If you’re new to #Revoice20 you might see the memes of Burwell Stark’s infamous phrase, “I am grieved almost beyond words” uttered jokingly from various attendees.
If you don’t know why because you’re new to Revoice, then buckle in babes, because I’ve got a story to tell:
So let me set the scene. Two years ago #Revoice was happening for the first time. Critics and detractors were NOT hard to come by (still aren’t). This is a conference that caters towards Christian traditions that hold to the Hist. Sexual ethic while also being willing/able to...
...use sexual identity language (think gay, lesbian, queer @TheGrantHartley 👀) As a result this conference attracted the ire of a lot of homophobic and terrible people who saw this as a plot to push the “Gay agenda” (spoiler: it’s not).
Critiques are important of new ministries, but these critics went the hard bad faith route and looked everywhere for an opportunity to cancel #Revoice20. They even made some public figures backtrack their support for Revoice (Cancel culture, amiright?)
One notorious critic, Pulpit and Pen (a ludicrously terrible Christian “journal”) tried to infiltrate Revoice by wearing this dashing ensemble: (they were turned away)
Alright. Anyway. Revoice happens in St. Louis. 2018. Some of the attendees are leaning in to the critics in a humorous way.
The critics are obsessed with finding elements of Revoice that seem “Too gay” It eventually becomes a joke that there should be a an ear piercing station
Well. Two attendees are exploring the city during an off-time and actually *do* get their ears pierced. And then they tweet about it. The critics ABSOLUTELY LOSE IT. This is the moment they were waiting for. The gay tipping point.
This of course is all a bad faith distortion, as we know. But along comes @*burwellstark, and he doesn’t know that. He wanders into the thread and in a now-deleted infamous tweet says:
That’s it. In a bizarre moment, Burwell is so grieved about ear piercing, that he is almost beyond words.
Celibate people exist in the age of the commercialization of friendships.
Selfless love is stigmatized, and relationships are only worth "investing" in when you expect to always receive back what you're putting into it. Everything is transactional. This does not favor longevity.
We are alienated from our local communities. Dropping relationships when you don't think you're receiving what you want at the moment is the most popular option. We want solo spaces, fences, no expectations.
We like to think in terms of being "taken advantage of"
Married people sequester themselves away into tiny cloisters that only other married people get access to, and only the nuclear family has any stability.
Single people move around through serialized relationships and constancy seems rare.
Tonight I’ve been at the Asbury University revival going on 4 days. Yesterday I wrote a prayer request for queer students on campus that I returned to see erased. This troubled my soul because it felt emblematic of the way that queer people have their stories erased at Church.
I was at the altar praying over someone I felt called to and a man approached me & asked what he could pray for. He felt called by the Spirit to make the drive here from out of town at 10pm. I didn’t know what to share at first but I finally relented and shared what had happened
We spoke for a long time. And he called me out of my parched season and into God’s work in my life. He spoke to shame and to my status with God. He felt the groans of pain from the awkward middle place sexual and gender minority Christians feel in the world.
Pulling together some basic thoughts on how to best be a “Side-B Ally”, or someone who affirms their traditional sexual ethic and wants to best love LGBTQ Christian siblings (and also LGBTQ people in general
Rough thread:
1. Recognize that processing and coming to theological conclusion is an extremely excruciating process for sexual minorities. Give them space to process it with God and walk with them as they need it. It’s more complicated than you think it is.
2. Don’t fight us on our identity language. We need to be able to talk about ourselves, our experiences, and the group of people who also experience these things. We aren’t slipping away from Jesus by using gay
Our President @TimTennent is speaking on marriage today.
He is the very first person in my entire life to acknowledge single/celibate people during a marriage sermon, while assuring us that he will be preaching on celibacy in a coming sermon.
I don’t think I’ve ever been seen like that by a pastor before (besides Revoice, of course)
Everyone else is bemused because since when did we care what celibate people think of our marriage sermons?
If you’re reading this @TimTennent, the Mother’s Day reference simplified a complicated situation. Mother’s Day IS unavoidably hurtful to some for a plethora of reasons. It’s also not a Christian holiday, and we aren’t required to celebrate it the way our culture does
I think it’s helpful to realize that every human has a broken sexuality.
People attracted to the opposite sex are just as broken as people attracted to the same sex.
You are not more “broken” because of your attractions. You are broken because of the fall.
EVERYONE is waiting for the coming resurrection of the dead where we will be made whole.
Using language that suggests people who don’t experience normative sexual attractions (asexuality, SSA, etc.) are more broken only serves to fuel shame in people who will likely experience those attractions their entire lives.
The last two weeks I encountered two church services which frustrated and hurt me as an LGBTQ+/SSA person. I'd like to share the experiences, because they might be blind spots in your own churches. (These are two different churches, tough luck on my part, I know)
Last week after all the messiness I went to church hoping to hear from God. Instead I was met with a portion of the service being a drama that attempted to coincide with the sermon. Dramas *can* be good. But they can also convey extra things which aren't very good...
They were portraying different misconceptions surrounding God. One misconception was "all love, no truth". The person playing God acted as San Francisco gay as possible, and it was meant to be funny. This incorrect God character was clearly gay and the congregation laughed...