BANNED IN RURAL USA: This column was rejected as being too controversial. Please tell me why.

Title: Watch Out When Your Pastor Preaches Hatred Instead of Love

June is LGBT Pride Month in 2022. You might be a bit confused because October is LGBT History Month. I didn’t know this until I looked it up.

I, sadly, and stupidly, didn’t know it was LGBT Pride Month. And this is even though Cheryl and I proudly walked with friends in St. Louis’ June parade a few years back. It was a fantastic, soulful experience.

No, how I found out was on our wonderful platform of Facebook. One of those supposed Christian ministers was angry as heck that the rainbow had been stolen away from the God fearing, Bible toting, sinner stoning, women shaming, black blaming Sunday Go To Meeting folks.

So they’ve made them a nice little meme with an ark, a rainbow and a Bible verse reference with the overall heading of “Promise not pride.”

Now I’m not a person who believes Evil is some magical thing. I don’t believe it exists just because. I really don’t believe evil exists at all. It’s a construct of man attempting to explain things he doesn’t understand.

So I get that these people don’t understand what is different, even slightly from themselves. But why is it necessary to create a divisiveness over a rainbow?

According to them, the rainbow, seen all over the world, is a promise to Christians. It’s the true meaning of the rainbow. That’s right, they think the rainbow has a true meaning specifically for Christians.

Okay not exactly right, this is an Old Testament thing, so technically it could be Jews and Muslims also. But since it’s been co-opted primarily by scared local Christians, we’re going to concentrate there.

I think most people understand a rainbow is a naturally occurring event that happens many times after rain falls. What we don’t know, or don’t have time to reasonably rationalize is it has to do with sunlight, the electromagnetic spectrum, and how light, which consists of many different wavelengths strikes a rain drop.

But who wants to go through with all that?

Instead after seeing a rainbow, rational people roll on through the day thinking “ah what a beautiful world we have some days” while preacher men exclaim to their minions, “look at God’s promise to us!”

Come on, man! The last time I heard anything about the rainbow and the Lawd above was probably when I was eight years old. Coincidentally, this is also about the time I started understanding metaphors and rationalizations better than most full grown people.

But now, because it’s LGBT Pride Month, these turkeys are back! We got to protect the rainbow. We got to bring back the ark. We got to put some clothes on Adam and Eve!

And that’s the problem I have with so called “ministers” like this. They don’t understand things. They don’t seek to understand things. And they use their Bible to twist meanings around to fit their ignorance…and pocketbooks.

The word minister has two meanings. One is an officer of a church or government. The other is to attend to the needs of (someone). I personally think they are supposed to overlap.

If I were a Sunday Go To Meeting type, I would view my church minister as someone who I could go to with my problems and someone I could trust to administer good words, thoughts, meditations and prayers during those times.

I wouldn’t want my minister to be a divisive, judgmental, purveyor of fear and hatred. If I had a child who was gay, I would not want them to feel unwelcome in the church I attend. I would not want them condemned by a person incapable of thoughtfulness. And I would not want them taught by someone so full of ignorance.

The rainbow was used as a symbol by the author of Genesis. The rainbow was used as a symbol of antiracist, anticlass, multiculturalism in 1969, by the Black Panthers. And Harvey Milk, the gay city official for San Francisco, used the rainbow flag as a symbol during the first Gay Pride parade in 1978. Since then it has expanded to represent the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community.

Members of the LGBTQ+ community, especially in rural areas like our own, spend their lives in denial, or in shame, or in fear of family, friends and others, (including ministers). Pride parades give them an opportunity, maybe if only for a few minutes or hours, to shed their fears and feel accepted and loved as part of the whole community.

Some of you so called ministers, need to remember Jesus dined with the shunned members of his communities.

Also, some of you need to shut up and read more than one book.