I don't see "thugs"

I've seen many friends on social media posting about the "thugs" in Baltimore. What saddens me is that these friends are pastors or are going to school to become pastors. They should know better then to just look at the images coming out of Baltimore and pass judgement.

When I look at these images, I don't see "thugs."

I see children who only receive one meal at day from their school.
I see young men and women being told their lives are worth nothing and they will amount to nothing.
I see years of systemic oppression.
I see the lack in educational funds to an impoverished area.
I see single parents doing the best they can to provide for their children while making minimum wage.
I see lack of jobs in which people can make a living wage.
I see the lack of mentors for children who could make a difference in the world.
I see the lack of leadership willing to make a difference.
I see missing community resources.

I don't see "thugs," I see hurting people who's voices have been silenced for to long. I encourage you to look again and rethink some of your thoughts and assumptions. If you were in their shoes, would you not be crying out for justice like they are?

Day of Silence

The following sermon was preached on April 16th, 2015 in chapel at Southern Methodist University in honor of GLSEN's National Day of Silence to end bullying against LGBT persons.

Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Tomorrow, April 17th, is the National Day of Silence. It was founded in 1996 and has become the largest student led event toward creating safer schools for LGBT persons. This day both inspires me and makes me sad. I’m inspired by the thousands of students around the world who pledge to remain silent for the day in support of LGBT persons. The reason it makes me sad, is the fact that we even have to have a day. Thousands of LGBT persons are bullied each and every day in their homes, schools, walking down the streets, on social media, and even while shopping in stores. Bullying happens to youth, adults, male and female, Anglo, Latino, African American, Christian, Atheist, and Muslim. No LGBT person is free from it.

I myself have been bullied by Christians, non-christians, even family members. It happened in church, while on vacation, and out shopping. The most memorable experience happened at a grocery store here in Dallas. One evening, I went to pick up a few things for dinner. I happened to be wearing an Old Navy T-shirt that had a rainbow flag on it, and it said, “Love with Pride.” There wasn’t anything offensive about the shirt at all. While standing in the bread aisle an African American woman in her 30’s with her 4 little children came walking towards me. The woman looked at my shirt, then at me, and called me a “Faggot.” Those of you who know me, know that I am not a person to just take it and not say anything, I confront people. But that day, reasoning got the best of me. I really wanted to stand there and tell the woman the history of the word she just used. Explain to her that, that word has the same kind of horrible history as another word that has probably been flung at her. And how she was setting a bad example for her children, who may have LGBT friends. And of course, being a seminary graduate, explain to her everything I know about the bible. However, like I said, reason got the best of me. Instead I looked at her and said, “Yes I am and God loves you and me just the same” and walked away. Of course, me being the extravert that I am, I saved it all for when Amanda got home and blurted it all out to her. Everything I really wanted to say, came out in the conversation I had with Amanda.

And, sadly, the SMU campus is also a place in which bullying has taken place. As some of you may remember, last year LGBT students and allies fought to add an LGBT student senate seat to the senate. Prior to the vote, multiple students took to Yik Yak to express their feelings regarding the addition of the seat. Yik Yak showed just how homophobic the SMU campus can be. Anonymous students posted saying, “I hate the term homophobic- it means a fear of gay people. I don’t fear them at all, I just don’t like them.” Another student said, “Yeah, I’m homophobic, so what?” Another, “Bi-sexuals are just confused and need to grow up.” These are just a few of the less inflammatory posts that were made. The vote took place and failed, the hate speech continued, and LGBT students were targeted. It’s been just about a year, have things changed? Slightly, but the bullying still continues, homophobic commits are still being posted on Yik Yak, and students are still afraid to come out.

But bullying isn’t just limited to LGBT persons, our allies are also being bullied. I have countless friends who are pastors in the UMC who are afraid to speak out for full inclusion because they fear the consequences. Last summer, when Amanda and I got married at our UCC church, we even had friends who were afraid to attend because of fear of the District superintendent finding out.

What saddens me about the bullying - both that I heard about from others, and that I’ve experienced myself - is that it often comes from people who call and consider themselves Christian. This type of action is not what God requires of us, to use the language from our scripture. God doesn’t ask us to go up to LGBT persons and tell them the way they are living their lives is sinful, because it isn’t. God doesn’t ask us to throw out our LGBT children onto the streets. God doesn’t ask us to take the lives of transgender people. This IS NOT what God asks of us. This is the opposite of what God asks of us.

