The Amun Ra Theater features a small intimate atmosphere which fosters a personal connection between the actors and the audience. Seating just 45 patrons at a setting, the impact of presentations is moving and irresistible. Neighborhood theater is meant to be like this. As this will be the closing performance for this play, there will be a cast talkback session which will afford the lucky theatergoers an opportunity to discuss the play’s many facets, unique characters and characteristics with the actual performers and the director. A feature not generally available with large scale productions. Drama enthusiasts are strongly encouraged to make plans to attend this moving and tender production. It promises to be a Sunday afternoon well spent.

Directions to the theater from Veterans Plaza:

1.	Head east on Crossland Ave toward Pageant Ln		463 ft
2.	Turn left at Pageant Ln/Plaza Shopping Center		0.2 mi
3.	Turn right at Madison St/TN-112/US-41		3.8 mi
4.	Turn left at TN-76		3.1 mi
5.	Merge onto I-24 E via the ramp to Nashville		36.0 mi
6.	Slight right at I-65 S (signs for I-65/Huntsville/I-40/Memphis)		2.0 mi
7.	Take exit 84B on the left to merge onto I-40 W toward Memphis		1.2 mi
8.	Take exit 207 toward Jefferson St		0.3 mi
9.	Turn left at 28th Ave N		0.4 mi
10.	Turn left at Clifton Ave Destination will be on the left		0.2 mi

Amun Ra Theatre 2508 Clifton Ave Nashville, TN 37209

It’s all about love. Romance. Flowers. Candy. Cards. At least, that what stores across the country are hoping for. And there is really nothing wrong with that. I just think those elements should not be confined to one bright red glossy day of the year.

The flowers and candy are easy. If it really is about love, that’s a 24/7, 365 day a year affection. That’s the hard part.

• It’s moving awareness away from self to pick up on your partner’s “vibes.”

• It’s taking the time to have eye contact between the hectic comings and goings of the day.

• It’s saying “I love you” every day as if you may never have the chance to say it again, because sometimes that happens.

• It’s “just because” flowers — a single bloom, a wildflower bouquet, or a few carefully tended blooms.

• It’s having supper steaming away because your partner is later  and won’t have time to cook for you.

• It’s taking to time to listen to someone else’s “bad day” report.

• It’s a stack of freshly laundered, neatly folded towels even when it wasn’t your turn to do the wash.

• It’s taking the time to write a note or choose the perfect card when it’s not a birthday or holiday.

• It’s candlelight dinners (at home) just because you can.

• It’s a phone call in the middle of the day  just to say I love you — every day.

The “Love” issue is not limited to your romantic partner; it applies to anyone and everyone, young, old and in-between, that holds a place in your heart.

• Hug your child every morning when they leave for school; take time to talk with them every day,  not just when report cards come in or they need a new pair of jeans or sneakers.

• Hold your parent’s hand as you take them shopping or for a walk. Don’t just hear their voices; listen to what they are saying.

• Let your friends know you appreciate them and value them. Same rules apply; sometimes things happen and you’ll wish you hadn’t waited for a made-up holiday to say you care.

One of the things I personally practice is the old-fashioned craft of letter-writing.

I write letters. Old-fashioned letters, to many of my long-distance friends from childhood — that’s 50+ years of friendship that predates e-mail and voice-mail, computers and cells phones. I practice my Catholic School Palmer Method penmanship, and hand write periodic updates in the form of notes and cards and letters. My hand touches the paper as I write, fold, seal. Their hands touch the paper as they unseal, unfold and read. It’s an arc of connected touch over the miles. I write because I want to keep in touch and tell my friends and family I love them and think of them, not because it’s a designated day to express love and affection.

Okay. So much for the secular. So much for bringing “friends” into the picture.

History, particularly religious history, reaffirms the romantic and sexual roots of this holiday, and tells us that:

“The origins of St. Valentine’s Day lie in the ancient Roman fertility festival Lupercalia, which was celebrated on February 15. During the festival, young women would place their names in a large urn. The young men would draw a name from the urn and then be romantically linked with that young woman for the following year. Still other legends cite the fact that February 14 marked the date when birds began mating.

“Letters can also serve as lifelines for loved ones separated by distance, war, employment and many other circumstances. Or they can help bridge a gap between people who may be fighting or are estranged, and just aren’t ready to speak face-to-face.” — Catholic Messenger

A current movie, Fire Proof, a Christian film about making marriage (this applies to all relationships) work, views more like a television movie of the week than what I would consider a $9 movie ticket film. But it makes its point as the young husband in a troubled marriage takes a dare and begins to deliberately woo his unhappy wife and put their relationship on sound footing again. Fire Proof, which is enjoying phenomenal box office success,  works to make the point that our relationships — be it friends, lovers, family — take work and takes 365 days a year of effort to sustain.

