Even though it's been over a month since you last heard from me, I haven't dropped the ball on putting together that forum to have a too-rare conversation around this difficult and frequently divisive issue. Let me bring you up to speed and also share a bit about what I've been learning in the ramp up to May 10th, when the church where I serve as senior pastor ("El Jeffe") is going to host a forum on homosexuality and the AA evangelical church.
- The actual group that is sponsoring this unusual event is a very small and very new AA evangelical ecumenical group called "Christians on Social Issues" (CSI for short). I try and make most of the bimonthly meetings because I enjoy diving into relevant social issues with fellow concerned AA believers. Bill Watanabe, a lay person, directs CSI. He's someone I've known and respected for more than 40 years. He's allowed his faith in Christ to propel him into the center of the Japanese American community in LA, founding and directing the Little Tokyo Service Center, serving on the board of Amnesty Int'l for years and recently, joining the board of Sojourners (Rev. Jim Wallis). Several months ago, when I volunteered our church to be the site for this forum, he and the others made it a point to that it would be emphasized that CSI was convening this gathering, not EvergreenLA, in order "to protect" me from unwanted criticism and backlash. At the time, I gladly accepted their offer, but as the event draws nearer and as I have immersed myself in both the subject and in deep conversations with some who are in the thick of this issue, I decided not to hide behind CSI's 'skirt'. Instead, fueled by a growing conviction that Jesus never avoided being identified with the despised and the excluded, I sucked it up and boldly declared, "Whatever."
- Last week, I drove nearly 45 minutes to spend time with committed Christian AA parents of a gay, young adult son. Originally, I had high hopes that they would feel okay about coming to the forum and sharing what it's been like as a Christian, church-going family to love a child who came out to them early in high school. They were gracious enough to discuss this with their son, but he frankly was quite uncomfortable being the focus of a public discussion about homosexuality. What was I thinking?!?!? He's still a young man, still struggling to figure out his place in the world, wondering with his parents if homophobic "Christians" will make life miserable for him, maybe even brutalize or kill him. The only person who's agreed to dialog up front with me at the forum is over 50 years old. He's at a completely different stage of life, the roller coaster ride of his life as a gay Christian man isn't over yet, but it seems like he's already endured the biggest ups and downs. So even before I had dinner with this set of parents, I withdrew my invitation and assured them that my visit had everything to do with hearing their story and nothing to do with recruiting them for the event. The mother has the kind of temperate that wants to understand everything, to break it down to its causes and component parts in order to make it whole. Those first couple of years she dove headfirst into whatever Christian resources she could find, all of which tersely stated that (a) her child hadn't been born like this, (b) as parents, one or both of them had messed up their child's sexual identity, and (c) God could fix him! But they would later learn that their son had felt 'different' from as far back as he could remember, (b) they couldn't honestly pinpoint deep-seated problems in their marriage or in either of their relationships to their son, and (c) all of their efforts to 'fix' him not only failed but their son eventually grew tired of their efforts. I was incredibly moved by the painful and lonely journey the mother had taken to reach the point of accepting her son the way he is, even if I personally still can't just say being gay is completely cool with God. In a different way, I was tremendously moved by the father's absolute commitment to love his son unconditionally and to make sure that his son KNEW that this was the case. He said that it was easier for him to come to this conclusion than it was for his wife, because unlike her, he didn't grow up with Christianity and, thus, didn't carry around the same amount of mental "baggage" that she did. They were incredibly generous to open up their home and their hearts to me for 6 hours. Even as I grapple with what the Bible says about homosexual behavior, I am profoundly impacted by stories like these where Christian families are left to deal with this on their own, without support from their pastors or their best friends in the church. This has got to change.
