Progressive Ponderings - Jon & Jac

11/16/2005

by Joe Mayer
November 16, 2005

Bulletin - Three hundred Minnesota clergy gathered in Eden Prairie recently to plan strategy supporting a constitutional amendment making same sex marriage illegal and denying homosexuals many civil rights.  A Kansas clergyman, well versed in hate and civil rights denial, was brought in as an advisor.

Some white male clergy have a hard time being in favor of civil rights.  Back in the 1960s as Martin Luther King, Jr. expanded his “I have a dream” civil rights campaign a group of white clergy asked him to slow down his dream.  Imagine, more than a century after the Civil War they thought the rights movement needed slowing down.  Also, as feminists struggled to expand the civil rights of women the male clergy was once again conspicuous in its absence.

A personal story: Jon and Jac (real people with fictitious names)

This morning after pondering the Eden Prairie clergy meeting, a visit to the cemetery where two former students are buried seemed proper.  After teaching, I had managed this cemetery for ten years, burying approximately 1,000 individuals.  Covering over fifteen acres with thousands of gravesites and not having worked there for five years, I was still able to walk directly to each site without hesitation or direction.  Certain events make strong impressions.

I knew these young men, in their twenties at the time of death.  They were contemporaries of some of our children.  Good young men, they came from good families.  They were raised in a Christian atmosphere.  Nothing about them indicated a premature demise.  I saw no deviant behavior.  These were not deviant families.

Student/teacher relationships usually end at graduation especially when the student goes away to college.  I don’t recall talking to these young men again although I occasionally met and talked with their parents.

I didn’t know they were gay until they died.  I didn’t know they were suicidal until it happened.  I don’t know what their life experiences were once they left the shelter of home and a close knit school.  How many more, that I didn’t know, died for the same reasons?

But I can surmise.  I can speculate because I’ve seen it happen around me. Theirs was a life of trials, a life of non-acceptance, a life of put-downs, a life of depression, a life lacking hope, probably a life without a church to turn to, and, because of all these, a life of desperation.

These holy men in Eden Prairie claim these young men chose this life-style, chose to make their lives a constant state of fear of rejection. These holy men of Eden Prairie, in their righteous god-like wisdom, condemn these young men. These holy men of Eden Prairie deny them a place at the table set by a compassionate Christ. These holy men of Eden Prairie claim the power to send them to hell.  These holy men of Eden Prairie attempt to press their hatred onto us so that we too will condemn with our votes.

Can any of us control our offspring if they’re born with different sexual preferences?  Can we control the same for our siblings?  Can we know the mind of God toward these creations of his/ hers?  Does hating make us better?

Suicide among homosexuals is much higher than for most other groups.  One group that currently rates high risk for suicide is the youth we send to fight and kill in our aggressive war.