By Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale of the Christian
Association of University of Pennsylvania
Rev-ELATION: Rally Speech in Support of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and
Transgender Communities
(March 26, 2004 at Wynn Commons)
“Thus says The Most High,
who opens a way in the sea
and a path in the mighty waters,
who leads out chariots and warriors,
a mighty army,
till they lie prostrate together, never to rise,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick;
“Remember not the events of the past,
the things of long ago consider not;
See, I am doing something new!
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
(Isaiah 43:16 f
)
And God says “Behold, I am doing something new.”
And the mayor of
San Francisco
says “IT is time to publicly honor and to respect the loving
relationship and commitment that couples share.” And he allows civil
marriages.
"Behold. I am doing something new.”
And the officials in a small
Oregon
town and in counties in
New York,
one after the other say “We think some of these laws are vague and we
shall not stand in the way of legal rights for gays and lesbians.”
"Behold. I am doing something new.”
And, when they are prevented by the courts from continuing, then the
ministers, who have for decades been performing Holy Unions, primarily
from the United Church of Christ and the Unitarians decide to step in to
fill the gap. They say, “We have been calling them holy unions; now we
will call them holy marriages.”
"Behold. I am doing something new.”
But the doors that are opening and the changes for liberation have been
happening for some time. Stonewall. Roe v Wade. Martin Luther King.
Freedom movements. Ecological movements. Women’s movement.
All these are a paradigm shift. We are on the cusp of a major paradigm
change and it is an exciting time to live.
The old way of being was to put people into boxes. Boxes that say:
Iraqi. Terrorist. Feminazi. Gay. Straight. Transgender. Boxes that
dictate how we can treat them. Boxes that eventually can be used to
justify violence.
I believe God is doing a new thing, that the paradigm is shifting
because one year ago over six million people responded to Archbishop
Tutu’s request to burn candles in a vigil for peace. Last week over a
million people gathered throughout the globe to protest continuing war.
We are saying the boxes don’t work. The old way of thinking and doing
things is no longer acceptable. So keep your eyes on the
prize because the new paradigm looks like freedom. It looks like
justice. The prize looks like community and inclusion.
Keep your eyes on the prize for our planet’s very survival depends on
it.
Keep your eyes on the prize because as a people we need for it to
change.
Keep your eyes on the prize because God is making something new.
And it is good, it is very good.
Rev Dr Beverly Dale
Copyright © 2004 Beverly Dale. All rights reserved.
(Ed. Note: Previous Rev-ELATIONS by Rev Dr Dale are archived on the
web site at
http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~upennca/revelations.html