Valentine’s Day is a wonderful opportunity to let the people in your life know how much you love and care about them, but don’t get caught up in life’s little entrapments to the point where  love is a relegated to a once-a-year expression. Plant small but healthy seeds of love all year long.  You’ll be amazed at what will bloom in that garden in every season.

Mission Statement: We will endorse and vote for the candidates that we believe best support our agenda and we will work to vote out the elected officials that we know do not have the best interest of their constituents in mind.

During the last election season nine candidates on the ballot endorsed by L.O.V.E. won their races and are still representing their constituency today. We encourage everyone to register to vote and then to cast your vote on Election Day because your vote is your voice!

Our endorsements are:

United States Senate: Robert D. Tuke

United States House Of Representatives 7th congressional district: Randy G. Morris

United States House Of Representatives 8th congressional district: John Tanner

Tennessee Senate 22nd senatorial district: Tim Barnes

Tennessee House Of Representatives 67th representative district: Joe Pitts

Tennessee House Of Representatives 78th representative district: David W. Davidson

Assessor of Property: Robert Wayne Hunt

Highway Supervisor: Mike Frost

School Board Member School District 2: Morris N. Stevens

School Board Member School District 6: Eula Gardner Dowdy

Judicial Retention Question Court Of Appeals: “Shall RICHARD H. DINKINS be elected and retained in office as Judge, Court of Appeals, Middle Division?” YES

Though now a Tennessee resident, when I speak of home I still focus on Missouri, especially the Ozarks where I was born and spent six formative years of childhood.

Recently I returned to the Ozarks near Fort Leonard Wood. There for three days, I faced an epiphany, an experience of both sadness and joy. Experiences that brought me closer to reality. Something happened that was unforeseen and unanticipated, something that wasn’t on my list of objectives for this trip. The result was a new personal “awareness” and sensitivity toward my own well-being.

The Ozarks surrounding Fort Leonard Wood was where I played with my uncles and cousins. We explored caves, woods, and hills. We fished, hunted and played hide and seek in the woods and in season, climbed persimmon trees and picked the fruit when it was ripe enough to eat.

The major objective of this newest visit was to reconnect with friends, family and former members of the Newburgh United Methodist Church. I wanted to strengthen relationships with those who had been significant others in my pilgrimage through life.

On this visit, I met members of this Newburgh congregation, where I had served for eight years as pastor. One startling demographic of this 40-member church concerned the educational level of its membership: highly educated and professional leaders, some 50% of the group had earned masters degrees. We had two doctors — Lute and Beth – who immigrated to the United States from South Africa.

Newburgh 40 years ago was a bustling and financially independent railroad town, but with modernization and the scraping of the steam engine the community took it “on the nose” economically. A mass exodus of jobs and workers sent the town into a decline, dropping its population to a mere 400.

While there I made friends, good friends. On this visit, I hosted a a dinner for them at the local Shoney’s. Of this original group of dedicated church members, only a handful remained. Though in their 70s and 80s now, they remained enthusiastic and healthy enough to drive the distance for a dinner/reunion with their former pastor. The, each and everyone, still served their community and church, and shared an occasional glass of wine.

My Epiphany

So this renewal, this aforementioned epiphany, began for me. I was confronted with the knowledge that two-thirds of my friends from this dynamic church had died or moved on. The camaraderie arising from this dinner gathering strengthened my bonds with and feelings for Beth, Renata, Bob, Irene, Ruth, and Gordon. We dined on an Ozark dinner of frog legs, chicken and beef dishes. Throughout this period of fellowship, I relived some of the “good old days” we had together. The presence of these good people made me feel a better person and renewed my sense of achievement. I recognized that they had made a positive contribution to my life and had enabled me to find an elevated sense of self-esteem.

In this area, this county near Fort Leonard Wood, I still have a few aunts, uncles and cousins. Their number has dwindled since my last visit. The bell has “tolled” for a dozen of them in the last eight years. These family members from my mother’s side were supporting and accepting of me and contributed to our well-being; my mother was a single parent at age 18. These precious relatives helped raise me in an environment of loving care. Over the years, I’ve continued to express my gratitude, verbally, and with gifts, or frequent phone calls, for their daily positive confirmations of my value in childhood, especially those first six years.

Time has taken an ignominious toll on them; they are widows and widowers, having outlived their spouses. they are receiving extended medical care for a variety of injuries and diseases. Uncle Frank is 91, in overall good health but confined to an assisted living facility. There are symptoms of diseases, signs of the ravages of dementia and stroke. Individually they have had to surrender their self-determination and physical mobility to the demands of aging. For them, driving a car is no longer a comfort activity in life.

