Last December, and again yesterday, I wrote about the potential danger of “Not All Like That” language.
It can be a Good Thing when it’s used as an invitation to others who are “like that” — a way of showing them that they have another option and of inviting them to change. But it can also be a self-defensive, self-congratulatory exercise — the kind of attitude that elevates one’s desperate need to be perceived as “one of the good ones” (despite benefitting from unfairness) above the actual problem of the injustice itself. The former is necessary and constructive, the latter is neither.
What convinced me that the NALT Christians Project was more the good kind of “not all like that” was that it wasn’t just an effort by “allies” — even the good ones, the folks like John Shore or Kathy Baldock, who haven’t been trying to win “cookies” for being “the good ones.” Truth Wins Out set most of this up, so the invitation wasn’t a call to appear as an “ally,” but actually to serve as one.
TWO’s goal, Wayne Besen writes, is to “create a world where LGBT individuals can live openly, honestly and true to themselves.” That’s a good goal. If he thinks my contributing a video to this project will help advance that goal, then OK, I’ll give it a shot.
But if it was important that LGBT people were soliciting my support for this project, it was also important that the voices of LGBT Christians would be heard through this project. It was important to me that the initial collection of videos included some from LGBT Christians — like this one from Lisa Salazar or this one from Candace:
I was nervous about making a video — mostly for shallow reasons. Their honesty and vulnerability took a level of courage that wasn’t being asked of me. It seemed wrong to let them take that stand alone.
Their voices help to refute the lie that “Christians” refers to some group wholly separate from LGBT people, or vice versa.
Amethyst Marie addresses that forcefully, and beautifully, in a post yesterday titled, “Not All Like That: A Follow-up“:
To Christian LGBTQ allies: Don’t play into the LGBTQ/Christian false dichotomy. When you “reach out” to the LGBTQ community, please recognize that you don’t have to reach as far as you think.
We’re not The Other. We’re not broken. We’re not washed and waiting. We’re not lost souls out there in The World that you need to bring to Christ. We’re not The Unsaved or The Unchurched. You want to reach out to us? Look in the pew you’re sitting in. There we are. There I am.
I am the little girl in Sunday School who’s always the first to raise her hand. I am the girl who gets the lead solo in the Christmas pageant every year. I am the teenager who plays piano for the worship service every fourth Sunday. I am the lady who hosts a small group in her home. I am the teacher in your kids’ Children’s Church. I am the Facebook friend who posts Rachel Held Evans‘ articles on your news feed all the time. I am the friend who prays for you and with you every time you ask. I am Mary Lambert. I am Jason Collins. I am a Christian, and I am not an LGBTQ ally. I AM queer, and I am here.
And a lot of us are like that.
That’ll preach.
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