Recently, my inbox included a copy of a short letter written by a young LGBTQ+ person in a small town in Arkansas in response to one caring resident’s display of the rainbow Pride Flag.
“Hello this is probably kind of weird,” the letter reads. “But I walk past your house everyday and I’ve noticed your flag and I’m glad to know there is at least one ally in this little town — from a young LGBTQ+ person”
While I am extremely grateful to our Vestry Leaders for their support of displaying this same symbol of hospitality, love and acceptance during Pride Week at the end of this last month, there is a part of me that was saddened to see it disappear from our front portico. As the short letter quoted above reveals so clearly, we never know what seeing such a beautiful symbol will mean in another person’s life, especially one who is young, frightened, and probably lonely. For some, simply knowing that someone nearby is an ally and friend can mean the difference between choosing to live and grow or to die by suicide.
What an incredible testimony this humble letter is to the importance of symbols in the human psyche, symbols which shape and inform our attitudes, thoughts and feelings around almost every aspect of life. For better or worse, in our embrace of symbols important to us are reflected the beliefs, perspectives and practices of individuals and communities alike. While the swastika of the neo-nazis speaks of hate-filled and racist characteristics, the peace sign, the rainbow, even the cross (whether a crucifix or an empty cross) reflect quite the opposite.
Makes me wonder about all those so-called "Christian" mega-churches which refuse to display a cross anywhere. Not much room there for the sacrificial love of God, not to mention the second commandment. Seems to me to be the ages-old sin of exalting the self above and beyond God where the worship of the feeling of the moment, the charismatic leader’s hypnotic influence, or the emotional manipulation resulting from both replace the actual teachings of the penniless carpenter we continue to brazenly call Lord Christ.