What does God ask of us? Micah 6:8 tells us, “God has told you, O Mortal, what is good; and what does God require of you but to do JUSTICE, and to LOVE kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” JUSTICE and LOVE, is what God REQUIRES of us.

I want to read you a few statistics that I found. Did you know that 20% of homeless youth in the US are LGBT, while 40% of homeless youth in the state of Texas are believed to be LGBT. They come out to their parents or their parents find out about their sexual orientation and kick them out onto the streets. While on the streets, they do whatever they can do to survive. In most cases, this involves selling themselves for sex in order to have food to eat. Because it is a horrible life, 62% of these youth will attempt to kill themselves.

The suicide rate for transgender persons ages 18-24 is 45%. So if you were in a room with 100 transgender persons, 45 of them would attempt to kill themselves. In 2014, 226 reported cases of murder were of transgender persons. Of the 226, 104 took place in the United States. With a high percentage being persons of color.

Leelah Alcorn came out to her parents as transgender at 14. Her parents did not accept her. When she was 16, her parents sent her to a “Christian” conversion camp to try and “fix her.” On December 28th, 2014, Leelah step out into traffic on interstate 71 outside Kings Mill, Ohio and was killed by a semi-truck. To this day her parents still defend their actions and still use masculine language when talking about her.

Blake Brockington made headlines in 2014 when he was elected as the first transgender homecoming king in the state of North Carolina at East Mecklenburg High School. He was an outspoken advocate for social justice. He had moved into a foster home after starting to transition because his parents no longer wanted him in their home. On March 23, Blake walked into traffic was killed after being struck by multiple vehicles.

Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson had been together for two years. They were raising a 5 year old little girl. On March 7th, 2014, a beer delivery driver found their bodies next to a dumpster in a town outside of Houston. Britney was beaten to death and Crystal was shot. The person who committed the crime was James Cosby, Britney’s father. He beat his daughter to death because she was gay.

What does God ask of us? Micah 6:8 tells us, “God has told you, O Mortal, what is good; and what does God require of you but to do JUSTICE, and to LOVE kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Justice for Leelah Alcorn. Justice for Blake Brockington. Justice for Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson. Justice for those LGBT persons in Texas who are oppressed and denied rights. Justice for LGBT persons in Dallas who are victims of violence and discrimination. And justice for LGBT students here on campus who are bullied.

So what does justice look like? How many of you have seen the cartoon illustration with three people varying in height before a fence at the edge of a baseball field? For the sake of this illustration, one person is 6 feet tall, the second person is 4 feet tall, and the third person is probably 2 feet tall. Under the title of equality, you have all three of the persons standing on what looks like to be a crate, which I am going to say is 2ft by 2ft. The 6 ft person can see clearly over the fence, and likely has a 2 ft advantage. The 4 ft person can see just over the fence, but the shortest of the three, even standing on the crate, is still unable to see over the fence because they aren’t up high enough. Under the title: Justice, the same three persons stand at the same fence, except the tallest has given their crate to the shortest person allowing them to see over the fence. The title of this says, “Equality doesn’t mean Justice.”

Just because we may be heading toward equality doesn’t mean we will have justice. The best way to understand this is with the following example of credo. Equality would be taking all the credo scores, those that did well and those that didn’t do so well, and averaging them up and giving everyone the same grade. So the person who spent an hour on their credo and may score an F, could actually end up with a higher grade and vice versa, the person who spent weeks on their credo and scored a 100% would get a lower score. Everyone has an equal score, and equality is achieved. How many of you would be happy with that? I would if I was the one who spent an hour on my credo. But that isn’t justice. Equality is you getting a grade, justice is you getting the grade you worked for.

What does God require of us? God requires of us to do JUSTICE, and to LOVE kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

Justice starts with the words we speak and don’t speak. Tomorrow, on the National Day of Silence, we can take a step toward justice by standing up for those who are being bullied because of their sexual orientation. After awareness from the silence, we need to speak out for LGBT justice. We need to speak out for those who have been silenced. We need to seek justice for the LGBT person by making sure they have access to health care; we need to seek justice in making sure that they have employment protection; we need to seek justice by making sure LGBT persons feel welcome in our churches; we need to seek justice by bringing awareness regarding transgender issues; and we need to seek justice by calling out the sin of discrimination and oppression against LGBT persons.

When we seek justice, we love our neighbors, and when we love our neighbors we walk humbly with God.

Amen.