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Sitting in the Pew

Mar 10th, 2011
by Derrick McQueen.
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A musing…

Today is the day. Our church has finally voted to allow them into the pulpit and we are supposed to be accepting and affirming. After all it is what Christ would have us be. What I can’t quite figure out is why they have such a need to be involved in our churches. I’ve listened to the arguments and weighed them. But it just seems to me that if we are a reforming church then they can truly reform and start something brand new for people who believe like they believe.

It’s not that I’m phobic or anything. When my cousin came to me and told me that Anna wasn’t just a friend but a partner, I was glad that love had found them. I know how hard it is in that world to find a lasting relationship. They even come to all the family celebrations without incident. When we found out that Anna was pregnant we were a bit shocked, but it turns out they are great parents. So it’s not that I don’t understand the lifestyle or as they say orientation, I sort of do.

But I’m not talking about home right now. I’m talking about my church. I think what makes me angry is that nobody really talked about it here before it happened. From what I understand the church leadership has been talking about it for years but they never spoke about it with those of us who sit in the pews every Sunday. No one has ever explained why it’s all of a sudden okay in God’s eyes.

Don’t people get that I don’t come to church to be preached to about sexuality. I’ve tried to be open to these preachers when they visited but every time they preach it’s about the same thing. It’s always about how God loves them too and how it is the church’s responsibility to love as God loves. It’s a nice sermon, but is that the only message they can preach? Well now that they are officially allowed to be in the pulpit let’s see if they can just go back to preaching the Word and not preaching their message.

And not that I would say this out loud, but you just can’t help picturing what happens when they are alone while they are standing up there behind the pulpit. One time one brought their partner to church. He put his hand in the small of his partner’s back while they were talking to someone in coffee hour. And even in the parking lot when they got into the car to leave, he leaned over and gave his partner a kiss. You see that’s the kind of thing we just don’t need. That just kicks off the imagination and we shouldn’t even be thinking about that kind of thing with our pastors and preachers.

Well, I’m going to try to hold on for a few months now that we’ve chosen one to be our pastor. Seems like a nice enough person. But if I can’t work it out I have found a church across town that believes no matter what the church has decided they will never allow one to step up into the pulpit. I can always go there.

What a time. I never thought I would live to see it. I never thought I would live to see a straight person in the pulpit.

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Does Rev. Dr. King have a message for Us?

Jan 19th, 2011
by Derrick McQueen.
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"His message is for all"

Drum Major Instinct: Still Leading For A Future Yet Unseen

I am on the board of That All May Freely Serve, a national Presbyterian organization working for full inclusion of LGBT persons for ministry.  In that capacity I am part of our board’s pastoral care team.  We use an online ministerial presence with one another to create the spiritual support and presence ‘while we are absent one from another’ (Genesis 31:49).  I offer my latest meditation and prayer to the board, wondering if in celebrating and honor Rev. Dr. King trying to answer the question, “Does Rev. Dr. King have a message for Us?

I am sitting here thinking about the sermon I am in the middle of processing for a Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock on Sunday, January 16, 2011.  It is a sermon I am giving on behalf of the Poverty Initiative here at Union Theological Seminary.  The Poverty Initiative’s mission says that “The Poverty Initiative is dedicated to raising up generations of religious and community leaders committed to building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor.”  The sermon I am preparing is based on Rev. Dr. ML King’s speech “The Drum Major Instinct”.  I’ve attached a link below.

Here is my reading for the day from that speech:

“I know a man—and I just want to talk about him a minute, and maybe you will discover who I’m talking about as I go down the way (Yeah) because he was a great one. And he just went about serving. He was born in an obscure village, (Yes, sir) the child of a poor peasant woman. And then he grew up in still another obscure village, where he worked as a carpenter until he was thirty years old. (Amen) Then for three years, he just got on his feet, and he was an itinerant preacher. And he went about doing some things. He didn’t have much. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. (Yes) He never owned a house. He never went to college. He never visited a big city. He never went two hundred miles from where he was born. He did none of the usual things that the world would associate with greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. They called him a rabble-rouser. They called him a troublemaker. They said he was an agitator. (Glory to God) He practiced civil disobedience; he broke injunctions. And so he was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. And the irony of it all is that his friends turned him over to them. (Amen) One of his closest friends denied him. Another of his friends turned him over to his enemies. And while he was dying, the people who killed him gambled for his clothing, the only possession that he had in the world. (Lord help him) When he was dead he was buried in a borrowed tomb, through the pity of a friend….

I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. (Yes)

I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.

I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. (Amen)

I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. (Yes)

And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. (Yes)

I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. (Lord)

I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity. (Yes)

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. (Amen) Say that I was a drum major for peace. (Yes) I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. (Yes) I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. (Amen) And that’s all I want to say.”

I share this text with you for a couple of reasons today.  I share it to remind us that Christ always went against the grain of what others thought should remain the status quo.  King did not  say this to remind us the suffering we have to go through in order to fight for what’s right.  He did it moreso to  remind us that greatness is adjective that is assigned to us by others.  Meaning, it doesn’t take greatness to make the change in the church we are making.  It takes very real people, willing to humbly stand for what’s right, willing to speak up for injustices. And everyone of us are a part of what makes this church we serve “great”.  You see others cannot defend the status quo of this church and it’s greatness without realizing that it is each person in it, each part of the body, is what makes up that greatness.  It’s like a jigsaw puzzle.  The picture on the outside of the box is what we call “great,” but it is its pieces working together inside the box that make it so.

