What is Faith to you? How do you think about it? How do you put it into words–to tell someone else what it means to you? Does it only appear when you are going through struggles? Is it constant like gravity? I like this photograph by Grigory Kravchenko. The woman looks up, but it looks as if she’s giving God a good talking to. Faith seems to take place over coffee, and in a gritty real-world setting.
Starting January 21st (it was the 14th, but we canceled the first class due to extreme temps, -38C), the Whitehorse United Church and I have teamed up to offer a class in Writing Your Faith. How do we put into words what is ineffable?
We’ll be looking at a lot of writers who have done just that. Some you will find more effective for your style of writing than others.
While the majority of works that we look at will be of the Christian variety, they will not be texts that marginalize you. They will be authors who struggle with the same kinds of questions that most people do when they are talking about a greater being in the world and how they interact with that being. We’re not reading the selections to pick up content—it’s not an evangelical endeavor. What we’re doing is looking at how people talk about their Faith, whatever their Faith might be. So we’re picking up tips. And those tips are good to use whether you are writing about yourself as a Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish or Agnostic.
Talking Dog is one of my other blogs, hopefully a good resource for gay Christians. There are a lot of good gay christian websites out there, and so I decided merely to become a portal so that you could find resources. Mostly I wanted to provide all the information that anyone might need to investigate the whole issue for themselves. Debates swirl about and people need to know the truth. It was websites like the one I created that helped me when I needed information. I needed resources. I couldn’t ask anyone out loud about them, and I didn’t know a gay Christian.
Many of you might recognize the Talking Dog in my title–it comes from “Believing in the Dog” which was the short story that I entered into PSAC’s Anti-Homophobia Week’s contest over two years ago. In the story, I had a man go out into the woods in January at night to kill himself–just sit out under a tree and freeze. There was a talking dog in there–and as the author, I knew I couldn’t save the man’s life without making the black lab into a talking dog. That I had to bend reality into fantasy to save the character. I had wished that there were more talking dogs in the world–or that we would become the talking dogs in someone’s life. The story won the contest, and Darrell Hookey, always encouraging me forward, helped me (i.e. pulled me off the floor crying) when it came time to print my name beside it in What’s Up Yukon.
It’s my way of giving back to the community what it gave me. Maybe there’s someone else out there who’s questioning their faith and their sexuality. Who knows? They might just need a Talking Dog.
As written by William Bradford, 1620, original pilgrim on the Mayflower, original settler of Plymouth Plantation, after the strange ordeals on the Atlantic Ocean on the way to the New World. This account is accurate to the best of the ability of the author, William Bradford, and notes the first instance of the Borg in Sector 001. Though William Bradford is aboard the ship, the reader should note that his record is of the Pilgrims, and notes their struggles, their accomplishments, in a third person, collective account.
There be no assurances in the ways and means of the Almighty God. That He is there to keep and to guide, we may be comforted, but that His methods and ways be strange, there be only the righteous account and evidence of the men and the women of the Mayflower on her journey to the New World.
When they left yon Dutch colonies, they were bound in one ship, leaving the leaky Speedwell back in port, combining the crews of the Separatists, God’s chosen, and the non-separatists, also God’s chosen, to help in the design and building and maintaining of the new colony. There be fifty men and women of God, and fifty merchant adventurers. It was crowded on the ship, and the seas rose and fell with the mercy of God. But to the blessings of God they account that none of the hundred pilgrims, for that is what they called themselves, were in pain, or in hunger, or in distress. All worshipped the Almighty, even as they tumbled and plunged on yon sea.
On the 43rd day of their voyage, the scout above in the mast spotted a floating island, shining in the sun, and this island he claimed was land, and their ship sailed towards it. The closer they came, the more curious the island became. It was not land as they knew it, but shined in the sun like gold, and the merchant adventurers were vastly curious of what created composition the Lord had made it. Others believed, however, that it was a bad sign, a false hope, a distraction from the simple quest of the new colonists, a task given to them in purity and hope and vision.
