Rainbows & Jesus: My Day at Gay Pride
Featured, Social Justice — By Emily Timbol on November 30, 2010 at 4:00 am
There are certain words that I cannot stand. When I hear these words, something in my brain snaps, and I have to stifle a large, ugly utterance of disgust. It’s nothing against the words themselves, but the way that they have been misused by people who throw them out with little care or thought. Some people feel this way about the word “literally”, as in, “really, Mary, did you ‘literally’ die when you saw Twilight for the third time? Then why are you here to talk about it?”
I feel this way about the word, “lifestyle.” As in, “many members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community have an agenda and they want to impose their ‘lifestyle’ on all of us.” What does that mean? What exactly is a gay person’s “lifestyle?” I assume it has something to do with who they’re attracted to sexually, but does that define the rest of their life? Do they go to the grocery store and select gay groceries that fit their “lifestyle?” Do they ask the salesman at the dealership, “what car do you think fits my gay ‘lifestyle’ best?” Is there a gay Pandora station that plays the best music for their “lifestyle?” (That might not be too far of a stretch, I would assume it’d have lots of Gaga.) I’m still waiting on someone to give me a good definition.
That was one word that was thrown at me a lot over these past few months, while I prepared for the booth I was renting at Jacksonville’s Pride festival. Other words were, “hypocrite”, “sinner”, “hater of God’s truth” and, my personal favorite, “false Christian.” I assume that’s something like a “jumbo shrimp.”
With all the controversy I’ve stirred up, you’d think that the booth would have involved an S&M Jesus draped in a rainbow making out with Peter. This was not the case. The booth was simple: a canopy, a folding table, and 200 postcards hung up on clothesline. The postcards had the words, “Love God, Love Others, Fight Hate”, a website address, and a Bible verse on the front.
On the back were personal messages from Christians to the LGBT festival goers at Pride. Some of these were simple, too: an encouraging quote or Bible verse wrote out in Sharpie. Some were more elaborate, and used colors, art, or pictures to convey a message. Many were kind, some were funny, and all expressed love in the hopes of reconciliation.
I’ll admit, it surprised me that the majority of Christians I talked to were supportive when they found out what I wanted to do. I had people I hadn’t talked to in years contact me to ask for cards, and I had people I barely knew at church ask if they could pray for and encourage me. My own parents, who hold more traditional views than I do, were extremely supportive. They even took cards to pass out to their friends.
It’s not the supportive people though, that keep me up at night. Even though there have been only a handful of people who have been vocally and angrily disproving of what I am doing (embarking on a ministry to the LGBT community) it’s these people that I can’t get out of my head. It’s frustrating, because I have no doubts about why I am doing what I am, yet, I can’t shake the fact there are people who are so angered by what I am doing, they are actively trying to stop me.
The ironic thing is, it’s this opposition that has strengthened my commitment to the ministry. Being constantly misunderstood, accused, and disrespected has given me a level of understanding for LGBT people that I never had before. Seeing first hand how quickly people started sharing their concerns over my “spiritual health”, before I even told them what I wanted to do, made me realize what it must be like to be a gay Christian. Some people don’t care what you have to say, or want to listen to you at all, as soon as they hear the word, “gay” they know everything they need to know about you, and your faith.
While I certainly don’t know everything, I do know what happened that day at Pride. People who had been hurt by the church were shown love. Bible verses, personal messages, and kind words were displayed for thousands of people to see. There were married couples, teenagers, adults, mothers, and fathers who came in to the booth, and were shown love by people who asked nothing in return. Hopefully, there were people that day who were shown God in a way that will make them want to know more. I don’t know if any lives were changed, but I do know that the people who smiled, took pictures, took cards, and filled out cards in return, all thanked me for being there.
I also know what didn’t happen. There were no kinky sexual fetish booths, no nudity, no grotesque or rampantly vile activities being celebrated, and none of the things that I was told I would be exposed to if I went to the festival. I think the most scandoulous thing I saw was a kid with shoes on at the bouncy house. It was like most other festivals I had been to, only with a lot more rainbows. Maybe it’s because this festival was not in a big city with a large gay population, or maybe it’s because the people that warned me about what I was going to see don’t actually know any gay people, and misunderstand what the majority of their lives are really like (hint: just like ours.)
It’s these people that have accused me of not being a “Biblical Christian” and have used various verses to prove my perceived misguidedness. One that has been repeatedly brought up is what Jesus said in the John chapter 15. He said that if the world hates us, it hated Him first. He tells us that if we love the world, we can’t love Him. I have been told that since I love gay people, I love the world, and therefore don’t love God.
What’s interesting though, is to think about who hated Jesus. It certainly wasn’t the tax collectors, prostitutes, murderers, and sinners that He encountered. They invited Him into their homes, poured perfume onto His feet, and loved Him without abandon. The people who hated, and ultimately killed Jesus, were the pharisees, religious leaders, and people who held so strongly to the law that they refused to see who Christ truly was. The question on my heart therefore is this; if the people who have been hating me have not been the “sinners” that I’ve been trying to reach, but the religious people who so fear them, then who does that make the world? And what should my reaction to them be?
