God, the Devil, and that old queen Sufjan Stevens
My heart is breaking for my friends.
At the Tweedy shows Jeff joked that his band Wilco had been put on a list of “Gay Bands”. I thought this was pretty much the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life (since uh, my giant crush on Jeff Tweedy is very heterosexual) and laughed it off but just now Laurie showed me the list, and the website in question.
mslauriewrites: http://lovegodsway.org/GayBands
mslauriewrites: dear me.
mslauriewrites: those jeff tweedy shows are your downfall i think.
hotmethodist: ha! jeff tweedy talked about those!
mslauriewrites: and if you haven’t caught the gay from Sufjan Stevens, no one will.
So I start poking around this website, and yes, pretty much my entire music collection indicates my sexual preference. Which would be alarming, finding out I’m headed towards becoming a lesbian because I listen to Interpol, except that it’s the most INCREDIBLY ASININE LOGIC I HAVE EVER HEARD. The only thing music says about a person is that my dad’s a badass for listening to Tower of Power.
And then. AND THEN.
I can blow off a band list. I can chalk up something so silly to fanaticism and misguided evangelism, but then I watched a video of this man behind the website and at the point where he states, to the camera, looking into the eyes of the confused and searching, that yes, it’s a wonderful message about Jesus’ love, “and Jesus loves you…but God hates you”, I wept. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes and I wept, in my chair, at JP’s, I cried. I got myself together but still I’m so sad…
THERE IS NO “BUT” IN JESUS’ LOVE. There was no “JK!” after “love your neighbor as yourself”. Jesus didn’t have “This is for all the straight dudes!” written on the stone at his tomb. My Jesus loves and accepts everyone, and that’s that. The God of my childhood prayers and my adult devotion has no hate towards anyone. He hates sin but loves the sinner, and who is this man to condemn ANYONE to a message of “God’s” hate?! He calls himself a reformed homosexual and I, of course, have a few thoughts on that.
I recently got Angels in America in my Netflix and have watched the entire thing. It is horrific. I mean, the movie itself is wonderful, but the visions of bodies ravaged by AIDS and the difficulty people have in their lives just trying to be who they are is horrible. The way the government, Davies’ Repulicans and the “moral majority” first among them, denies basic human rights to these people- adoption, marriage, things I take for granted every day- is abhorrent.
Why would anyone choose to be persecuted, hated, degraded, treated like second-class citizens? I can’t believe it’s a choice. I can’t believe sexuality is a switch you can turn on and off, and if it was, you know there’d be some flipping going on. I would have different feelings about homosexuality in the context of religion and freedom if it was something they chose. If being a redhead-by-choice meant I couldn’t marry the love of my life, you know I’d head for the dye. But if they said it was because I was white, or American, or because I have giant feet, then I would cry foul because, save for lopping off some toes (which I’ve considered), there is nothing I can do to change.
You can’t tell me they can’t be “saved”. You can’t tell me the people who have saved me from myself so many, many times can’t be saved. You cannot look me in the eye and say that the people who have loved me unconditionally, who have laughed with me and cried with me and held me like a child when I was broken and whole, whenever I needed, cannot be absolved. If they don’t deserve forgiveness for their sins who am I to accept forgiveness for mine?! I could rot in hell for the way I’ve treated people were it not for God’s grace, and I don’t see how my sins and theirs are different at all. If they can’t go to heaven when they die then it won’t be heaven for me.
Love God’s way:
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Amen.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Amen, amen, amen. I teared up a bit while reading this.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I don’t entirely understand the reasoning. A lot of these bands are as straight as the day is long. Ted Nugent, one of the most anti-gay musicians ever, is on the list, because he wears a loincloth. Polyphonic Spree is gay because they wear choir robes?
It is saddening that the most vocal members of a group are the least intelligent.
January 30th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Couldn’t agree more chica.
And if listening to Queen and the Doors is wrong than I don’t want to be right.