They did not know that the island was actually another ship, one perhaps capsized by the sea, whose inhabitants the good Lord had proclaimed should drown, for He saves whom He desires to save, and does not save those that are unworthy. And yet, they sailed closer. The ship, for now they knew it must be a ship, was twice as large as the Mayflower, capsized in the sea. Some of the adventurers said it had been forged of strange metal, for the base of the ship, that above the water, was curved like a perfect sphere, and the rods and cross-hatches of the metal formed a metal bowl, with the doors and the windows, and other shadowy recesses.
My story, “One Nation Under Gods,” was selected to be part of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology, Tesseracts 14, edited by Brett Savory and John Robert Colombo, due out in September 2010. The Tesseracts series is devoted to Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror, and has had, as you might have guessed, 14 other volumes (a Tesseracts Q was for Quebec, and the requisite 1-13 which came before).
You might have caught me reading a portion of this at the Yukon Writers Festival a couple of years back. It involves two kids and a history test, and a complete restructuring of the United States based on values Americans, like me, hold sacred: patriotism, freedom, the just war, independence, religion. I just personified them a bit. I’m very pleased it found a home. I’m now going to start work on the novel version of this story.
The picture on the left is the construction of the Statue of Liberty, a figure which looms large on the landscape at the beginning of my story. And as I was now an immigrant to Canada, the Statue of Liberty loomed large on my new immigrant’s mind…what a dramatic beginning to a new life for those coming to America. For me, I saw her on my way out. On my drive from Texas to the Yukon, I parked my red truck in Calgary for one month, flew to Vermont to be part of a writer’s colony, and in that time, snuck down to see her. Like some mistress I was breaking up with.
How do you explain to her that you are leaving?
I put her in my story, though, and so in this way, she haunts me.
Occasionally, I stray from talking about science fiction and fantasy because something is important to say, or some event is happening that means a lot.
The Prop 8 trial is happening in California right now, under the expert guidance of trial lawyers Olsen and Boies, best known for being on opposite sides during the Gore v. Bush Supreme Court moment in 2000. Now they are together, and they are laying out the case for overturning Proposition 8, the nefarious way conservative folks ended marriage for the GLBT community in California.
Thousands and thousands of people are watching this trial on liveblogging. The Supreme Court has denied cameras and videotaping of the proceedings, with a ruling that happened only hours before the actual trial began last week. Instead, we have had to follow some fantastic transcription of the trial.
What we are learning is that we have been fed FICTION for a long long time. And while it has been successful fiction, it’s not very good, and can’t really hold up to textual analysis, or any kind of scrutiny. When you shine a light on it, it just because hatred, bigotry and discrimination, and very, very unchristian.
The joy of reading the transcription—and please think of selling this as a book to people (I’d love a book of this trial for a donation to Courage Campaign Institute)–the joy of reading that transcription is the slow erasure of the lies that we’ve been told all our lives: that we will harm children, that we are living in direct violation to God and the scriptures, that we will hurt straight marriages, that we will bring destruction on America if allowed to marry (that last one has a Pat Robertson spin).
Denying American citizens the right to marry each other is denying them the protections and promises of the Constitution. First, we live as Americans and that document is our bible–it is what we rule by, live by, act by. Second, there are countless, wonderful books—by theologians–that map out how the Bible is being used to discriminate, and that God loves everyone–including gay and lesbian people–and wants them, if they so choose, to find someone and love them as Christ loves people. Christians who believe that gay people are not acceptable to God are treading a path away from God, away from Christ, and, unfortunately, away from the rest of us. Just as they were some of the last holdouts on repealing slavery, and on granting the rights of women, so they are the last holdouts on accepting gay and lesbian people.
It is so bad for the Church because many are walking away from God and Christ when they turn their backs on the church. This goes against all that Christians stand for–they want no one to walk away from them empty-handed. And yet…. I know they will be really upset when they figure this out. It makes me sad. What a horrible representation of God’s love.
The trial is exposing those lies. Though we have been blocked from seeing the trial ourselves, the truth is getting out there. I am so proud of the people who are liveblogging this. I am so proud to be a gay man right now, to see the truth unveiled, to see everyone slowly realize that we are not the scourge you made us believe we were.
To my fellow GLBT, God is not “theirs”—he is Ours. They do not own Jesus, or the words of Jesus, and they cannot block you from his love. There are plenty of churches now who accept us, and know that accepting us is perfectly good in the eyes of God. You can go through those doors and receive love from everyone.
