PRIDE 2016

Ever since June 1969, the parade by which the LGBTQ community has required space and a voice, has been expanding from Greenwich, NY all across the world. When Christianity became associated with the Roman Empire as its state religion, Judeo-Christian beliefs have become extremely widespread. The modern euphemism of being “in the closet” has been explicitly given as a life that occurred as a result of legal and social ramifications that bring a blend of fear and shame for the one attracted to the same sex or not identifying with their own gender. From the discrete and dark space of a closet, to the stage of major streets all across the US and the world, one can see the changes that are shifting around this people group. Their society calls them out with the promise of their support and protection. Here we are trying to reach out to a people once marginalized, but mainstream today. This blog is not a moral declaration of what is right or wrong here, but a visual display of how we seek to fish for people for that is what our King has invited us too (Mk. 1:17). This post is mainly a visual of the San Diego Pride Parade of 2016, a bit of the festivities, a bit of our outreach efforts, and a bit of the aftermath.

Photo Gallery

An Empty Sanctuary, where an Assemblies of God college group engages in worshipping their King. The music from the outside, battled with the worship music on the inside. It was a sense of the battle at hand.

 I ran into one of my friends. The great part about this is the vulgar portion of the hat he is wearing is doesn't show up. 

Interesting art piece, symbolic?

A Parade float 

Embraced by the flag or embracing it perhaps 

The Parade

 A couple hundred of the 100,000 people expected to attend the Parade and festivities.

Our fishing rod






 Baja Betty's - the next day

Jesus, King of My Sexuality

What does it mean to be a eunuch? Dan (pseudonym) and I had already done the Who is Jesus? Study together and it had been a while sense we had continued learning about Jesus, following Him together as the text unfolded before us. It was one day where he asked me the question about being a eunuch. After unpacking this a bit with my friend Dan, I mentioned the Ethiopian Eunuch that Phillip was Spirit-led to reap (Acts 8:26-40) and how we need help along the way to understand Scripture. Then he asked me about a passage he heard someone used in his past as they discussed homosexuality and the life of a eunuch during a sermon. So, we began to read in Matthew 19:1-12 where Jesus shares about eunuchs. We saw that he had mentioned that not only were some born eunuchs, but some actually chose to be “eunuchs for the kingdom of God”. I didn’t press hard on the issue then, as I had felt the Lord challenge me to be a bit cautious with my friend, a guy who had once contemplated suicide and battled severe depression. I was concerned for his mental well being and we continued meeting up, but it came to a point months later where I invited him to deeper relationship with God, but first there was a moment of honesty about homosexuality as sin.

I had never told Dan that I believed that homosexuality was sin and he had never confessed to me previously that he was unwilling to give up having sex with men. But there was a day where we became more honest with one another. We shared, and after a moment of pending rejection during our sharing, but instead of rejection, we sighed after realizing that we still wanted to be friends. I remember our exchange where we asked if we would still be one another’s friend? We both said of course and thus were relieved. Life went on together, until one monumental call was put on Dan in desperation that he needed more of God in his mental health and needed to know unconditional love as demonstrated on the Cross. It was a day where I preached the Gospel to him, the same day where he would make Jesus the King of his sexuality.

On this day Dan was at another low in his life, limping along in positive mindedness (he has grown through therapy and such), but still not living a vibrant life. We met to continue our study in Mark’s Gospel and it was that day where I shared the Gospel and challenged him to receive God’s love as a rebel sinner, the true mark of just how unconditional loving God is. I invited him to surrender his life to Jesus and he started to. We prayed and he felt God’s presence come upon him, he enjoyed the beauty of God’s touch, something he had felt before. I sensed God whisper to me that I should challenge him to surrender his sexuality and so, I did. I asked him, “do you want to make Jesus the King of your sexuality?” He pondered, he probed what that meant, and he pondered some more as we sat at a bench in Balboa Park. He looked and saw a bunch of balloons stuck in the tree. He told me he felt stuck and I assume that God was showing him something about his life in that moment. He sat, he pondered and he eventually said yes to surrendering to his sexuality to Jesus’ lordship.

What an amazing call to follow Jesus, this guy heard and chose. I don’t think that most people would realize the call and difficulty of this attempt at following Jesus. Culture, largely doesn’t support honest recognition of one’s sexuality, while choosing it’s denial. Heterosexual followers of Jesus, longing to get married, would struggle to make Jesus King of their sexuality. It is such a tough thing, but the ways of Jesus are better. Life with Jesus is better. On May 10^th, 2016 my friend chose to walk out this difficult path, with hope, headed for a better life with Jesus.

Finding Overlap with LGBTQIA Activists: LGBTQIA Homeless Youth Project

Where can a person who believes homosexuality is an aspect of the sin nature’s color wheel find ways to align with the Human Rights Campaign? You know the ones who staunchly fight for marriage equality or in other words, same sex and transgender marriages? The cool thing is they do a lot more than just fight for the right to have unions before the state on par with heterosexual couples. We found just one small way to align with the more activist leaning members of the Community.  One steering committee member of HRC stated with force at one earlier meeting that there really is no overlap to what her crew (liberal secularists, I assume) and mine (conservative religious people, I think she assumes me to be a member of) believed and lived.

Every year, the San Diego chapter of the Human Rights Campaign partners with local youth service organizations that serve homeless LGBTQIA youth in San Diego. Many of these kids by the way, likely come from homes where their parents reject them and they are seeking value and acceptance and ability to live the life they feel they are meant to live-by being themselves. It wouldn’t be very unlikely that perhaps a majority of these kids are from religious homes, their rejection which pushed them to abandon the benefits of their family at the hope for the benefits of finding where they really belong. In the intersection of social rejection and placelessness, HRC seeks to help their own. They want to bring the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of the next generation up. But, before they bring them up, they meet them where they are, even if that be wandering the streets.  This is where we can and did seek to find common ground with the Community.

From the garden of common purpose and concern, we hoped a crop would form in the Community via a small partnership between our outreach and HRC. A partnership where we also care for the poor, the rejected, and the needy-people who happen to be members of the LGBTQIA tribe.

So, we gathered our resources and we asked others to gather them with us. Together, we helped form over 700 bags filled with toiletries, particular articles of clothing to keep them warm, hygiene products to help them in practical ways that shape their worth, and other stuff that each hopefully showed them that someone cares. Here was our biggest contribution (see below for the images of the lip balms we procured). They let us acknowledge that we too love them and believe God does.

a full label for the lip balms we donated

lip balm sample, one of 750

Paul exploited the intersections of culture for the furthering of the message of a sacrificial King, with the desire for all people and creation to live under the care of His reign (Acts 17:16-34). Since Jesus and disciples who wrote the sacred text we adore as Scripture advocated for the poor, we too can hopefully bring the light of the good news to the poor in the LGBTQIA community. As Christ loved us, so do we love others—IN ACTION (Rom. 5:8).

The work of over 100 volunteers that served with HRC

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me’” (Matt. 25:40).