In all honesty, Dr. King’s attitude toward the work we do would have had to undergo some major shifting to get behind us.  The leaders of the Civil Right’s movement relegated the openly gay man, Bayard Rustin-organizer/planner extraordinaire, to a behind the scenes piece of the legacy of the movement.  It was fear of the government leaking Rustin’s sexuality that convinced King to take a part in this process.  But in my heart, I do believe that King would have come around.  I believe that King would have stood shoulder to shoulder with Rustin in solidarity.  I believe that he would be able to finally stare Rustin in the eyes and say the words to him that mean so much for the work we do, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”*

That is a Jesus message if I ever heard one.  That is the truth of the Good News we bring to our church.  May we stand steadfast in the struggle.

I remember last fall, here in NYC we had these winds like you wouldn’t believe.  One could barely walk down the street without having the wind blow you off balance for a second or two and sometimes you could barely walk against the wind without threat of being blown over.  I remember looking out the window watching person after person walk up the wide boulevard, struggling to walk into the wind.  From a less windy side street, I saw an older couple who I imagined to have been together for at least 50 years.  Before they turned the corner onto the windier street they did something I will never forget.  They turned and looked toward one another and then side by side they burrowed into each other.  They turned the corner and walked straight into the wind together.  Step after measured step, they held tight and walked unwaveringly through that wind.  When they reached the deli their destination they stepped into the doorway and gave each other a quick kiss and went inside.

If we can continue to link arms and walk forward in the wind of opposition, we can cut through it, diffuse its power, and reach our destination. The winds died down that day.  Be assured dear friends, that we can weather the storm.  But remember to hold on to one another tightly.  We have turned a corner and are out of the shadows of the church.  That is why the winds of resistance have been so fierce upon us.  Hold on…the deli is at the end of the corner for us too!

We serve a church that tries to care for the poor, the unloved, those devastated by war, the hungry, those who don’t have clothes on their backs.  We are a church that seeks to love and serve humanity from Arkansas to Angola.  But let us continue to remind this church and shine the the light on their shortsightedness.  Let us continue to speak of our injustice here within the church as we minister to the world outside.  Friends, let us remind ourselves, the church we serve and the world we are a part of that, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  Ashe and Amen.

Loving and most gracious God,

We come to you in thanksgiving because we have come so far.  ’We’ve come this far by faith, leaning on the Lord.  Trusting in Your holy word, we can’t turn around.’  Int his moment of renewed commitment to service in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Help us to cling to one another as we move along this journey we have undertaken.  Help us to recognize our failings and our prejudices, the ones that hinder us from serving your church.  Help us to remember as we fight our struggle, so that one day all of your children can be free, that our struggle is the struggle of the poor, those in prison, those with no food or clothes.  As we get bogged down with the important work of strategizing, planning, organizing, claiming victories and mourning defeats–help us to remember that we are not just fighting our fight but we are fighting for injustice everywhere.

Bless this board, oh Lord.  That we may hear and discern your will for us and in the work that we do.  Bless the ones we love as they support us in this work.  Help us to love those who would see us fail, those who would rather see us leave your church.  Help us to maintain the truth of our ministry.  We ask these things in our solitary prayers, but we ask them now collectively that you would bless this body with those virtues that you hold so dear.

We ask these and so many other blessings, we bring these concerns and so many others in our hearts to you.  Thank you for giving us the courage through your grace.  We thank you, oh God and give thanks in the name of Christ and the blessed communion of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

*Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963

http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_the_drum_major_instinct/

picture from Yahoo Pictures



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For days forgotten, bodies not remembered, stories untold

Nov 12th, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
2 comments

I know we have been so crazed as a community but wanted acknowledge that we at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York took time at 11am to remember those who are so easily forgotten. Gathering in Lampman Chapel, Fierce the Queer Caucus for Persons of Color and the Queer Caucus, sang, spoke this litany and prayed. This is the week of Transgender Day of Remembrance. For more information contact: www.transgenderdor.org

Ashes, Stones, and Flowers: In Memory of All Victims of War and Terrorism

For vibrant lives suddenly and shamelessly sacrificed we lift up the ashes of our loss, O Source of Life.

For the lives that continue, haunted forever by the pain of absence, we lift up the ashes of our remorse, O Wellspring of Compassion.

For the conflagration of flames and nightmare images forever seared into our memories we lift up the ashes of our pain, O Breathing Spirit of the World.

For the charred visions of peace and the dry taste of fear we lift up the ashes of our grief, O Infinite.

For all the deaths that have been justified by turning the love of God or country into fanatical arrogance, we lift up the ashes of our shame, O God.

As we cast these ashes into the troubled water of our times, Transforming One, hear our plea that by your power they will make fertile the soil of our future and by your mercy nourish the seeds of peace.

Be with us as we cast the ashes in silence into the river [or a bowl of water].

For the ways humanity pursues violence rather than understanding, we lift up the stones of our anger, O Breathing Spirit of the World.

For the ways we allow misunderstanding, fear and the refusal to understand sexual, gender and all identity expression to build up the boundaries that circumscribe our compassion, we lift up the stones of our hardness, O Wellspring of Compassion.

