In her story on the response to the national day of silence, NPR's Elaine Korry referred to the young people sponsoring the "day of truth" as Christian. I am wondering why she did not ask any of the students involved in the day of silence about their own faith convictions. In my experience, a number of young people who participate in the day of silence do so out of their own deeply held Christian convictions about justice, love and concern for the outcast and marginalized. To ignore that aspect of the story, especially when the so-called truth tellers' faith is named as central to the story, is to perpetuate the widespread misconception that "Christian" is synonymous with conservative. For most of the Christian young people I know -- including those who happen to be gay or lesbian -- on the national day of silence their silence itself speaks the truth.
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4 comments:
From Bryan: It's so tough because you really want to make people understand the truth and you wonder how in the world did they convolute the love of Christ?! How could people allow themselves to be consumed by fear, fear of venturing outside of their secluded and shelterd world of black and white. They can't get out because deep down I think fear keeps them there. They were taught not to question and so there they stay.
Isn't it sad? It seems like that is there prison.
When I was in Wheeling for Easter I went to my church that I grew up in. My family still attends and for Easter my pastor, who I grew up listening to, spoke on the tomb of Christ when Mary Magdelene (I think) and others found the tomb empty. My pastor interpreted this story in a way that was so intuitive and I had never thought of it in this way before. He talked about how we can live our lives entombed by things that don't matter. Money, fear, guilt, anger, bitterness...these things all trap us. Christ, on that day, was free. He wasn't in the tomb, he was walking around in the field. He was enjoying himself. It was the disciples who were trapped. They entombed themselves in their hideout because they were so afraid of being found. They trapped themselves by fear. My pastor turned to us and asked us what is occuring in our lives that may be trapping us. He called us to think on that and allow Christ to release us from that prison. Christ doesn't want us to live like that; He wants us to be free.
I hope those people who are so closed-minded can free themselves from the self-induced prison of fear, anger, hatred, etc.
I like the sermon illustration used by your pastor, Bryan. We are trapped, and we need to be freed.
From Bryan:
Doug, it was a great sermon! I wish I could have expressed it the way my pastor did. It opened my eyes to a lot! Yes, it was a great interpretation.
From Dar: It's sad that "gay" and "Christian" seem to be mutually exclusive on this NPR story.
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