Peripheral Vision

As a basketball coach, I taught my players that Vision is more that focusing on what is in front of you. Young players do well at seeing the ball. But there is alot more going on. To become a good player, one must "see" the whole offense, the whole defense, and anticipate the action. One may be looking at their opponent, but out of the corner of their eyes they see other players, the clock, the lines on the floor, and even their next move. When I was a young player, I learned to use my "peripheral vision" - to see others even when I was concentrating on the ball.

Weeks ago I was invited to speak at a Pride event at Eastern Illinois University (EIU). It was to be in April. I let them know that I had no time to give in April ~ unless it was Wednesday evening or Thursday as I was literally on my way to General Conference. I knew that one week before General Conference it would be tough to carve out the time. 

However, this is the grass roots ministry that I love. The date was set, April 16. For LGBT people, one would say that EIU students live in a tough neighborhood. A few brave students built a panel to speak about the bible. All four on the panel were inclusive folks - a Lutheran pastor, a Presbyterian pastor, myself, and an openly gay student who had come through fundamentalist readings of scripture and ex-gay attempts. He was the bravest.

I was in awe of the students. The organizers were visibly nervous, very nervous. The front row of students seemed obviously there to show support, that either they were LGBT or good friends were. There were some supportive adults around, that the students seemed to know. And there were people holding bibles.

Of the nine questions, seven were clobber passages. Ouch. The panel was great, we supplemented one another and offered resources. Then came the Q& A time. There were friendly questions and challenging questions.

One man stood and started with a long introduction about Christianity and I knew we were going to get hammered after his nice-ness. So I "amened" a couple of things that I agree on, but when he began to slam homosexuals I just shook my head. He kept rambled and I had to stop him - "Sir, you are doing violence to people in this room."

I was looking at him the next seconds as we disagreed mightily. He said, I said, he said, I said. I made sure to say plainly that "Homosexuality is not a sin" , we received a bad teaching years ago, that we know differently now.

I was looking directly at him, but I was seeing the group in the front row "out of the corner of my eye". Some shifted in their seats, two young women began to hold hands, there were tears.

While it may have appeared to others that I was talking to the man I had eye contact with, I knew I would never change his mind. He was not my audience. He gave me the chance to speak about Jesus to a gathered crowd that is often afraid to come and listen.

The nodding heads and tears I saw in my peripheral vision made me believe that these folks had heard the Jesus stories, maybe when they were small, and could still rely on them.  I was not teaching as much as helping them to remember and trust their own experience and allow homophobia to fade in its power.

I spoke to the man, I spoke to the front row, I spoke to my hosts, and I spoke to the other panelists. I also keep within my vision the people who have not revealed themselves at all.

One last questioner was point blank with the Lutheran and Presbyterian pastors. "Do you believe homosexuality is a sin?" Following their solid answers of context and Christ, they each said, "No".

It was a good, grassroots day for Reconciling.

Comments

[Jenn]

They'll never forget that. I am so glad you got to go.

Jenn