For our addiction to weapons and the ways of violence against each other we lift up the stones of our fear, O Source of Life.

For the ways we cast blame and create enemies we lift up the stones of our self-righteousness, O God

As we cast these stones into this ancient river, Transforming One, hear our plea:

Just as water wears away the hardest of stones, so too may the power of your compassion soften the hardness of our hearts and draw us into a future of justice and peace.

Be with us as we cast the stones in silence into the river [or a bowl of water].

For sowing seeds of justice to blossom into harmony, we cast these flowers into the river, O Source of Peace.

For seeing clearly the many rainbow colors of humanity and earth, we cast these flowers into the river, O Infinite.

For calling us to life beyond our grieving, we cast these flowers into the river, O Breathing Spirit of the World.

As we cast these flowers into this ancient river, Transforming One, hear our plea:

Just as water births life in a desert and gives hope to the wounded, so too may the power of your nurturing renew our commitment to peace.

Be with us as we, your people, cast the flowers in silence into the river [or a bowl of water].

Litany by Rev. Patricia Pearce, pastor of Tabernacle Church, Philadelphia, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of The Shalom Center

Revised for Transgender Day of Remembrance 2010, Union Theological Seminary.
[A shorter version of this litany was originally written by Rev. Pearce for the first anniversary of 9/11, and was expanded and revised by Rabbi Waskow for Veterans Day 2003. This version was used in Washington DC, Philadelphia, and elsewhere on May 27, 2004, as part of the interfaith memorial services of grief, repentance, and transformation initiated by the National Council of Churches.]

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UTS Comes Out

Oct 14th, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
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Dear Friends,
National Coming Out Day is on Monday, October 11, 2010. Fierce and the Queer Caucus would like to suggest a silent witness to not only this day, but to the silenced voices of those who have or will not have the chance to come out. We would actually like to do something quite simple. We will invite all who would like to and all who are able to come to the front of Union at 12:45, have a moment of group prayer and then line up along the front fence on Broadway (and even on 120 & 122nd if we have enough people). Then have a moment of silent prayer to remember our own coming out stories, those who can’t come out, those on the verge, etc. We could hold a sign so that passing traffic knows that UTS marks National Coming Out Day. It should take five minutes at the least 10 minutes at the most. To stop the silent moment, we just squeeze the hand of the person we are next to to signal silently that it is time to come back inside.

Any artistic folk out there who want to put together a sign basically saying something to the effect “National Coming Out Day, Monday October 11, 2010. UTS is out and proud!”?

Peace to all in our collective struggles. Especially in this moment when grief and hidden pain is so very public…may it spark a change.

Wrapping love and grace around you all,

Fiercely Queer Caucuses
Derrick McQueen
Leslie Jackson
Keirstin Homblette
Carl Hovey

And so we did…

And we said it all day...

And we gathered on Broadway

Standing witness on Broadway as a theological community was a great powerful moment for many.  But most especially for the passerby who simply said to as many people on the line as she could, “Thank you.  Thank you. Thank you…”

So to Union Theological Seminary I say, “Just a heartfelt thanks for Coming Out Day–Fell in love with Union even more today! Thank you one and thank you all-love and grace-Derrick”


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For Immediate Release

Sep 29th, 2010
by Gillian Murphy-Stephans.
12 comments

I confess that I am not much of a blogger. I’m not a terribly quick writer. I need time to ruminate, consider; live into thoughts and experiences. I am not a quick-reply, right on the spot kind of responder. I’m not terribly good in class discussions because I just need too much time. Blogs expect you to be immediately responsive to current events, immediately responsive in your thoughts, analysis, take on whatever is happening. I am not very good at that.

Much as I know this about myself, there are times when that is precisely what I want and need to be. Times when an immediate reaction and explosion of response is required. So it was last night in one of my classes. Just as we were preparing to go, five minutes left to our discussion, one of my classmates came out with the phrase, “I don’t believe in homosexuality.”

“I don’t believe in homosexuality” as if my sexuality, my very being, my life were a concept that she could choose to deny. As if homosexuality stood amongst the great swath of doctrinal, theological choices that one considers and can reject.

It struck me so deeply. The absolute absurdity of choosing to see homosexuality as a belief system – some sort of theoretical construct. As though I could do the same with her, “I don’t believe in heterosexuality.”

In my late-night fits going over and over what she had said and what I didn’t have the time to say, feeling that her comments were a personal attack on me, my family, my friends. Feeling so profoundly angry at her dismissal of my personhood, I conjured up all the things that I wished I had said. All the things that came to me after it truly sunk in. Enacting great comebacks, acerbic one-liners, and eloquent monologues…after the pain and rage sunk in.

But today I don’t have a speech to write or a sermon to tell about this event. I just needed the immediacy of this blog to say:

You don’t get to believe or not believe in my sexuality. You don’t get to choose. You don’t get to reject me based on some hair-brained conceptual framework. You don’t have the option of dismissing me. I am a concrete reality. So are the countless other queer folks I know. We are not a theory. We are not a theology. We are here, honey, in all our glory as flesh and bone, sitting right next to you in class, in church, on the bus, in the park etc. We’re here. We’re queer. There’s no belief involved.