But back to my epiphany. As a result of this renewal with my friends and family, I have experienced a wake-up call. I am now one of the older generation in our family, and in 2008, I could become one of the few survivors of our clan. Thisfamily visit introduced me anew to my own mortality. Tearfully, I say that I am going to miss my uncles and aunts upon their demise. A comfort for me, though, will be my recognition that I “loved them now” while they are still with me. (Presbytarian hymn).

Mullings and Musings

A source of inspiration and spiritual boldness as I begin my 7th decade s the book Mullings and Musings by Clarksville’s own Charlotte Marshall, in which she gives comforting advice from decades of life through her gift for story telling. In one emotional and insightful story, she says:

“Then the purposelessness and fragility of life bound together as an ephemeral gift camae into sharp fears as to make me weep. Why have I been so dull, so unaware, so taking-for-granted the treasures given me? Never again will any of life be taken cavalierly.”

After my abbreviated time with my family in the Ozarks, I’ve returned to Clarksville withb a renewed sense of dedication “to set my house in order.” I have been more generous and have vowed not to be so cavalier in daily living.

A few concluding observations from this experience: Such confrontations are not joyful happenings, but are ones I can, with God’s help, use productively in the time I have remaining. Being Methodist, In hope to live as long as our founder, Rev. John Wesley, who left this earthly test at 86 years of age.

Also, as we say in the Ozarks, “I;m not allowing any grass to grow under my feet.” I’m busy sharing, doing good, and planning for my future, with it’s five or 20 years.

At the beginning of this new year, I am appreciative of my heritage and lineage. I am grateful for my family, especially the uncles and aunts that immeasurably contributed to my life, not with money but with affection and acceptance.

Happy New Year to all.

Author’s Note: Mullings and Musings is available at Trinity Episcopal Church for $10. It is an excellent gift for any and all occasions and a tool for anyone interested in spiritual growth.

The first item on my list is my family. I have a loving partner of over two years. Christian is more than I could ever want in a partner. He’s my best friend through the good times, he’s my rock through the bad times, and he’s my shoulder to cry on through the sad times. Most people wouldn’t notice at first glance, but he’s the most sensitive and caring person I’ve ever known, and I love him more than he’ll ever know. His cousin John who lives with us is one of the greatest men I’ve ever had the privilege to know. He’s one of those rare souls you meet who you can always count on to get you through whatever is going on in life.

Christian’s family has taken me in and become an extension of my own family. They are outstanding people who are supportive and loving without boundaries. My own family has always been a big part of my life. They’re boisterous, caring, funny, compassionate, crazy, and supportive and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. They’ve taught me more than values and morals. They’ve taught me about living, loving, and laughing.

The next item on my list is my friends. I don’t know what I’d do without them. They’ve been with me throughout everything, always there when I need them, and some of the greatest people I know. I believe firmly that family is more than just the people you share a biological connection to. These people are a big part of my family.

The final item on my list is my life that God has given me. I have a home, a partner, family and friends, a job that pays the bills, and a few extra dollars in my wallet. I’m a lucky man. I’m breathing, walking, and talking so I really can’t complain too much. I have most of what I want, and more than enough of what I need. I couldn’t ask for much more in life.

I hope that sometime between the shopping, cooking, and commotion this year that you’ll stop, if only for a moment, to remember all that you’re thankful for. Let the people in your life know just how much they mean to you. Take time to call those people you don’t see often and tell them how thankful you are that they’re a part of your life. Take notice of what you have and what you really need to survive. Chances are, you’ll find that you’ve got an abundance of love, laughter, and life. Remember to share it with those people who are a part of your life. Happy holidays, from my home to yours!

Regards,

She asked me if I felt like it was my responsibility to try to change people when they come to my church. It was then that I realized why so many people have been turned off by the Church in general. If I were to think of “church,” I have to ask myself what kind of a mental image I get.

What does someone who’s been turned away from the church think of it? I don’t think I want to get into any of the possible specifics right now, but some of the general elements surround a perception of religious arrogance.

Let me backtrack for just a minute. When I talk about “the Church,” I’m talking about the whole collective of churches across the country. I take care to not address any specific denominations or ministries unless absolutely necessary. If it seems like I’m “bashing” or “lambasting” the Church, then it’s for one reason: I’m lambasting myself.

In all reality, I am critical of Christianity because I am Christian. I see the faults because I see my own faults. I can not judge or scrutinize anything unless I first look at my own closet. It’s with all of this in mind that I write lovingly on the frustrations that some of us have faced when dealing with either traditional or institutional Christianity.

In short, I’m keenly aware of the reality that I, too, am arrogant, have stabbed backs, and have been self-righteous. I’ve failed to show the love of Christ on countless occasions, and I’ve been a poor witness for the faith and my Lord on more occasions than I even want to try to count.

