Taken With Trees

One Family Tree

Our logo came out nice

It’s pretty, all the multi-colored leaves

But to be perfectly honest

I’m not really into the theme

Family – so heteronormative

Tree – we were trying to blend with the General Conference logo and theme

The green tree & “A Future with Hope”

I didn’t really see the need to regard the General Conference theme at all

Why is it that the margins feel they have to address themselves to the center anyway?

Doesn’t that strategy always fail?

Like addressing ourselves to unity? To being ONE?

 

To me the GC theme “A Future With Hope” was just, well, might I say, premature.

It reminded me of another theme in the book of Jeremiah,

“People carelessly saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”

How about trying on this Jeremiah for size:

“My heart is sick, hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land…is there no balm in Gilead?"

“A Future with Hope?”

What’s with the mighty middle UMC adopting a passage from the exile?

Who in the General Conference is in exile anyway?

I mean, really. And I ain’t talking about just the gay people here.

 

One Family Tree?

What are we saying we are a part of here?

What is it we are saying we want to be a part of?

Jeremiah writes

The religious establishment is a disastrous faithless mess and God has had it

The future with hope depends upon the people who have already been exiled

(Who, by the way, have their own repenting to do for their various forms of faithlessness)

But God is not suggesting that the exiled rejoin the family tree just yet

God still has some of God’s own work to do

Bringing low the remaining religious establishment so the restoration might begin

 

Meanwhile

God says

Wherever you find yourselves, exiled people

It’s not just about BEING A TREE

It’s about PLANTING TREES

[well, technically Jeremiah says plant gardens (verse 5), but, same idea]

 

It’s not about wishing you were a part of some fictitious family that you are not a part of

Or even if you could be, that it would be a good idea

But it’s about whatever ground you are standing in which you find yourself an exile

Bringing life to that land and the people around you

And being faithful to the ONE who is with you in this land

Faithful to the ONE, who, though it is confusing and pisses me off sometimes,

According to Jeremiah

Brought us to this land for a purpose.

 

Root yourselves in one another who are the exiled

Connect to the real, living space that sustains your being

and it will sustain you

Be productive

Make community

Seek the welfare of the place where you are

The journey to restoration will be long

So seek me

And pray

Comments

[Warren]

Jeremiah also has this to say:

"G-d reached out, touched my mouth, and said,

'Look! I've just put my words in your mouth -- hand-delivered!

See what I've done?

I've given you a job to do
..........among nations and governments -- a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down,
..........take apart and demolish.
And then start over,
..........building and planting.'"
Jer 1:9-10 (The Message)

I am not entirely certain that this message from G-d is entirely hope-filled either.

It seems like G-d is saying we need to tear down the forest and plant new trees. This is why we have transplanted the dead, very western looking -- ordinary "green" tree of General Conference -- with a brightly coloured tree. A tree with diversity. And placed it next to water, a life-giving element. There is no life in the GC logo. We have pulled it up and torn it down and rebuilt from the ashes. This doesn't make us centrist...

And queer or not, we have families. A queer friend of mine always says how lucky he is to be queer because he gets to choose his family. Just as religion can be normative (and often is) yet can be queered, Family too can be a queer thing. Family, like religion, is not inherently heteronormative.

And if you want to say "family" is fictitious. We can say all constructs are "fictitious." The united states is "fictitious."

I do agree that often times those of us on the margins do try to "normalize" our selves to say "Look how normal and everyday I am -- how can you not accept me?" I am not sure this is the best route. Yet I am equally not convinced that saying "I am a deviant and your standards are wrong." is any better. It doesn't seem to me that this needs to be an either/or question (which is very normative) but rather a both/and (which is a more postmodern/queer way of looking at it.)

[Antony Hebblethwaite]

"Family – so heteronormative...

Why is it that the margins feel they have to address themselves to the center anyway?"

Our lives as LGBT people take on the same shapes and forms as the straight culture around us. Some of us find partners. Some of us include children. Some of us choose to be single. Some of us pioneer new shapes and forms.

The church and civil systems that support straight relationships are not extended to LGBT people.

We're simply asking for equality. I want to be able to go to church and get married. I want to be ordained. I want to go downtown Chicago and get a marriage license. I want all the protections that these systems provide like being able to visit my beloved in the hospital without questions, to feel that my relationship has sacred worth, to provide health insurance to my partner without being taxed for it, to pursue my call from God, to provide an inheritance without half of it being taxed away.

I not interested in being heteronormative or homonormative. I am interested in equality and freedom.

In that sense, I do want to be part of the one family tree...to hug a tree that includes everyone.

And you're right...we are in exile (And yes, our life in the margins provides vital perspective for the world).