Thank you, Olsen, Boies, and the rest of you for erasing the fiction that has been fooling us. May everyone get the truth.
Well, the Vatican seems to be open to aliens. I like that. It’s heartwarming. It’s progressive. Though only speculative reasoning by the Vatican’s chief astronomer, the Pope threw open his arms to his “brother aliens.” Fr. Jose Gabriel Funes is Chief Astronomer for the Vatican.
The astronomer began the interview titled, “The Alien is my Brother,” by saying that, “Astronomy has a profound human value. It is a science that opens the heart and the mind. It helps us to put our lives, our hopes, our problems in the right perspective. In this regard, and here I speak as a priest and a Jesuit, it is an apostolic instrument that can bring us closer to God”, said Fr. Funes in the interview.
And further on the subject of the aliens, the good astronomer had this to say:
Asked is he sees a contradiction between the Catholic faith and believing in aliens, he said, “I think there isn’t (a contradiction). Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures over the earth, so there could be other beings, even intelligent (beings), created by God. This is not in contradiction with our faith, because we cannot establish limits to God’s creative freedom. To say it with St. Francis, if we can consider some earthly creatures as ‘brothers’ or ‘sisters’, why could we not speak of a ‘brother alien’? He would also belong to the creation.”
Alas this brings up lots of interesting questions and contradictions in the Vatican’s positional stance on other issues closer to home. This excellent post from the Guardian sums up the contradiction nicely.
That the Catholic church isn’t freaking out at the possibility of alien existence for one thing gives me hope that they might stop freaking out about other things that really do exist. Contraception, perhaps, or homosexuality. The Vatican might become open to the possibility of married priests, or female ones. And that would be super.
But, yeah, no.
E.T. ain’t heavy, he’s my brother. But the gay couple, we won’t carry them.
“Creatures differ from one another and can be protected, or endangered, in different ways, as we know from daily experience. One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes,” he said.
“I am thinking, for example, of certain countries in Europe or North and South America,” he said.
Well, this speech, January 5 2010, came just after Mexico City declared gay marriage legal, and as Portugese Parliament was doing the same. Hmm.
I love that the Vatican embraces Aliens and what had been only science fiction before, but I hope they turn their attention to more immediate matters: the millions of gays and lesbians who want equality, and would like just a little of that love the church wants to dole out on Extraterrestrials they’ve never seen. Irony seems a paltry word to describe this kind of injustice. It’s cruelty inscribed in Jesus’ name. This would make Jesus weep a second time.
God is not science fiction, and probably aliens are not science fiction (I’ll give the Pope two points there). Pope Benedict, gays aren’t monsters, gay marriage no threat to reproduction or creation in the world. But the Church, unfortunately, is fast scripting themselves as Fantasy–out of touch with their own directives, mandates and missions, even their own Author. Instead of walking away from the Church, I challenge people to go back in and help fix it. Update it. Teach it. Vote out the bad policies. Uncover God where He’s been shrouded. Shake the dust off people’s shoulders who have been sitting there comatose for years. Tell them there’s more than singing, more than preaching, more than baptizing, more than dinners and potlucks—there is a host of things to do work on, a host of people to reach out to, a host of folks in need.
This plot is slumping. Cut to the action again. Bring in new characters, better dialogue.
This novel idea, Christianity, has more potential, and could be a bestseller–could even change the world— but it’s gonna take a lot of work.
Recently saw a rerun of Deep Space Nine where Jadzia Dax is reviewing a possible Trill initiate. Just to clarify: Trills have the opportunity to join with a symbiotic species which will live through many hosts. Imagine a worm that lives off you, but also provides you with the lifetimes of all its previous hosts and the knowledge it’s accumulated. There are millions of Trills, but only a few thousand of these symbiants, so there’s quite a competition for them. It’s an honor to be joined. The host’s personality and the symbiant’s personality alters when they are joined, and they become a new person. “The two become one.” But because the symbiant has lived such a long time, its personality is pretty strong as an influence, and Trills try to choose for a host a pretty strong personality who has defined themselves before joining—not someone who has no personality or desires–someone who offers nothing to the symbiant, nor to society, but who just wants to live off the symbiant (ironic).