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Sucker Punched II: A Reply

Jul 22nd, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
26 comments

A reader wrote the following in response to my previous post on Glenn Beck, Dr. James Cone and Liberation Theology:

If you actually listened to Beck you would know that he does not stand for any type of violence.  Also, I like how all of the posts i’ve read from your seminary criticize Beck without referencing any scripture to contradict him.  The simple fact of the mater is that Black Liberation Theology is dangerous and that he bible does not advocate government redistribution of wealth but places the responsibility with individuals.  Perhaps your seminary should stop spending so much time demonizing a good person and actually reading the bible.

And here is my response:

Ashby,

Thank you for your defense of Glenn Beck’s statements about Liberation/Black/Theology and this engaging conversation.  Once again I lump them together because that is how they were discussed in Mr. Beck’s the initial presentation.  I don’t think you quite understand my point; it is not necessary for Mr. Beck to advocate any type of violence.  By taking statements out of context (for example all of his clips of Dr. Cone’s interview were taken from a separate interview on a completely different topic about which he was writing 30+ years after his initial writings on Black Theology) and using them to provoke fear and anger, Beck has not taken seriously his role in the media and the responsibility that said role carries.  History has proven that a leader does not have to explicitly tell his or her followers what to do in order for mayhem to ensue.  And Mr. Beck is one of our social leaders.

As for the bible verses about those who should care for those who do not have…please don’t assume that a verse quoted here and a verse quoted there tells the whole story of Jesus’ words to us about social justice.  Please read Matthew 23, all of it, to see how Jesus responds to the government that he recognizes as spiritually legitimate for his time and place—those who are in charge of his people and the synagogue.  (Of course Jesus doesn’t speak of government redistribution—he is not Roman nor of the power structure in the Roman Empire that has any say over that.)  Jesus spends most of the Gospels showing people how they have gotten away from the laws of the Torah, which made it a societal sin not to take care of those less fortunate and the alien.

“If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.” (Deuteronomy 15:7).

Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.” (Deuteronomy 27:19) New Revised Standard Version

And please don’t take just my quotation of these passages, but take a look at other passages that Jesus upholds from his nation’s book of Law, the Torah.

But I know that as “Christians” we tend to hold what Jesus says more important than what he practices.  So, again, please closely read Matthew 23 (the whole chapter), the warnings or “Woes” that Jesus speaks to those in power.  And then take a look at the following on your own, and study the teachings of Jesus through this parable as it is written (not my interpretation):

Matthew 25:31-46

“31 ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

33 and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.

34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing?

39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?”

40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

41Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”

44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’              New Revised Standard Version

I understand that you might be afraid of the language of Black Liberation Theology agitation it seems to cause in this country.  I find it an odd juxtaposition that even with all of the angst over Black Liberation Theology, many people still don’t find it odd that most of Western Christian society is based on taking over other people’s lands and telling them that their gods are insufficient for its purposes and therefore must be done away with.  And if you are worried about what Dr. Cone’s influences are then check his resume and see that it was pre-eminent White scholars that shaped his thought.  He validated his own experience through the academically sanctioned pathway of study.  It is why his work is still so volatile today, because his work is in the mainstream academy.  But I don’t have to justify Dr. Cone’s works, to you or anyone else, because they speak very clearly for themselves.

I am sure that the works of Dr. Cone from 1969 will never prove as disastrous as some may think, for any race.  They will certainly never justify the subjugation of any people into slavery nor will they delineate humanity by races that humiliate and condemn there very existence, like a certain Western Enlightenment scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries which “scientifically” fueled biblical justification of slavery and the declassification as anyone of African descent as a human being.

“In 1684, French physician François Bernier attempted to classify human bodies by skin color.  He divided the races into four distinct groups.  But it was not until 1735 that race became a theoretical scientific assumption with the work of Carolus Linnaeus, the founder of binomial nomenclature, the naming in Latin of species.  “For Linnaeus there were four races, Homo Europaeus, Homo Asiaticus, Homo Afer and Homo Americanus.”  (An original source for this information can be found here: William Bingley, Natural History of Animals: Illustrated by Short Histories and Anecdotes and Intended to Afford a Popular View of the Linnaean System of Arrangement, (Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing), 2008.) And this is a short excerpt written for a Systematic Theology course, not taught by Dr. Cone but by Dr. Morse, that I took in 2008.”

And just as Mr. Beck spoke to in the introduction of his piece, please don’t lump us all together in the seminary.  As you can see from all responses, we are a diverse group of people with different interests and issues we support and don’t support.  I also take exception for those of us who consider ourselves conservative, evangelical and even fundamental.  Your assumption that our “seminary” demonizes good people is just that, an assumption.  By the way, I took great pains in my response to speak from my own personal experience and the reaction to the ramifications I see in my life and for those I care about.  How my personal reaction to issues raised becomes turned around to an attack on a good person is just the kind of “telephone” game  that worries me when it comes to lack of clarity and compassion for one another.

And so, I wish you God’s speed.  The following is meant in all sincerity—I have a few more bible verses for you that speak way better than I can.

“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”  II Corinthians 9:8

“The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:  The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

(King James Version)

 

Read all the responses from the Union community to Glenn Beck’s episode on Dr. James Cone and Liberation Theology at www.utsnyc.edu/glennbeck.

Or add your own comment to Derrick’s post below.

