory word, this guy had all the gold chains, the rings, the "doo", the clothes and he literally had parked his TransAm so he could check on it from the window of our jury room. He looked at it longingly quite often to be assured no one was touching it. I had him pegged. That is until we got to talking and I found out I had horribly mis-cast him. He was a really nice guy, good heart, intelligent and he spent his free weekends helping feed the poor volunteering in Manhattan. I was bowled over.
We make many assumptions about life based on a whole host of negative impressions and artificial rules we or society have set up. Our ignorance is not limited to ethnic or sexual stereotypes. We make enormous amounts of generalizations and judgements that help us put everyone and everything into nice neat cubbyholes. It makes us feel comfortable I suppose. We may think we understand the world better. Sometimes, like what happened to Jesus, it turned out the people turned out to be haters. That is, they'd rather hate than subject themselves to a deeper understanding and the realization that Jesus was our Lord and saviour exhibited at that moment by curing a mute, driving out a demon.
What apple carts will be turned over today? What sacred cows of our mind will be slaughtered? Will we be haters when someone upsets the status quo of our own small mindedness?
I'm not sure we can meditate on this one. Perhaps we can only pray to live today with a more open mind. Pray we we will be present enough and open our eyes enough to battle our own myopic view of the world going on around us.
And so I pray not to be 'rash' and for good vision
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