In “Playing God” in Season Two, Jadzia finds herself reviewing a potential host. The problem is that he is eager to get the nod from her, but not to add much to a symbiant’s life. He has no passions, no plans for his life. He is living his father’s dream–not his own.
I thought about this. Here was a man who was not doing anything with his life. He was hoping that the symbiant would give him a life….
How many times do we do that in a relationship? We cancel out ourselves to make sure there is room for someone else. We stop living because we want to be “joined” with someone. We’d do anything to be “joined” including becoming what they want…. and yet we forget that we could add to the mix too.
People are fascinating. We are attracted to them because they are fascinating. Even the most “serving” personality has thoughts and dreams that happen to no one else. We all can hear the death knell on a relationship when one person tries to eliminate what makes them “them” in order to get “joined.” And we all hear wedding bells when two strong interesting individuals get together–as two strong people, bringing something to the relationship.
So, what will you do with this life you have been given? And what will you contribute to your joining? How will you contribute to the world? What are your passions? Do this, find this, before you get “joined”—-you will contribute a lot to your joining–whether it’s a marriage, a workplace, a family, a faith.
Hmmm. We forget that sometimes–we Christians. God is not here to hollow out his creation and make them clones of Jesus. He needs something to work with. That’s why you gotta be the best Trill you can be as a host for such a cool symbiant. (Oh my, I’ve surely crossed a line—Jesus as Symbiant….) But I think it works. I’ve met too many Christian young adults who are empty vessels–no personality–save worry about not doing the right thing—who are hiding who they are and I think they get this message from well-meaning folks and colleges. Hey, good men and women, God doesn’t want “you” to be a robot, a device that he manipulates, downloads His thoughts and desires—he enjoys a cool person to talk with, to “join” with.
Pardon my side trip from Science Fiction and Fantasy. But this is important. It’s unfortunate that HBO blacked out the opening prayer of Bishop Robinson, especially after so much controversy over Rick Warren’s selection to pray on Tuesday. Here’s the video. This was shot by Sarah Pulliam of Christianity Today. Christianity Today, in a really nice gesture, allowed it to be posted on their blog and here on Youtube. Sarah, you may have saved a moment in history, important to a whole community.
HBO also decided not to identify the Gay Men’s Chorus when they sang with Josh Groban. It looks like coincidence, but it hurts a whole community to be nearly erased from this historic moment. What you can’t erase, though, are all the gays and lesbians who are watching, and all their friends who are watching, and requiring something different and something better from this new administration. For your enjoyment, here is the well-written, and surprising, prayer of Bishop Gene Robinson. I love the irony of the Blessings section. Full text appears afterwards.
Full text of the prayer, courtesy of the Advocate. I hope they don’t mind that I’m posting it here–I think it should be spread as far as we can spread it.
Good afternoon,
Before this celebration begins, please join me in pausing for a moment to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
Oh God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die a day from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants; women, people of color; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy simplistic answers we prefer to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed any time soon and the understanding that our next president is a human being, not a messiah. Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the ways we care for the most vulnerable. And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office fo the president of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady calm captain. Give him stirring words, we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color blind reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states but a United States. Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods. And please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents and we’re asking far too much of this one, we implore you oh good and great God to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work that we have called him to do. That he might find joy in this impossible calling and that, in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
Amen.
__________________
Many in the GLBT community, knowing that Robinson was only going to pray on this first day–a Sunday morning when most other Christians would be in church–still they were looking forward to this representation by both Robinson and the Gay Men’s Chorus. Noticeably, they are hurt.
Though it didn’t get played on TV, on HBO, and will only be heard in snippets tomorrow morning in a collage playback before the swearing in, I hope this video gets round the world tonight to make up for it. Networks and Cable television have no idea the power of Youtube to completely make them obsolete in regards to news and events. You can’t erase a people from history. Not anymore.
What is Faith to you? How do you think about it? How do you put it into words–to tell someone else what it means to you? Does it only appear when you are going through struggles? Is it constant like gravity? I like this photograph by Grigory Kravchenko. The woman looks up, but it looks as if she’s giving God a good talking to. Faith seems to take place over coffee, and in a gritty real-world setting.
Bear Witness 