It's been a long time since I posted a diary, but now that school's out for me I should be able to do so more frequently. I had originally intended to kick off my return to normalcy with an entry on who my guy for '08 is and why, but I'm going to hold off on that. Instead, I want to post something that happened to me this weekend.
It actually started back in the middle of this semester. I was sitting in the student union when a guy came over and asked if he could sit and eat with me. I've got to admit, at first I was a little taken aback, and I hate to say it but my first thought was "What's his angle?" Anyway, after several minutes of small talk, I was observant enough to notice an emblem on his shirt that had a cross on it, so I could guess where it was going. Sure enough, he was inviting me to Central Baptist here in Jonesboro. We chatted idly about it for a moment. Keep in mind, this is the south and almost everybody here goes to church or has gone to church at some point in their lives. I myself come from a fairly religious background and am a Baptist, despite being openly gay, but that's a discussion for another time. The guy found out that I'm a political science major and asked which party I was in. I told him I was a Democrat and he admitted he was a Republican, to which I politely responded "None of us are perfect.", which he laughed at. Anyway, I decided to test his reaction to something just to see where it went. Now, let me predicate this by saying that I have, somehow, never had anyone have a bad reaction to me telling them I'm gay. I don't know how I've been that lucky, but even my most devoutly religious or openly homophobic friends have changed their tune immediately upon learning that I'm gay. Anyway, I wanted to see what this guy's reaction would be so I threw it out there. He responded by saying, "Not a problem, that's between you and God." Anyway, long story short I got his number and promised to call sometime and see about going.
Fast forward several months to last week, the end of the semester...
I had completely forgotten to call this guy all semester, just way to busy. I run into him on campus and we make small talk again, and he invites me to come again, and this time I give him my number. Later that week, he calls me and I agree to come to his church and pay a visit the upcoming weekend. Now, to be honest, I was really busy with finals this weekend and honestly thought about blowing it off. But, my boyfriend and I have been having some serious relationship issues, and we managed to sort them out Friday after a lot of yelling and crying, so I figured I needed to go just to reflect on things and spend a little time thanking God for getting us through it. The night before I pulled an all-nighter cramming for my tests on Monday, so when my new friend showed at 10:30 I was barely among the living. Still, I went.
We got to Central Baptist shortly, and let me tell you, this place fits the definition of a mega church. It's huge, a far cry from what this small town country boy is used to as far as churches go. We went in to the sanctuary and sat down in a balcony, after I nearly tumbled down the stairs for want of sleep, then rose to sing hymns. Now I like old fashion hymns, especially Amazing Grace, and I was kinda getting into the music (despite the fact that I can't carry a tune to save my life) until we started singing a song I'd never heard before. It started off with some line about "wake up Jerusalem, the savior's here among you" and wasn't that bad at first. But then there was one line that nearly knocked me off the balcony-"Wake up America. We save all the trees and kill all the babies." IN A HYMN! A HYMN! Before I had time to recover from that, the preacher, a pretty young and charismatic guy, launched into his sermon on the end of times, the Beast, 666, etc. Now let me just say, I don't buy any of that end of the world stuff. My view of Revelations is that it's a message written in code to the early Christians who suffered under the Romans and that the basic message is that no matter what happens, good will triumph over evil in the end, something I believe to be very, very true. But anyway, as I was struggling not to nod off here, several things caught my eyes and ears. One of them was the massive picture of Osama Bin Laden sitting behind the preacher, and I had to think to myself, "Well, at least it's not Saddam." Then the preacher said something about America worshiping at the "alter of abortion", whatever that is. I was waiting for this guy to mention gay marriage but for some odd reason he never did. Instead he chooses a different target: TRANS GENDERED CHILDREN!!! How the hell that has anything to do with the end times I have no idea! This guy just launched into something about seeing it on 20/20 and how many people were mislead by that particular show and so on. If any of you have any idea what he was talking about, PLEASE TELL ME!!!
Anyway, after the sermon my new friend and I left and went out to his car, where I noticed a Bush bumper sticker on the back (that ought to get me into Profiles in Courage, LOL). He asked me if I liked it and, not wanting to be impolite, I thanked him for inviting me and said I had nice time. I had met his dad there at the church and they had invited me to come eat at their house. I was starving, so I put off my inclination to go home and sleep. My friend and I talked all the way to his house, covering all kinds of topics but not really going deep into them, such as family and roles for men and women, and even personal things about each other. We got to his house and weren't even finished yet, so we stayed out in the car with his family wondering why we weren't coming in, LOL. Eventually we went in and were treated to lunch-chicken spaghetti (which I had never had and now really like) and for desert, strawberry pizza (!) which I had never even heard of but found to be an awesome new food! Then we all sat around the living room just joking and talking about life and religion with his parents, brother, and one of his friends, talking about everything from talking in tongues to school. They were really quiet, which my boyfriend would tell you in a heartbeat I am definitely not, and really deeply fundamentalist and conservative-at one point the guy's dad even openly hoped for the destruction of the Dome of the Rock, which he called an abomination. Still, despite all that, they had taken me into their home, fed me, even thanked God for my company in prayer, and showed me that in the end they were something much more than conservatives or Republicans or evangelicals or fundamentalists. They were good, decent, loving, people.
After that my two new friends and I went back to my apartment. I invited them in and originally they said they could spare five minutes. They stayed two hours, just talking with me and three of my closest friends (we run an open house type thing around here, lol). What's more, they snared a promise from me that I would come back to their church soon!
Now, what's the lesson of all this? You decide. I'm not going to spoon feed anyone a line on how what unites us is more powerful than what divides us or conservatives are people too. I'm definitely not going to tell anyone to try and see their point of view-they're good people, the best kind of people probably, but they're still wrong. What I am going to say is I made some new friends, friends I like very much and admire for being willing to welcome me into their lives when they hardly knew me. I disagree with absolutely everything that came out of their preacher's mouth, but I may still go back if just for laughs. What's more I think I love these guys already, just for being the people they are, and there welcome to join our ever growing group of a misfit family. We've got all kinds in this family of ours, ranging from my ever quiet, analytical, super-scary-smart-genius-type boyfriend to my Pentecostal cousin who hits me with her purse (usually for good reason) to a fifty-five year old black woman who a lot of rich old white bigots have been led to believe is my wife. So yeah, I guess there's room for a couple of conservative evangelical Christians who wince when they hear someone say "That blows." I know we're going to have some fun debates before long, and I'm really looking forward to them!