THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022, LOVE WINS - MENTALLY ILL, LGBTQ+

 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2022, LOVE WINS

This week I started out with Indigenous People’s Day and Columbus Day, then a look at Irish immigration (and the hate that accompanied that).  There are more stories - like loving former slaves and recognizing them as human beings.

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Okay - I need to talk about these next two topics.

1 - Mentally ill

2 - LGBTQ+

As you know, I’ve been working with people in the Memory Care unit of a local senior housing facility.

We don’t quite know what causes dementia and Alzheimer’s, it is a truly terrible disease.  Once viable human beings are now bare shadows of themselves. We have pushed them out of our lives, out of vision, out of humanity.  

How can LOVE WIN with the mentally ill?  It takes some creativity.  Visit them, sing with them, have fun events with them, and ask them about things they remember.

One of my ladies was a high school English teacher.  I’m trying to get her to talk about her teaching and her love of literature.  She also quilted, so we can talk about quilts.  

Like honoring our Native Americans, like honoring Italian Americans (with Columbus Day), and Irish Americans (with St. Patrick’s Day), Black Americans (with Martin Luther King day), can we honor our senior citizens - including those with dementia?

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Okay - I avoid this second topic.  What about LGBTQ+ people?  Where we (Americans) have treated slaves, Native Americans, and immigrants with disdain over the years, what do we do with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer and other people that don’t fit the American image?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9: “ I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law, so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 

I know some people that “know” that LGBTA+ people are wrong, that God doesn’t love them, and that they are going to hell.  I have been told that I am going to hell.  I do hope in an all-loving, all-powerful, all-forgiving God.  I think I’m trying to love all people - and I know that I fail miserably in my attempts.

I attended a weekly Saturday Bible Study for over a year and thought I had a good rapport with the leader and attendees.  But, one day I was met by the leader and another pastor and they were going to pray for deliverance over me.  I attended a weekly Christian 12-Step program (similar to Alcoholics Anonymous).  I tried to walk their way.  They thought they were showing me, love, to help me out of my “addiction”. And, it was love, but it also was judgment. 

It took me a long time to even vaguely accept that two men can love each other.  I have loved some great men - but not sexually.  There are men who not only love and respect another man (or men) but also like the intimacy of sexual interaction with other men.  

It didn’t take quite as long to accept that two women can be in love - mentally, physically, and even sexually.  

I understand how some people can love both men and women sexually as bi-sexuals.  I don’t know their brains (kind of like I don’t know the brains of those with dementia).  

I do understand that I was smacked by a 2 by 4 board, that a ton of bricks fell on me, and I was run over by a Mack Truck (and maybe with one of those rollers that pack roads down (like Wily Coyote in Road Runner cartoons).   

I felt very strong gender dysphoria.  I was pushed into transitioning for my own mental health.  Yes, I could have denied myself and stayed who I was, but that would be living a lie.  So here I am at age 75 getting out of my comfort zone.  Living an ‘authentic life”.

Why am I hated by some people?  Is it because I am out of the ordinary?  That I have violated some code of conduct?  It does seem that my conservative Christian friends have forgotten LOVE.  (Why does my family hate me?) 

From Romans 2:1-2. “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance, and patience of God”

 

“But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”(I John 2:8)

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From the 60s song - One Tin Soldier:

Go ahead and hate your neighbor

Go ahead and cheat a friend

Do it in the name of heaven

You can justify it in the end

There won't be any trumpets blowing

Come the judgment day

On the bloody morning after

One tin soldier rides away

Now they stood beside the treasure

On the mountain, dark and red

Turned the stone and looked beneath it

"Peace on Earth" was all it said

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We’ve hated slaves and Black people, we’ve hated Irish and Italians, we’ve hated Native Americans, and now we hate those that see gender differently - lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer, and others.

Yes, love one another, yes - eventually 

LOVE WINS

Karen Anne White, October 13, 2022, ©