When I Woke Up This Morning (#love221 #GA221)

Posted on June 19, 2014 at the beginning of marriage deliberations at the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). 

When I woke up this morning, my mind was stayed on freedom. When I woke up this morning, I poured the coffee and put on the headphones and began to play songs that put my heart on freedom, especially the freedom to love.

When I woke up this morning, my mind was stayed on freedom—singing a movement song I learned from the SNCC freedom singers. I am singing that movement song for this new civil rights movement whose time has come.

When I woke up this morning, I put on my wedding ring, knowing that the bonds I celebrated and consecrated in a PCUSA church with my partner who happens to be a different gender than I am are strong bonds and will be even stronger if similar bonds may be celebrated and consecrated in a PCUSA church for sisters and brothers whose partners may be the same gender as they are.

When I woke up this morning, I put on my Pentecost clothes, flames of orange and yellow and red, the flaming fire of freedom for my queer—yes not just LGBT but also Q for queer—family.

When I woke up this morning, I was reminded by friends online that this day is Juneteenth, a day to celebrate the end of slavery for our African-American brothers and sisters, a day to celebrate the importance of freedom.

When I woke up this morning, I meditated on the marriage committee meetings where we spent much time making clear that we want to comfort and keep those conservative folks in our family that disagree with marriage equality, so that they might not leave our church if marriage equality passes at this assembly, and I also meditated on those LGBTQ Presbyterians who already left our church because they felt alienated and excluded and not sufficiently comforted or reconciled by the actions of previous assemblies.

When I woke up this morning to the Detroit rain then fog, I felt the misty night clear, so that we might cling to the day, for it is this day when we choose whether or not to walk in the light of More Light Presbyterians, to ride the winds of change and unfurl the rainbow flag among us, declaring that the loving bond is between two people, any two people who know and feel it to be true and from God, declaring that this bliss is the joy of being one in the mystery of Christ’s body and this love fills us with a foretaste of heaven.

Why I Am Still In Detroit (for #PCUSA #GA221 advocating #Love221)

Nine days after my Dad’s memorial service on June 7, I am still in Detroit.

I am still in Detroit to volunteer as a member of the More Light Presbyterians communications team at the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

I am still in Detroit because, for the better part of three decades, my father was an active member of the progressive movements within PCUSA for affirmation and inclusion, for peace with justice.

I am still in Detroit because my dear friends who got married on my former land in rural Tennessee could not have their vows acknowledged by church or state because they are both men.

I am still in Detroit because my heterosexual marriage with my wonderful wife Jeannie means more if it is not a categorical privilege denied my same gender loving friends in Tennessee who now need to leave the state to affirm their relationships.

I am still in Detroit because I believe the church should be more inclusive and progressive than the state on the civil rights issue of our time.

I am still in Detroit because I believe the moral arc of the universe is bending towards justice on the issue of marriage equality.

I am still in Detroit because I am sick and tired of the beatings and the bullying, the bigotry and the bloodshed, the shame and the suicides.

I am still in Detroit because as Matthew Vines so explains in his recent book, biblical marriage is about love, joy, and unity with God not about gender binaries or sexual practices per se.

I am still in Detroit because I follow what Jesus did in every context before I listen to what Paul said in a different context.

I am still in Detroit because Jesus is love, God is love, and we in the PCUSA are love.