I was very happy to hear that two people from our little church will be honored at the Gay Pride parade in August. Rev. Babs Miller will be a “Lavender Legend” and Morgan Davis will be one of the Grand Marshalls. While Babs was in seminary she realized that she had always been attracted to other women. Being lesbian meant she couldn’t be ordained in the Presbyterian Church. Babs eventually came to serve at Saint Andrews because we were willing to violate church law to honor the dignity of every human being. Babs has been much more than an associate pastor. If you come to one our monthly leadership meetings Babs is usually moderating the meeting because she does that better than me. Babs is indeed a champion of the struggle who should be honored. When the vote came to determine whether Babs could be ordained, instead of hiding who she was, Babs “came out” before the Presbyterian Churches of Central Texas. At first there was a gasp, but then people realized we were voting on the same ol’ Babs who had served many of them faithfully for decades. As I remember it, the vote was unanimous. Morgan Davis is another champion of justice. Morgan had driven by the social justice messages of our church for sometime. As a transgender man, Morgan was understandably cautious about actually attending our church. For some time he just kept driving by. When I eventually met Morgan for coffee I didn’t realize he was the transgender man. I had been reading about him in The Washington Post. Morgan resigned his job with the state because he saw the trauma Texas was inflicting on families trying to keep their transgender teens from killing themselves. Morgan has become a beacon of hope, compassion and even joy for these families. He, too, deserves every accolade he gets. So, why have so many churches been on the wrong side of human rights struggles through the ages? Many churches do not realize there is a difference between the Hebrew word for “righteousness” (tzedek) and their word for ”justice (mishpat). They think they are supposed to be righteous, but not necessarily just.The word “righteous” means to be a good person within one’s value system. “Justice” means basing ones value system on what is good for all. The word “righteous” means working hard and giving charity to the poor. The word “justice” means changing the system so it will be fair for all. Many southern Christians saw “righteousness” as honoring their traditions and being kind to their slaves. If they had heard their bible’s call to justice they would have ended slavery in a heartbeat. The prophet Amos believed that God is not satisfied with our piety and worship, but also calls us to justice for all. Amos heard God saying, “Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice (mishpat) roll down like waters, and righteousness (tzedek) like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:23-24)Today, some Christians believe “righteousness” means playing out gender roles based on first century morals and science. Jesus and the other Jewish prophets did not come to teach such etiquette. They came to tell us we are members of one another. It is a good thing to be righteous, but in order to seek justice we must listen to who people are and to what they need. Yes, we need to have righteousness of character, but we also need to develop a love that grows into justice for the people of our own day.
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