Pride Month Is Our Pentecost
- L.Thomas
- Jun 6, 2022
- 4 min read
Welcome to Sunday Reflections. Each week Lou shares their thoughts on a passage found in the "lectionary." The "lectionary," known as the Revised Common Lectionary, is a three-year cycle of passages that mainstream Protestant churches follow. The RCL is built around the seasons of the Church Year and includes four lections
I have always found articles online about hidden messages and symbols in logos of great interest. Wendy's logo of the Wendy image has the word "Mom" on the collar. Amazon's logo has a smiley face with an oval arrow underneath the company name. The Hershey's Kisses symbol has not two but three Hersey Kisses in it. (1) The Pride Flag colors, which initially had eight colors, have meanings for each color. On this day, the day after Pentecost, I reflect on the red color in the Pride flag, which means Life. (2)
What is the meaning of Pentecost? Pentecost marks the beginning of the early church—a way of life for those who followed the holy spirit.
When I was in college, after coming out at the age of 16, I was in my college's Gay-Straight Alliance. At the time, LGBT "covered" the most familiar spectrum in the mainstream, and it switched back and forth from LGBT to GLBT. A four-letter acronym progressed into what some people joke as "LGBTQ+ and the rest of the alphabet."
I wasn't welcomed into the Gay-Straight Alliance back then. Identifying as ethically non-monogamous and kinky, I was asked to leave more than once and asked to come back more than once. The real determining factor initially was who was the president during the year for that group. Later, when the group was slowly dying with fewer people interested in joining and
some in-fighting, I was asked to step up "just one more time" as a treasurer (more like a warm body) to sign documents. When I look back on struggling to find a place where I was welcome in college and my sexual identity and sexual expressions, I am pretty sure I lived through something similar in this past week's Revised Common Lectionary reading, The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)
And this is just my story. It's not the only story out there where members of the LGBTQIAP+ community feel like we aren't all speaking the same language and struggle to be a community.
Biphobia and "Panphobia" (3) are real phobias in the community. It is not uncommon to hear statements in the LGBTQIAP+ community towards bisexuals and pansexuals such as:
Just Choose One
You're lucky you have so many options
Oh yeah, I used to be bi, too.
You're basically half straight
You're greedy
You don't fully understand what it is like to be gay (4)
Bisexuals, sometimes referred to as the "invisible minority, " face discrimination in the community.
It can be confusing for different generations. For the generation that lived through the Stone Wall Riots and the generation following – the term "queer" is not a term that widely has been "re-owned." In a multi-generational gathering, queer can be as empowering as it can be derogatory and painful.
The "Progress Pride Flag" has slowly become more mainstream in the past few years. This isn't a replacement for the original pride flag. As a side note, ironically, the same denominations that struggle to accept LGBTQIAP+ for who they view the rainbow as God's promise to the world to love them and never destroy the world again. The Progress Pride Flag reminds us that we do not need to be a community that struggles to understand each other. This moment is not at the base of the wreckage of the tower. We can have our Pentecost if we wish to. Pride Month is our Pentecost. Pentecost happens every year near the end of May or the beginning of June as we celebrate in our LGBTQIAP+ community. We can hear the other in languages, experiences, and love through this celebration with our siblings in the early church when they too looked for the community.
About Genesis
The Book of Genesis is the first book in the Bible, part of the Torah, and is found in the Hebrew (old) Testament. The date of the book of Genesis is between 539 BC and 330 BC. There are three primary authors (none of whom were Moses) and are known as the J, E, and P sources. The Book of Genesis provides a written history, transcribed from oral history, about the "origins" in a mythical form of the creation. Certain stories of the Book of Genesis share similar details to other stories from other traditions and tribes from the ancient near east, including Enuma Elish, Epic of Gilgamesh, and Enmerkar and the Lord Aratta.
About Acts
The Book of Acts is also known as the Acts of the Apostles. Authorship is credited to Luke and is considered a sequel to the Gospel of Luke. The date of the Book of Acts is between 70 to 90 CE in Rome. The Book of Acts is vital as it aids in understanding the actions of the main characters of the book, apostles Paul and Peter, after Jesus's ascension into heaven. The Book of Acts gives the only biblical historical account of the church's founding and beginnings. The book covers the first 30-35 years of the early church. The writings show the fulfillment of promises by Jesus. The Book of Acts is considered material for evangelism and gave people of that time a reason to convert to the practices of the early church. The Book of Acts focuses on God's mission
Lou's "Cutting Floor" Last Thoughts
This week's writing directly mentions Genesis 11:1-9 but also touches on Acts 2:2-21. Acts 2:2-21 is the other scripture this week in celebration of Pentecost.
(3) Biphobia is defined as the dislike or prejudice of bisexual individuals. "Panphobia" mainstream, clinical definition, is "the fear of everything". "Panphobia" is coined by the LGBTQ+ community as an alternative to Biphobia for the discrimination that Pansexual experience.
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