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Sucker Punched

Jul 19th, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
24 comments

I am fifteen years old and have decided to run track. I’m no good but figured I should give it a shot anyway. I get up one Sunday morning before church for a run in Dover, NJ. After a two mile or so run I am about 5 blocks away from my home and I stop at a red light to check for traffic. A red car barrels up the street and screeches to a halt, “You are going to be the next Atlanta murder, victim nigger!!” is screamed at me by a car load of 5 white men. One of them starts to get out of the car and I start running for my life. The car’s tire burns rubber and the smell of that tire hits my nose and I am more scared for my life now then ever. Behind me as the car speeds up I hear the men in the car laughing hysterically. I jump over a fence and cut through a parking lot to lose them and run so fast…As I am running an image comes into my head that I just can’t get rid of–I see image of my mother and brother with their throats slit. I cry and run, my body on automatic pilot because I can’t see a thing. I run up the stairs 3, 4 at a time to see my mom sleeping peacefully, and my brother sleeping like an angel. I tiptoe to the farthest reaches of the kitchen and cry for 40 minutes.

You see this is the time when no one knew how or why little black boys and black teenagers were disappearing and turning up dead in Atlanta, GA. Those five white men in that car have no idea how much they scarred me that day. And even if they were to ever apologize, I’m sure they would say, “It was just a joke.”  You see they had the privilege to joke about things like that. That was their reality.

One person’s idea of reality can be so hurtful and damaging to another. And I must say, Mr. Beck, listening to your take on Liberation/Black/Theology (I lump them together because you did) I felt sucker punched. You have single handedly given millions of people permission to hate and distrust Black me simply because you seem to enjoy wanting the world to live in your reality.

I feel very much like that scared fifteen year old again. I can’t get the image out of my head of vitriolic hate speeches coming my way again. I can’t get the image out of my head of people in the name of democracy stepping on others dreams just to get ahead. And yes, Mr. Beck, it is this serious to me, I can’t get the image of dead black bodies turning up in swamps and city alleys out of my head. You give permission for hate, Mr. Beck. And whether or not you know it, I am the one who suffers for it. Me, this Black man, this African American, this Same Gender Loving human being who, as tired as I am, must keep fighting for survival because with each word you speak you unleash the hounds of hatred–against me.

I applaud my fellow seminarians and seminary President, Serene Jones for responding to your diatribe of intentional misinformation regarding Liberation/Black/Theology. I couldn’t watch more than ten minutes before my eyes streamed with tears for what you are doing to this country.

Please do come to Union, Mr. Beck. At least then you will have at least three years to try to digest the information we study, the Bible we try to live, the love we try to spew. If your staff can digest Black Theology in one day with the help of one person then you all deserve a theological scholarship to Union.

By the way, let’s clear up a couple of things. Mr. Beck, the Good Samaritan is a parable…Jesus’ teaching tool. Stick to Jesus’ script if you are going to use it and don’t add your take. It’s stood this long without your take on highway maintenance in the Roman world. The other thing, while we’re on the Romans. Be careful the way you spit out how the Jews killed Jesus and he would have come back to get ‘em. That’s the way you think, don’t put that on Jesus. And the last time I looked, it was the Romans that stripped Jesus, beat him, nailed him to the cross and pierced him in the side! No Jewish person had that much power under Caesar.

And one last thing, while my stomach is still in knots, while I still fear for the safety of those I call my own, and while I know that your work hurts me more than you will ever know…this one thing I can say:
I have nothing but the love of Jesus Christ for you and hope the Holy Spirit will crack your heart wide open so that you see the simplest words of social justice that Jesus ever spoke, ‘Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself’. If you can do this one thing for Christ, Mr. Beck, then you will see that everyone deserves to live in the bounty of God’s creation.

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Posted in: About, LGBTQ, Preaching, Uncategorized.
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Looking back on father’s day

Jul 7th, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
14 comments

Trusting You to Grow and Go

Happy Father’s Day.

On this day, my dear Lord, still our hearts. Let the Spirit’s voice guide us to what we need to hear from your word. Accept our humble request to have your words guide our hearts and minds. Amen

I say Happy Father’s Day but June is the month we celebrate many things. As a matter of fact there is a month to celebrate just about everything. Just to name a few June itself happens to celebrate:

  • Adopt A Shelter Cat Month
  • Audiobook Month
  • Children’s Awareness Month
  • Dairy Month
  • Dairy Alternative Month
  • Effective Communications Month
  • Entrepreneurs Do It Yourself Marketing Month
  • Fireworks Safety Month
  • GLBT Pride Month
  • Great Outdoors Month
  • International Men’s Month
  • Lane Courtesy Month
  • National Accordion Awareness Month
  • National Black Music Awareness Month
  • National Bathroom Reading Month
  • National Candy Month
  • National Dairy Month
  • National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month
  • National Iced Tea Month
  • National Papaya Month (also, again in September)
  • National Rivers Month
  • National Rose Month
  • National Safety Month
  • National Seafood Month
  • National Soul Food Month
  • National Steakhouse Month
  • Perennial Gardening Month
  • Pharmacists Declare War on Alcoholism Month
  • Rebuild Your Life Month
  • Sports America Kids Month
  • Student Safety Month
  • Turkey Lover’s Month
  • Potty Training Awareness Month

So fathers be honored that you are even remembered for a day in this crowded month of celebrations and awareness!!! Our own church, the PC USA (Presbyterian Church) has set aside this day as “Men of the Church Sunday”. Our denomination’s website, pcusa.org tells us “Men of the Church Sunday is set aside to recognize the gifts and contributions to ministry that men have made in every congregation and to give thanks for the witness that men make in the home, the workplace, community and church.” Very PC. Part of the logic is to be considerate of men who are not fathers in the church, to include the ministries of all men in the church of which fatherhood is one.  And make no mistake about it parenting, fatherhood is a ministry.

