Archive for September, 2010

One of my favorite theological terms is Kairos. Kairos as “a time of opportunity demanding a response; God offers us a new set of possibilities and we have to accept or decline.” * We never know when a kairos moment will come, but it is important to recognize when it arrives. The recent allegations of abuse of power and sexual exploitation levied against Bishop Eddie Long have presented such a time.

Time is a very precious commodity, yet many of us waste much of our time not being our true self. We learn to play roles in order to be accepted or desired. For my doctoral project my paper was entitled “Wounded and Healed in the House of a Friend: The Faith Experience of African American Gay and Lesbian persons.” As I conducted interviews for the project it became painfully clear that there are many persons in the African American community who have been wounded by the church and church leadership in various ways. For some, the wounds were verbal, for others the wounds were physical and/or sexual. In many cases persons were forced to choose who they would be in a given situation. One interviewee, when asked if she felt welcome at her church replied, “Yes, because they don’t know about my sexual orientation.” And that response highlighted how many gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people live, choosing who we will be in order to be accepted. Imagine how much time is wasted being someone other than who you really are at the core of your being.

The church experience has been venomous for persons who do not stay within the lines of the misinterpretation and manipulation of scripture that bestows power and honor on some and victimization to others. That was the case for persons of African descent, women, disabled persons, persons of other faiths, and those who are LGBT. The poison is not only distributed among the congregation, it is ingested by some of the leadership as well. It’s impossible to handle poison without risking contamination. Some of our embedded theology fosters a denial of our God-given identity in order play the role of something we are not, rather than challenge our traditional world view. However, remember there was once an embedded belief that the world was flat.

We are all complicit in creating an environment where persons do not have the freedom to be. God has given us a kairos moment. It is time to decide if we will either be thoughtful about understanding the love which is our true essence, or continue to demand false identities for ourselves and others. In this moment we have been presented choices: lie or love, welcome or exclude, fragmentation or wholeness, hurt or heal.

Last year I went with a group from Soulforce to meet with Bishop Long to discuss his views on the LGBT community. We offered to help him grow in his understanding and acceptance of LGBT persons. In today’s Kairos moment no matter what the verdict is, this is a moment for all of us to choose love, justice, and transformation.

*From “Kairos: Three Prophetic Challenges to the Church.