I don’t know the answer to that yet. Instead, I’m waiting on God, and focusing on the verse that was printed on the front of the cards. It’s the one in Matthew 22 that commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. I have been told that to truly love the LGBT community, I have to “bring them out of the homosexual lifestyle.” Even if that’s what I felt God was telling me to do, I would have no idea how to accomplish that. Instead, my goal is to get as many people as possible, including those in the LGBT community, into a relationship with Christ .
The rest is up to Him.
Tags: Christianity, Equality, Evangelism, Family, Lady Gaga, legalism, LGBT, Ministry, Rainbows
26 Comments
Love this, thanks for writing it, and thanks for your courage Emily. Thanks for making me proud to be a Christian for a change instead of embarrassed and cringing. Thanks for loving when others hate. Love it love it xxx
If you do this again, I would love to make some cards. And if you ever come to Atlanta for a Pride festival, I’d love to come join you. Blessings!
Emily, this is beautiful. Really is. I think there’s some disconnect between you and me regarding some of the theology of homosexuality, but that’s irrelevant here. You did exactly what a woman or man of God should do:
“People who had been hurt by the church were shown love. Bible verses, personal messages, and kind words were displayed for thousands of people to see.”
God has given you a special ministry, Emily. Don’t let the doubters keep you up at night. You need only be interested what He has called you to do.
Yay for you !!! I am a Christian woman. Married, 2 kids, and I have many gay friends!! I am not the judge — God is. I am certain that God loves them just like he loves every other person in this world !!! Everyone makes choices! Some are right, some are wrong. But that is between you & God !!! It has been something that I have had to recently explain to my 11 year old daughter. I want her to be respectful and loving towards everyone — no matter who they are, what they look like, or what their choices have been ….
Thank
Excellent article Emmy, You are correct. God loves the gay as well as the straight. After all it is the end result that will last for eternity. Salvation not only requires acceptance of and commitment to Christ it also requires repentance as a sign of that commitment or it is only religion and not salvation.Yes, it is up to God. Keep up the good work that God has called you to.
Amen!
Great piece, Emily.
Yep. God wants a relationship with us all more than anything. Amen.
I wish Christians like you got more attention in the media. It would be a better representation of Christ and, I believe, the way more and more Evangelicals believe (though I wish more of us would practice it, including me). Tell you what — if you ever want to do something like this in SoCal, I’ll bring myself and as many seminary students as you want to help out. We would have enough cards to circle West Hollywood.
I hope everyone will join me, however, in taking a stand against the bouncy house lifestyle. Have you ever seen the apocalyptic destruction wrought after someone spills just a little cake and Capri Sun in one of those hell houses?
Thank you for your ministry and for your lovely article. We Christians didn’t stop hurting people when the Inquisition ended, did we?
I too would love to be involved in something like this. Thank you so much for being the hands and feet of Jesus. We are all sinners but all too often as Christians we like to think our sin is somehow “better” than others. Sin is sin in Gods eyes and I am far from blameless. I am a Christian and the mother of a gay child so this matter is near and dear to me. Thank you for this article. It is awesome to know you are out there living your faith not just mouthing it!
“Do they ask the salesman at the dealership, “what car do you think fits my gay ‘lifestyle’ best?”"
Just for the record, I think that’s Subarus.
I’m pretty sure that an openly gay boss I had in high school drove an Audi. Then again, my openly gay high school teacher drove a Mitsubishi sports car and a Suzuki motorcycle…
I’m pretty sure the only true “lifestyle” vehicle is the minivan, and I’m trying to avoid that one for a few more years…
Well done and well written, Emily.
” I have been told that to truly love the LGBT community, I have to “bring them out of the homosexual lifestyle.” Even if that’s what I felt God was telling me to do, I would have no idea how to accomplish that. Instead, my goal is to get as many people as possible, including those in the LGBT community, into a relationship with Christ .”
Exactly. We all need the truth spoken in love in God’s perfect timing for what He’s working in our hearts, but Jesus ALWAYS led with grace, then brought truth. (Think woman at the well, for example.)
What gets me is that Christians focus so much on certain sins– and ignore so many others– and act as if being aware of, convicted of, and free of THOSE is required for even coming to Christ (or immediately after praying the sinner’s prayer, at least!). Homosexuality is somehow in a special class, according to the way many Christians seem to think. As if it’s so much “worse” and different than the filth still clinging to their own souls!