I remember hearing once about a six year old boy who found out on the playground that his father was not his natural father. I was told that this young boy ran from the playground’s fields crying his eyes out. He was confused, scared; his whole world had been turned upside down. He felt as if he had lost any idea of who he was, where he belonged, who his people were so to speak.

It is amazing the depth a six year old can feel in his moment of crisis. He ran to his grandmother’s house, where all of the family gathered in good times and bad.

When he ran through the front door his grandmother asked from the back kitchen, “Whose child is that coming in my house slamming my door?

He couldn’t speak. Between being out of breath from the running and the crying and at six not yet having the words to articulate what he wanted to say, he just ran to the kitchen and sat at the table crying.

“Child, what’s wrong with you?” his grandmother asked giving him a glass of milk she started to pour as he came through the door. “Drink this, now. Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”

The milk was cool and felt good. His words finally came back to him and he said, “They told me on the playground that my dad is not my dad!”

Grandmother knew the secret would come out someday but did not expect it would come out this way. But she took the young boy by the hand and walked him to the living room. They sat down on the couch and she squeezed him tight and said, “Boy, don’t you go listening to what those kids say to you.”

She sat him on her lap and looked into his eyes saying, “Just what do you think a father is? Those kids don’t know nothing about what a father is. They are just learning some gossip about what they think a father is. A father is someone that loves you, takes care of you when you are sick, puts a band aid on your knee when you fall, feeds you, goes to work for you, sits and watches those silly cartoons you like so much. A father is someone you can look to and know that no matter what he is gonna be there for you, even when you least expect it. Do you know anybody like that?”

The young boy looked up at her and finally found his smile, “Daddy?”

“That’s right baby, your daddy does all that for you and even more you don’t know about. If those kids on the playground told you that God didn’t love you like a father loves his children, would you be running in here carrying on like this?”

“No, ma’am”

“Your father chose to love you. When he asked to marry your mother he told her “I want to love this boy like he’s my own. He’s a part of you so he is a part of me. He didn’t have to do that you know. You are blessed child. You know who your father is. Now go on in the kitchen and let’s get some cookies for that milk you left on my table.”

As the grown man retold this story, I couldn’t help but think that’s how many people see God’s grace. God chooses to love us, no matter what. God is there for us even when we don’t know it. It certainly helps me pray the Lord’s Prayer in a different way when I say, “Our Father, who art in heaven….”

Jesus’ love manifests itself as a father’s love in our text today. Here we have a man filled with so many spirits it calls itself Legion. It is ironic that it chooses to name itself after a Roman military unit. A legion is about 2,000 soldiers left to keep the peace in Roman occupied territory. Luke’s audience would have heard that there were at least 2,000 demons inside this man. But Jesus goes to this man to reclaim him, to let him know that his father knows who he is. Jesus reclaims the man and lets him know that there is one who will always be there to say, “You are my very own, no matter what others may tell you.” Jesus reclaims this man without a home and says you have a home in me, you have a home in our father.

Can you imagine? Here is this naked, homeless man. When they try to handcuff him for his own safety, he breaks away and runs into the wilds. He is so displaced that the tombs are his shelter. He lives among the dead. Do you notice something different in this encounter that Jesus has with one who is possessed? This is one of the few instances, where the person has no one coming to Jesus on their behalf. In another encounter a father comes because the demons cause his son to go into seizures. But there is no one for this man. As a matter of fact the text tells us that this man did not live in a house and when he is freed from the demons Jesus tells him to “Return to your home”.

The words for house and home are the same in this Lukan passage; oikos. The translation we read helps us to understand that there is a difference between a house and a home. For this unnamed man, a house is a place to live and a home is a place to belong. Oikos doesn’t just mean house or home. It symbolizes a whole way of living. Oikos, home or house, is the place where you belong, the place where you are among the people that claim you as their own, a place where everybody knows your name. So you see the man that lives underneath the demons is a lonely man, with no one to love and no one to love him.

Until Jesus comes along….

Now I would be remiss if it didn’t tell you today that scholars also interpret this encounter politically. They say that this is a metaphor for how Jesus challenges the Roman Empire. They say that even the Roman Legions are afraid the Messiah and that Jesus will send them back to where they came. Back to where they have no real power, where they can’t steal from those they have conquered, back to where they can’t use and manipulate people as they will. Back to where they are the ones stolen from, where they are used and manipulated; back home. The demons asked not to be sent to the abyss but the abyss after all is, the home of the demon in ancient mythology. So Legion does not want to go home.

Scholars say that driving the demons into the unholy swine is an insult to Roman authority by this Jewish man named Jesus and that their swift demise in the sea is a threat by Jesus to the status quo. They say that is why the people are so afraid of Jesus and ask him to leave.

It is a powerful interpretation of Jesus as a resistance leader against the Empire. And it has its place in church life, teaching us to always fight for what is right, address the powers that be, to be prophetic when we speak of the consequences of wrong doing. We can indeed speak up and let those people know that we are recognized as children of the Most High God and will torment until you leave the body of the innocents we are called to protect. Yes, I rather like this resistance interpretation. It gets me fired up!

