O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and Ransom Captive LGBTQ Community

The Eunuch. The sexually suspect. The one marginalized because of others’ inability to dignify the very nature of their humanity. The one used and abused as a tool for the entertainment and needs of Kings and Queens, but always a second class citizen; barred, however, from entrance into royal spaces and the holiest of places. Always less than human. Always an item of suspect. Always disposable. Always forgettable.

The Eunuch, forever unwelcome at worship.
(Ref. Deuteronomy 23:1)

LGBTQ. The sexually suspect. The ones marginalized because of others’ incapacity to dignify the very nature of their humanity. The ones used and abused as a tool for the entertainment and flippant needs of our society; barred from holy places and never allowed to know that they have been invited into the most royal of spaces. Always less than human. Always an item of suspect. Always disposable. Always forgettable.

The LGBTQ community, forever unwelcome at worship.
(Ref. The Modern Day Church, 2016)

The tragedy inflicted against the LGBTQ community in Orlando is not new.

It embodies the state sponsored raids at the Stonewall Inn in the 1960s, leading to the riots of 1969. It testifies to the ways that inherent dignity has been stripped from LGBTQ peoples for millennia. Forced to meet in secret. Forced to mature, develop, and find freedom in their identities in a way that has far too often produced toxicity, loneliness, self-hatred, depression, and suicide amongst many other horrible affects. The nations are full of laws that legislate against the LGBTQ community. For example, the 28 states in the U.S. that still have laws that allow employers to fire LGBTQ people simply for being LGBTQ. Or the 77 nations where being LGBTQ or engaging in sexual acts with some of the same gender, can warrant a prison sentence (for example, in Uganda where the prison sentence for this “crime” is 14 years). Or the 10 nations where it is punishable by death.

But let’s get real for a moment family. The marginalization and oppression of the LGBTQ community, as witnessed in the tragedy in Orlando, is not the problem of the nations of the world. They are complicit; yes. The very laws passed by the legislatures and approved by the heads of states testify to that.

However, there is a body, an organization, a corporation, an establishment, a conglomerate, a universal synod that is extraordinarily complicit in the perpetuation of this marginalization and oppression of the LGBTQ community:

The Church.

The very Church the person of Jesus established on the rock of St. Peter, passed down through apostolic succession. The very Church that was reformed by the rediscovery of the priesthood of all believers. The very Church that spread throughout the earth both by the captivating nature and character of the God, manifested by His good news of salvation and liberation. The very Church led by the Holy Spirit and faithful disciples into transformative global revival. And yet ultimately the very Church established by men for centuries by the work empire and colonization.

This is the Church that I say is complicit.

I do not dare to argue or postulate theological positions and doctrinal manifestos on the issue of human sexuality or sexual ethics today. I simply want to invite us to recognize with ashes on our heads and repentance in our hearts that we are responsible for Orlando. We are responsible for Stonewall. We are responsible for ages of ostracizing an entire group of people that bear the very image of the Living God we dare say we worship.

Psalm 8:5 in the NIV reads, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.” The word for “glory” in the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, is δόξῃ (doxē) – primarily translated as glory, but, also, referencing the dignity ascribed to the Lord God. The Psalmist states that the very crown of glory, that bears the dignity of the Lord, is placed on the heads of those who were made just a little lower than the angels. Bearing the image of God, we are inherently worthy of dignity, and are crowned in extra measure with glory.

This is a promise to ALL – even the eunuch and even the LGBTQ community. To the LGBTQ community the Lord ascribes dignity by the nature of their creation in the Imago Dei (image of God). Upon the LGBTQ community, the Lord bestows a crown of glory, of radiant dignity.

We, the Church, are the complicit in stripping away the inherent dignity of the LGBTQ community and relegating them to, at best, second class citizens in the Kingdom of Heaven. We have shut our doors to them. We barred them from the sanctuary. We have stolen from them the very name ascribed to them by the Lord – children of the Father of Lights.

As a person whom embodies the intersectionality of being a Christian who is both Latino and Gay, my response to the massacre at a Gay club on Latin night has, surprisingly, been numb. (note: for those uncertain, no implications on sexual ethics are implied in this statement). Numbness protects my heart from the visceral emotional response that is not welcome in our Church spaces. In the words of Michelle Higgins, in her historic talk at the Urbana Student Missions Conference 2015, our churches have come to believe that, “happiness is quiet, that sadness is quiet.” The prophetic cry and the cry of lamentation is as unwelcomed in our sanctuaries as the very people we have banned from them. It safer to be numb. Numbness doesn’t draw attention. Numbness avoids being associated with the very people I identify so intimately with. Numbness allows me to enter through the sanctuary doors even though I know that my very presence makes the holy space unclean in the eyes of its overseers. Numbness, however, also makes it impossible to hear the promise of the Lord in the midst of tragedy and dehumanization.

In response to my numbness, I have chosen repentance for both it and from disassociation from my LGBTQ family, and I look to the Word of God for its promise and its call.

Thus, hear the word of the Lord as delivered to the prophet Isaiah,

For thus says the LORD:

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose the things that please me
and hold fast my covenant,
I will give in my house and within my walls
a monument and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56:4-5 English Standard Version

To the Eunuch. To the sexually suspect.

To the LGBTQ community.

The ones used and abused as a tool for the entertainment and flippant needs of our society, barred from holy places, and never allowed to know that they have been invited into the most royal of spaces. Always less than human. Always an item of suspect. Always disposable. Always forgettable.

To you, the Lord has ascribed dignity.

To you, he has promised an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

To you, the Father will give a place in his house, and within his royal walls and holy spaces, he will give a seat of honor as he raises you out of the heap of ashes that you have been left in. In the throne room of King Jesus, you will be crowned with glory, and honor, and affirmed in your inherent dignity, as a child of the living God.

And this honor shall never be cut off; it will never be revoked.

To the Church.

To those of you who have sought to bless the LGBTQ community, especially in response to the Orlando Massacre, to you be given a prophet’s reward.

To the rest of us, complicit in the marginalization, dehumanization, and oppression of the LGBTQ community, woe to us if we do not chose the path of repentance for our sin and our evil.

Woe to us if we do participate in the work of restorative justice in response to our participation in the work of injustice.

Woe to us if we do not move into action out of the well of lamentation.

And woe, to all, if we do not chose to hope.

Because there is coming a day where every tear will be wiped from our eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away. Behold, Jesus, the one who is called Faithful and True, is making all things new.

O come, o come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive LGBTQ community.

And ransom, Lord, your Church, captive by blindness and hard-heartedness.

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*I acknowledge that the perpetrator of this massacre in Orlando was not a Christian, but the ideology that fueled this tragedy is one that has fueled the Christian churches homophobia and dehumanization of the LGBTQ community. However, I also acknowledge that there are Christians and Churches that are responding well to the needs of the LGBTQ community in the midst of tragedy.