The following remarks were delivered by Executive Director, Jennifer Copeland, on October 11, 2021 at a press conference hosted by St. John’s MCC in front of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s house in response to hateful anti LGBTQ comments. Read more about the comments made by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson at this link.
There are lots of ways to read the Bible. Some of us read it like a self-help manual; not a bad idea since there’s some pretty good individual improvement information in it.
But the primary reason these scriptures were put together in this book that some of us call “holy” was to give folks a manual on how to live well together.
One of the most important ways to live well together is to celebrate diversity. God would not create so many wonderfully diverse expressions of humanity if God wanted us all to be the same. After 5 days of creation ecstasy, imagine God on that 6th day of creation, saying to the heavenly host:
“We’re making humans today. Let’s make them all different. Let’s give them different hair: black, brown, blond, red, straight, curly, kinky. Let’s give them different eyes: blue, brown, black, gray, green, hazel. Let’s give them different skin. Not just black and white, but hues and shades, tones and colors.”
And God set to work loving making all those different humans. If hair and eyes and skin can be so beautifully diverse, crossing spectrums with no absolutes, why not human gender and sexuality? Male and female don’t begin to capture God’s imagination any more than binaries like Black and white. Heterosexual doesn’t begin to capture God’s imagination for the multiplicity of ways humans can express love for one another.
Friends, we’re here today because some of our neighbors have been insulted and by our Lt. Governor, no less. His comments are an affront to the God who created such wonderful diversity. For those of us who worship the God who created that diversity, the God who calls us to live well together, we have no choice but to speak out. We don’t get to say we love God and then stay silent when our neighbors are treated unlovingly.
Mr. Robinson, we are here to say, “Your words of bigotry and hatred have no place in a community blessed by God’s creative diversity. Your words have no place in a community seeking to live well together.” We are here to say, “Make it right, make it right, or resign.”
