St. James Church Pride Flag Stolen
You can do better, Waterdown. I know you can.
Sometime over the weekend, the Pride flag in front of our church was ripped down with enough violence that shreds of it were left behind. This suggests that the vandal was very angry. This act of vandalism was intended to say one thing clearly: “If you are queer, you are not welcome here.”
We’re not alone. Neighbouring Millgrove United Church had all their Pride flags stolen in June. Many churches had their Pride displays vandalized in June; ours was not. It lulled me into a false sense of hope that Waterdown was different. In truth, we are no different.
The sad thing is that I’m not surprised this happened. I’m just surprised that it took so long. We put the Pride flag up in June. We left it up past June because we’re not called to love everyone on the sex and gender identity spectrum only for one month of the year. Jesus commanded us to love one another all year long.
Some hate-filled people have come to begrudgingly tolerate Pride displays in June. But it would seem they are not welcome past June 30.
This is how it looked in before Friday:
Why does a Pride flag on a church provoke such anger? Because it was the church that taught that being anything other than straight, cis-gender, and monogamous is sinful. And far too many churches are still teaching it and hiding behind their interpretation of a handful of scripture passages as cover for their hatred and fear. And when people are taught that hate is love then it causes deep confusion in their souls. So, when they see another church that flies a rainbow flag and proclaims that love is love then it causes them to question the hate-filled held beliefs they’ve been taught. And that’s threatening.
To quote the film Easy Rider, when people feel threatened, “it doesn’t (just) make them mad; it makes them dangerous.”
Churches that teach hate need to understand that what they teach leads to violence. And they need to stop teaching it.
Love One Another
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
John 13:34 (NRSV)
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
“[The first commandment is this:] you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this,
mark 12:30-31 (NRSV)
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
There is no other commandment greater than these.
Jesus taught us to love one another. Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves – our gay and lesbian neighbours, our straight neighbours, our transgender neighbours, our cis-gender neighbours, our bisexual neighbours, our Two-Spirit neighbours, our pansexual neighbours, our non-binary neighbours, our queer neighbours, our questioning neighbours, our genderfluid neighbours, our neighbours who identify as male or female or both or neither or somewhere in-between, our polyamorous and mono-amorous neighbours, our black, brown and white neighbours, our indigenous and settler neighbours, our young and old neighbours, our rich and poor neighbours, our Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Pagan, and atheist neighbours, etc. ALL our neighbours. Jesus didn’t put conditions on who to love.
Love the sinner; hate the sin
Love is love
There are some churches that still teach the hypocritical slogan “love the sinner; hate the sin.” That expression makes me want to puke. What it really means is “we’ll claim we’re loving queer people while at the same time telling them that the way God created them to be is sinful, against God’s will, an abomination, etc.” That’s just base hypocrisy.
If your interpretation of God’s love leads you to act in an unloving way towards anyone else, then your interpretation is wrong.
If your interpretation of God’s love
leads you to act in an unloving way towards anyone,
then your interpretation is wrong.
Until churches and other religious institutions stop teaching that hate is love then these kinds of displays of public hatred and anger will continue. It’s exactly what got Jesus killed in the first place. Preaching “love one another” is threatening enough to get you crucified.
Vandalism won’t stop God’s love. Vandalism won’t stop our church from teaching God’s love. We’re still here and we’re not going away. And the flag will return.