But I can’t help but go back to this man possessed, this solitary tormented soul that in its most depraved condition finds a way to reach out to Jesus. My God, my God. What a blessed assurance that Jesus is indeed ours. You see I have no doubt that when we reach out to Jesus that Jesus will reach right back out and grab our hands and pull us up from the sinking sand. I have no doubt that Jesus will step out on land and meet us right where we are, just has he met this man from Gerasene. I have no doubt when we meet him there will be no need to speak for Jesus knows all about out troubles, and that he will guide till the day is done. You see there’s not a friend like the lowly Jesus, no not one, no not one. I have no doubt that when Jesus meets us he will see us as we are and command whatever is unclean to leave us.

But the thing is, and ah here’s the catch, we have to be the ones to come to Jesus. Just as this demoniac met Jesus and fell down before him we have to be the ones to come to Jesus in prayer and humility. Do you see how Jesus works in this text? There is a whole conversation going on that is not recorded here in Luke. Just like Elijah looked for God in the wind and the earthquake, so we concentrate on finding the power of God in the casting out of demons. But there is a conversation of sheer silence going on in this text. From the moment Jesus meets this “Gerasene Demoniac” he is in conversation with the man behind the demons. He is telling that man, “Hold on just a little while longer, everything will be alright.” He is telling that man, “Hold on, help is coming.” Like a nurse in triage Jesus is keeping the unrecognizable man in touch with reality, his identity. While the team of God the Father and the Holy Spirit work on the detaching the demons, fixing what is wrong, Jesus is hold that man’s hand asking him. “What is your name? Who is your family? Do you now what time it is? Can you tell me who is the author and finisher of your faith? Do you recognize the Father in me?”

Can you hear the silent conversation that Jesus is having with this man’s soul while all craziness goes on about them? You see that’s what happens if we just go to meet him. I’ll go even one further, all you have to do is turn your eyes upon Jesus. Just look toward him, think on him and he will meet you the rest of the way.

Now I know in this age of technology, psychiatry, psychology, pharmacology, neurology, typology and biology we have explanations for what was once considered demonic possession. But I tell you today Legion is alive and well. They are alive in our doubts, our fears, our misgivings, our hatreds, our inability to forgive. Those demons are alive when we roll over in bed on a Sunday morning rather than going to worship with our church family. Those demons are alive and well when we hold on to the very things that we say we trust God to handle. Those demons are alive and well when we can’t be honest with ourselves about our failings, our opportunities to grow.

So the demons are met, handled and down in the bottom of the sea. The people are afraid of what’s coming next and so they eagerly asked Jesus and his followers to get back on the boat they came on and go somewhere. As my mother says, “You don’t have to go home but you have to get up out of here!” But Luke leaves us with one more thing. He leaves us with a tender moment between Jesus and this man. After these things, there is an exchange between Jesus and this man that I see in my mind’s eye. (Close eyes and see. Describe the face, the pleading eyes welled with tears, the grateful spirit.)

But Jesus tells him to return home and declare how much God had done for you. And the man goes away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. This touches my heart. In the sheer silence of their conversation, Jesus knows this man better that any of the people who have watched him suffer all those years. Jesus trusts him to keep on growing, trusts him to go and witness, trusts him to spread the good news. How powerful that must have been to this man who for so long was neither clothed nor in his right mind. Jesus said to him, “I am trusting you to grow and go.”

You see on this day, the father’s day message is simple. Do like Jesus, meet the children of God you encounter as Jesus did this day. Don’t be afraid of the silent conversations that lets them know, “Hold on. Know that I am always here with you.” As children of God we all need to hear Jesus saying, “I am trusting you to grow and go.” This Father’s day, if someone asks your child, “Do you now anybody who believes in you like this?” May all God’s children look up and answer, “Daddy.”

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Posted in: About, Children and the Church, Preaching, Sermon.
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Arthur Montana, Tonex, Jennifer Knapp Church’s Secret Out!!!

May 4th, 2010
by Derrick McQueen.
11 comments

Jennifer Knapp on Larry King Live

Jennifer Knapp comes out on Larry King Live

Tonex comes out

Christian Music Meets Its Gay Stars

Arthur Montana, Tonex, Jennifer Knapp Church’s Secret Out!!!

Come Out From Among Them: Christian Music Meets Its Gay Stars…?

What’s this? Gay people in church music? When did this happen? Who let this happen?

Okay, I can’t keep this up any longer. I am not poking fun at Religion Dispatches. In fact I appreciate their work immensely and hope you all take a moment to read this article. What I find ironic is this ongoing hypocrisy of the church to embrace Gospel Music, Christian Music, Southern Gospel music as long as its artists’ wrists are only limp while playing the piano. I grew up Baptist and worship now in the Presbyterian Church. I say that to explain that I have lived with this issue of gay musicians in the church all of my life. As a singer, and a church singer as that from the age of five, the church automatically assumed that I was gay. I remember being pulled into a pastor’s office after service at eight years old and being told, “Derrick, we’ve been talking and have decided that you need to play a sport. We at the church think that with your love of singing, you being smart, and stuff like that, that you are turning into a f****t. So why don’t you figure out what sport you can play.” I was dumbfounded, the arts and my education were the only thing a skinny, bespectacled and lonely kid held onto for joy. Well, I was horrible at basketball and couldn’t do baseball because the games were Sunday morning!!!