- And now this whole thing is going to be a documentary film. Turns out that one of our newer members is a budding AA documentary filmmaker. When he heard me share briefly several weeks ago about this upcoming forum, he quickly approached me with the exclamation, "This has to be a movie!" It didn't take much to convince me that he was right. That there was huge potential to do an updated version of "A Time for Burning" (my January blog). But instead of focusing on the problem of racial segregation in Christian churches, we'd make this about the run up to the forum. Slight problemo: my old, now-openly gay Christian friend who has agreed to tell his story at the forum had no clue that we now wanted also to make this a film. But if he--for any reason--wasn't cool with this, then there'd be no movie. We'd already shot footage of my sharing in my sermon a couple of weeks ago about our hosting this forum and the last planning meeting for the event. But whatever was captured on tape already would be unused if 'G' didn't want to be recorded. So, the director and I did what they do here in Tinseltown: we called a meeting this afternoon with G. When 30 minutes had passed and G hadn't shown up, both of us feared he had had a panic attack or something (and who would blame him? Not I!) But as it turns out, it had been 12 years since he'd come to our church campus and he'd simply gotten lost. I'd sensed it in my bones that these two would click, but when that actually happened, I was one big happy guy! G really, really wants this flick to be organic, unscripted, with no guaranteed outcomes or happy endings and that form of shooting a documentary (cinema veritae) is the chosen style of Chris Wong, the director. What's involved is for the camera to be a fly on the wall in the various meetings and conversations leading up to and perhaps beyond the May 10th forum. Now all we have to do is raise the remaining $4K to cover preproduction costs (taping and sound) because Chris is convinced that Sundance Films and other sources will be excited to pay for post production costs. Who knows... with Chris' growing rep and connections with Sundance, this movie could end up being shown at major film fests!
So even if you can't make it to EvergreenLA for the May 10th forum, in a couple of years you might be able to experience this journey through this movie. Isn't God amazingly cool? Oh, as part of our church's own ramp up to hosting this forum, I'll be preaching preparatory messages around the question "Is there a place for homosexuals in our church?" in early April. If you're interested in hearing these messages, they'll be up on our site the week following their delivery and the PowerPoint slides will also be available for synchronized viewing as you listen to me.
I hope you'll be praying for all of this and all of us who are trying to have a conversation around not only a tough issue but with at least one person who lives with this every day.
I'm just trying to have a conversation.
pken.
Comments (20)
someone I know posted a link to view free documentaries online, and I found one of them that relates to this topic... it also has some on human trafficking
sounds very interesting... it's been a topic that has been on my mind too. hopefully I'll get to see this documentary in a few years!
can you post what time the may 10 event will be? thanks!
yay movies
I think either Nat.Geo. or Discovery (I'm pretty sure Nat.Geo.) aired a documentary on child sex trade in Thailand.
The time slot for the May 10th forum, as of right now, is 7-9:30pm.
Hi Ken, I think this forum is an excellent idea. I heard you mention this meeting in your sermon last week and you deserve kudos for organizing it. I look forward to May 10th!
@pak - thanks much! Please bathe me, Gary, Chris (director), CSI members in lots of prayer. pray for my two messages in early April and for all the meetings between now and the forum. Pray for God's people to choose to live in the midst of the tension between grace and truth.
very cool stuff. keep it up!
Thank you for posting these reminders . Christ commands us to preach the good news to all nations. There should never be any excuse for avoiding, or even harming, other individuals that struggle with "special" kinds of sins.
Unrelated to your latest post, but there are two questions that came up in discussions with friends tonight that seemed like someone oughta pose them to you and see what you had to say. So, potential fodder for future blog entries if you're feeling up to it.
1) Why do you prefer to cite The Message most of the time in your sermons, without citing a parallel source that would be considered more of a "direct" translation? Would it be perhaps more helpful to list the two translations side-by-side, or to give the more traditional one and then say, "The Message puts it this way", or something like that? (In the interest of full disclosure, I own a copy of The Message,I love reading it, and I bring it to most church services and Bible studies. I understand that the author's intent in translating it into simpler modern language was to supplement Bible Study and make it more accessible to the new Christian, and perhaps to give a fresh perspective on deeper meanings or cultural contexts of passages that were difficult for lay Christians to penetrate, but not to replace other Bible translations outright as a singular valid source.)
2) I know that a big part of the campaign to remodel the church had to with wanting better facilities to reach out to the surrounding community. Since we are largely a "commuter church", whose membership doesn't live in the immediate Rosemead/Montebello area, what is EBCLA doing to reach out to its neighbors that is already taking place before the remodeling of the church building begins?
