Dear Caldwell,
When God resurrected Caldwell, as in some Old Testament story, we entered into a covenant – with God, with each other and with those whom we hoped would find sanctuary at the corner of Fifth and Park. That covenant, that promise, reads simply and briefly: God invites. We Welcome. All.
We’ve been on a journey of understanding the depth and breadth of what that promise requires ever since. In May, we take another important step as our Touchpoint Committee offers four learning sessions about how we can best offer sanctuary to our trans and gender non-conforming siblings in faith.
Recently, I heard an interview with a trans woman and she said something that gripped me. When she realized she is trans, she came to a decision like one most of us may never face.
“I realized,” she said, “that for me to live my best life might actually cost me my life.”
Can you imagine thinking about your own life in those terms? Can you imagine having to decide whether to live a lie in order to stay safe or to live as God formed you and risk violence, assault, endless prejudice and even death? We’ve visited that question from a perspective of race – what it’s like to walk through this world as a person of color. The trans and gender non-confirming experience raises its own risks and consequences.
As with other aspects of our intersectional family of faith, trans, non-binary, gender fluid and other non-conforming people carry their true identity in a world that is often dangerous. For such people of faith, the church has rarely if ever been a truly safe place.
I’m looking forward to what we can all learn in May in the series Touchpoint has arranged for Sunday afternoons. In addition, we will feature two preachers who are part of the LGBTQ spectrum, including my friend Rev. Lucy Strong, who preaches Sunday.
Scripture goes ahead of us and marks our way, as always. In passages such as Isaiah 56:1-8 and Matthew 19:11-12, we will find that God has made room for various gender identities for eons, even if the church hasn’t.
Austen Hartke, an Old Testament scholar, talks about the choice he faced this way:
“Because I had what I believed was a strong relationship with God, and because my (transgender) identity was just a fact, my question was not, “Do I have to choose between my gender identity and my faith?” Instead, I found myself asking, “Is it possible to fully embrace both parts of my identity and still be welcomed into a Christian community?”
That’s a question too many must ask. God has given us the gift at Caldwell to help give an answer most would not hear elsewhere. In extending the covenant with God and others we made those years ago, we not only answer that question for another marginalized and wounded population. As important, we can continue our own liberation of faith.
“See you” Sunday for worship.
In Christ,
John