It was and is still common in many African American churches throughout the country that many organists, piano players, choir directors and other musicians are gay. I will not back down from that statement because it is not a generalization. The thing about it is that it usually is not a secret. See, it’s okay to be gay as long as you are quiet about it in church. It’s not quite the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the military because outside of church most of the community knows who you are seeing, when you are seeing them, and how long you’ve been seeing them. A church is very much like a small town in that aspect, everybody knows your business when it comes to sex. We gay church musicians have also sat through sermon after sermon, testimony after testimony, prayer after prayer that bashes gays from the pulpit and the pews. But it is our love of God and how the Spirit works in us through music that keeps us in church.

People often wonder why do I go through my life out. I’m not partnered, I could pass and be that old “confirmed bachelor”, just let people guess what I do behind closed doors and talk behind my back. But you see, I grew up like that as a child and teenager and don’t want to do it anymore.

I am glad that folks are coming out as full humans in their Christianity and love of serving God through their gifts. Jesus said the rocks would cry out if his disciples were silenced. But I am sure the praises from lips of those who sing his power from the rooftops is just a bit more pleasing.

Tonex, the African American Gospel singer came out a while back. Jennifer Knapp has come out as well. The article in the Religion Dispatch speaks to that much better than I can. But Arthur Montana…who is that? Well, in 1979 James Baldwin’s novel Just Above My Head was published. It is the story of a gay gospel singer turned soul singer. It is one of the thickest novels that Baldwin ever published. But the life of Arthur Montana, as he travels the southern gospel music circuit is the story of the folks upon whose back I stand. His life story as created by Baldwin, tells my story, Tonex’s story, Jennifer Knapp’s story. I won’t give away the ending but let it suffice to say Arthur Montana would want us to find ourselves and our joy and yes, even our Jesus here and now. Baldwin writes so that those of us who share the same story of his characters, don’t have to live through their pain. Arthur Montana, as written by Baldwin, would be setting up a European tour with Tonex, Jennifer Knapp, me and others who know that Jesus saves us not from our queerness but into a fullness of being because despite what anyone thinks and despite what anyone says–what he did, he did for me too.

**Check out the tone of the interviews for both Jennifer Knapp and Tonex.  Larry King promises ‘fireworks’, Tonex’ interview’s warning sounds like you are about to watch extreme violence.  I’m just sayin…..

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When there is no quilt

Apr 6th, 2010
by Gillian Murphy-Stephans.
3 comments

Derrick, I wish that every non-parent, seminarian and church leader were so thoughtful about how to address, understand and just plain deal with our church’s youth as you articulated.  I am shocked and dismayed by how little time we take as church bodies to truly develop a theology around our children. Too often, Sunday morning adult worship trumps all – pastors are too busy putting together sermons, liturgy, putting out fires etc. to deal with creating a theologically equivalent children’s ministry. To be sure, most pastors never set foot in Sunday School because, of course, they are central to the adult worship that is simultaneously occurring.

As parents, we are so in need of our own worship time that we put our trust and faith in the – God bless them – volunteer Sunday School teachers who are typically (but not always) kind-hearted souls who do their best.  When my partner and I sat in on a Sunday School session the first time we visited a church, one of the parents approached us at coffee hour and asked us how it was because while she’d been sending her kids there for several years, she’d never actually gone and observed. She thought it such a novel idea. I don’t think she cared less than we did what her kids were learning, but I’m not sure it occurred to her that she could and should be involved.

Well intentioned or not, our amazingly committed teachers are not frequently trained and, in my experience, often operate autonomously. Sometimes this means that what is being preached up in the sanctuary is undermined or inconsistent with what’s happening in the church basement. Disturbingly, many (most?) churches don’t have well developed policies for dealing with children and creating “safe spaces” for them. There may be a newly derived interest in sexual abuse policies because of the slow unveiling of the horrific misconduct in the Catholic Church, but these policies are often simply on-the-books for show.

How many mainline congregations in fact take the time to establish an entire system of safety – both theological and practical — for the practices of their churches and for the care of their youth?  When my two kids (who have lesbian moms) and the son of a gay couple received their first Bibles from their church school leader on one special Sunday, they were told by a Sunday School leader that they should go home and read it with “your mother and father.” Understand this: the only kids getting Bibles that Sunday were children of the only out queer families in the church. A theologically cogent system designed for the safety and inclusion of its children would have never led to three kids hearing the dismissal of their families realities in front of the entire congregation.

I didn’t expect this post to get so long, but I’m not done yet. (And I’ve got a feeling I’m gonna need many more posts on this topic.)

Here’s another big problem: I’ve been at seminary for 4 years now and up until the January SU190 1&2 courses, Children in the Church  (non-required 1 point supplemental courses offered during intersession) with Laurel Koepf (who is amazing and I highly recommend any course she offers) , I have had yet to hear about or deal with anything related to children. In other words, it is quite possible to graduate from this prestigious (and mostly wonderful) seminary without ever having a course related to children. That is absolutely shocking. It means we are untrained to minister to what is it, roughly half of our congregation?  That’s unconscionable.

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Posted in: Children and the Church, LGBTQ, Preaching.

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