There's an article by Lillian Kwon about homosexuality and the church in the Christian Post:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080319/31579_Gays_Still_Looking_for_Love_from_Christians.htm
Pastor Ken, that story about the young gay son and his Christian parents . . . perhaps it's not so much about talking about it, or even talking about it in front of a church, but talking about it in front of a church *with one's Christian parents*? The mom reminds me of my mom. You know my faith struggles. I'd talk about that in front of a church, and a little with my mom, but *with my mom in front of a church?*--that's way too much right now. If I even thought my mom might show up, I wouldn't talk about personal issues. Maybe it's the same here. Just something to consider for the future. Keep preaching!
There has already been a documentary on Asian American Christians and homosexuality. I dunno if you've heard about or seen it but here's the site. I own a copy and I think it is good but very small since there are only 3 examples. A lesbian, parents of a lesbian, and a pastor with a lesbian daughter. The documentary itself is quite short but does contain some bonus material that i think is pretty good and important.
http://www.ingodshouse.com/about.html
Seems like 21st Century slavery is more important - have you dealt with this? You are a voice that is listened to.
Thank you for bringing tis discussion to Evergreen. --Norman
Ok, I'm going to comment on some of the more recent comments and questions in reverse order:
Norman, thanks for waving the evil of human sex traffic in people's faces. I just finished watching 2 disturbing movies about the subject and our church just hosted a special meeting where we showed one of the films and had an American missionary who has been involved in rescuing girls and women share about the problem, even locally, and how to get involved. I don't know enough myself to comment yet or write a blog, but our church is starting to mobilize to make a difference.
I've seen "In God's House" and we're planning to show it at the Forum, to start things off. I even have had dinner with one of the JA dad's of one of the featured lesbian women. Since all of the parents in the film would not label themselves as evangelicals nor would the seminary professor who dissects the Bible passages in the supplementary portion, I doubt that many evangelicals would be able hear the pathos of these women's stories because they would be bothered by their "liberal" brand of Christianity. Our movie, hopefully, will speak to that crowd in language they would find familiar, yet hopefully get them to feel the pain of those they now ignore or won't tolerate at all.
Geoff, the original plan was never to have that young gay man AND his parents all share at the forum; rather, it was only to have his parents share. We weren't even thinking to ask him to be in the audience. To have had all 3 of them up there would have been asking WAY too much of them all.
Ok, there's a number of reasons why I often use the Message in my sermons. First and foremost, it's because I am trying to get us all to hear the Word as if we've never heard it before, for it to startle us into consciousness. Familiarity does often breed contempt. I often use The Message in order to startle myself into looking at Scripture as if for the first time, in order to move past my own 'contempt' whereby my brain goes on Autopilot when I read something in KJV or NIV. I also can't help but cherish the odd comments over the years, after I've read from The Message Bible, and people come up to me and ask, "What version of the Bible was that? It was the first time I heard the Bible in my own language!" One of the reasons I don't cite parallel translations in my sermons is mainly because of time constraints. I often will choose whatever translation that both startles me and speaks the message plainly. Hey, don't forget, I'm the one that insists on our using the KJV of the Lord's Prayer.
Our previous Youth Pastor served 5 days/week at Temple Int School as Park and Rec Intramural Sports director, which eventually convinced a good number of local teens to start coming out to the Youth Group. Many of them are now regulars on Friday nights. We've been tutoring 200 of the Temple Int teens every Sat AM for 6 years, helping to bring up their math scores and to stay in school. I'm surprised you haven't heard of at least what's happening with the Youth and with our tutoring outreach. Pastors Steve and Sharon are currently putting together a strategic plan (due on my desk in June) whereby we center our efforts around Temple Int and beyond, with plans to resurrect Rosemead Neighbors (incarnational), provide quality Christian daycare for local families, help those with crisis pregnancies, etc. Our hope is to partner with other local groups to provide comprehensive service so that fewer kids will join gangs, take drugs, get pregnant, drop out before graduating, etc. Pastor Steve and myself are becoming members of Rosemead Kiwanis in order to hobnob with more of the local movers and shakers.
hi pastor ken! its sarah lam from AALC.. i didnt get a chance to talk to you after your message on wednesday, but your affirmation of women in ministry meant SO much .. thanks for speaking the truth!
what a great personal journey you have taken. will be tuned in. :) --ky
@pLuSoNeDeRfUl - It was definitely my privilege to use my position to affirm my Christian sisters! thanks!