I’m so thankful that, when I came to God for grace, forgiveness, and salvation, he did not immediately shine a spotlight on every one of my sins (including ones I’m not even aware of) and demand that they change. None of us could bear the weight of that, nor would we yet be at the place in our faith and relationship with God to be ready to follow Him out of it. It’s only out of long-developed love and trust for God that we’re ready to hear certain things and trust Him to lead us to a new place. Can you even imagine if GOD said, “Welcome to the Kingdom. Now, that critical spirit of yours? Get rid of it! Pride? Oh, it’s everywhere in your life– look! Now change! Your emotional eating? That stops NOW. Honoring your husband? …” and on and on for a few hours. Yikes! In that moment it sure wouldn’t SEEM like such “Good News” and I’d probably be outta there. Yet that’s what we do to people who manifest certain prominent, external manifestations of the sin we all walk in apart from Christ.
Does He have plans to make me holy as I respond to Him? Is He sanctifying me? Yes! But He puts His finger on the areas He’s ready to work on IN HIS OWN PERFECT TIME, order and way. Sometimes He heals instantly. Sometimes it’s a process. Sometimes He doesn’t put His finger on an area and say, “It’s time to trust me with that, give it up and follow me in that, too” until decades of growing and faith-walking have occurred. Too often, Christians, in good ol’ fashioned pride, somehow think they know God’s plans for each individual heart somehow.
Can we just let God be God and do that work in His love and own time, and just bring people to Him to do His work, His way for each individual?
Good for you for your work. I would like to do something similar…
Well Said!!
Emily,
I thank God for you! Your voice and your perspective are greatly needed within an evangelical community that remains fearful of and antagonistic toward persons who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered. Keep doing the work that God has called you to. You will reap both earthly and eternal rewards for doing so. Be blessd!
Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I wasn’t expecting to be as affected by all the virtual love like I was, but you all really touched my soul. I’ll keep everyone updated on how the ministry is going.
I’ve read a few of your posts and you’re a wonderful writer. And this post was great both because of the subject and your writing style. Thanks for writing!
Emily,
What a great God idea!!! Imagine if every Gay Pride had a booth like yours. You should think about a website!!! I am from Houston Tx where there is a large G&L community. While I am a Christian the majority of my friends are gay. I can’t tell you how many times I have had the same conversation individually with them. While it’s articulation differs the heart of the question is always the same….Can God love me, is there hope for me? My answer is always a resounding YES! All of us have sin. That sin creates a gap that without a savior we cannot broach. I have never seen a grading scale for sin…far as I know it is all a stench in the nostrils of God. That levels the playing field. It took great insight and courage to reach out in such an awesome way…such a Christlike way!!! I have found that when I face great adversity I need to stop and re-evaluate the importance of the endeavor. Our enemy is not like us he is more discriminating with his resources. Rest assured if you were no threat to his maniacle kingdom then there would be little resistence.. If you decide that you want a website I would be honored to help with that endeavor as I have designed a few….Wouldn’t it be great to have your booth at every Gay Pride in America…The people that are offended by you have clearly missed Christs’ message. From where I stand you look just like Jesus!
Great ministry Emily. You are so right when you say the rest is up to God, so many times we think we are the answer or we have to be the solution to the worlds problems. Yet, we are not all powerful, God is the Almighty and the true solution and all things are made possible through Him, not us. Keep up Christ’s work and my prayers go out to you.
Much love!
Emily,
This is a fantastic essay on an even more significant act of love. Thank you for bearing this cross, and encouraging us to take it up with you.
WOW – this really encouraged me today. I live in San Francisco, work in the Castro (gay neighborhood), and am constantly engaged in an internal battle over these very issues. It’s a war between my conservative background (which I never really did fully embrace) and my highly liberal surroundings. I always feel like I’m right in the middle. I’ve become friends or acquainted with many gay & lesbian people over the last few years, and more recently I’ve become friends with some gay Asian-American Christians. I cannot even imagine the difficulties they face culturally and spiritually. Our discussions have really made me think, and I truly believe fear is what drives so many Christians to hatred. Developing relationships with gay people does make me ask myself and God a lot of questions. One thing I know for sure is that God just wants me to love them, and I’m not always sure how. So thanks for writing this and thanks for doing what you’re doing.
Yea! I’m a um pastor not far from pensacola where the gay and lesbian community have their weekend party. Local churches have exiled many gays etc., but.2 hurt people are currently attending regularly. I now have a new outreach idea thanks to you. More progress has been made in the Kingdom, thanks to your obedience. Continue to stand.
Don’t get too caught up in the word “lifestyle”. It was a word conjured up a few decades ago by the homosexual community in an effort to get the general public to be accepting of their sexual practices. The word is now commonly used.
I think when Christians say that gays are trying to impose their “lifestyle”, it simply means that gays are trying to get the world to accept their sexual practice as morally acceptable. (It has nothing to do with how they shop for groceries)
Loving on the gay community is a good start. But we can’t love people into the Kingdom of God. Yes, Jesus loved the sinners and was hard on the religious leaders. But he also challenged the sinners to repent and “sin no more”. Unfortunately Christians want to to do one or the other. They either tell gays that they need to repent which doesn’t work. Or they just want to love on the gay community…that doesn’t work either. Jesus had the perfect balance. We just need to learn to do the same.