So please, as you read further, understand that my desire to be real is as paramount to me as the desire to be broken before my brethren and my Lord.

Now, I’ll get specific. If someone befriends us who happens to be in leadership of a church, what’s the first thing that goes through your mind? “I bet they want me to join their church.” This person will be friendly–overly friendly, even–almost to the point of being irritating. They’ll show all kinds of love. They’ll be kind, generous, even compassionate.

“But,” you think. “Is there a hook?”

That’s the real question, isn’t it? Is there a hook? Is it possible that there really is an ulterior motive to all of the doting, friendly calls, kind little gifts and extra birthday cards? This is when I have to check my own motives for my actions. If I show love, do I have a hook attached to it?

And if I do have a hook attached, then all of my loving actions have a new label: bait. It’s a harsh reality for me to consider, but isn’t that all we’re doing when we show love in order to get something back?

Let me take it out of the church context for a moment and back to our romantic lives. Love with a hook is all over the place. One of the most extreme examples of “love with a hook” in my mind is the “I love you so much, and if you love me you’ll sleep with me.” That’s quite a hook, isn’t it?

That boyfriend or girlfriend might bestow on us a number of gifts, free dinners, and heaven knows what else, but there might be a hook… marriage… sex… a new car… you name it. In times like this, “love” is actually bait…a lure… in a word, it’s a trap.

Isn’t that what we do when we befriend someone in order to get them to join a church? There’s a hook. Maybe it’s like when we give money to someone in order so they’ll tell their friends what we did. It’s a hook.

When love becomes bait, it actually becomes something far more sinister: manipulation. It’s very subtle, but that’s the nature of the beast, isn’t it?

In all fairness, though, this kind of subtle manipulation is often so subtle that we don’t even realize when we’re doing it. After all, it’s what we’ve been taught all our lives. If we perform well, we get a paycheck. If we do good works, we get a pat on the back. We’ve been taught to take the hook at every turn.

This is why Christianity in its truest form is so unique. With Christ, there is no hook. God has given everything to us… and He knows we can’t… and won’t pay him back! The hook was pulled. “I love you,” Jesus said. And his actions always backed up his words. He showed love by showing mercy, compassion, and kindness.

Yes, it’s true that a hook is great for fishing. We even want to use the biggest, flashiest lure that we can in order to entice the fish to bite. After all, didn’t Jesus call us to be “fishers of men?”

Not so fast. In Christ’s day, there were no hooks. It was simply a net. The fishers would cast the net and reel the fish into the boat. There was no deception, no lure, and of course, no hooks. Would Jesus actually say, “I will make you a fisher like the ones who use shiny, flashy lure to bring in the biggest, greatest bass of all?”

No. He cast the net. And pulled in every fish that would fit within it.

Maybe it’s time for all of us… especially me.. to check our motives for our actions. Do we have a hook? Or not? If we do, maybe it’s finally time for us to remove that hook and show love in the way Jesus intended.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“No, I love you like a brother.”

“Well, I love you like a mom.”

“I love you like a slice of pizza.”

“I love you like a puppy.”

“I love you like I love a good movie.”

“I LOVE you love you.”

“Huh?”

“I’m in love with you.”

“But I love tennis.”

“Oh, never mind.”

“Love” and its many meanings always seem to make sense to us except where our faith applies. When the word “love” becomes sanctified into the Christian faith, it takes on a rather nebulous nature that sometimes defies definition. It’s especially evident when we try to apply our common definitions to the word when used in Scripture.

When Jesus gave His simplified list of commandments as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” we really can’t apply any of our traditional definitions. We certainly can’t love God like a slice of pizza, and loving our neighbor like a puppy seems even less practical. Surely, this isn’t what Christ taught.

When we try to bring the Greek words for love into the picture, it becomes even more complex. Koine (koin-AY) Greek is the language that is used in the New Testament, and there are three words for love in that language. Two of them are used in Scripture. The first, agape (uh-GAH-pay), is a kind of selfless devotion that illustrates the kind of love that God has for us. The second, phileo (PHI-li-oh) is more “affectionate” or “brotherly” love. The third, eros (ER-ohs), which is a romantic and sometimes sexual kind of love, is not used at all in the New Testament.

Okay, I don’t know about you, but I’m even more confused than I was when I started. With all of these definitions to “love,” just what was Jesus talking about when he said to love God and love our neighbor? Sure, it’s simple. The ethereal and pious kind of “love” that we sometimes picture in our minds just doesn’t seem to hit home for us. Well, it doesn’t hit home for me, anyway. In a word, it’s impractical.

What would happen if we did the unthinkable, and substituted a few—more practical—words for our lexicon of Christian-ese? Instead of “love God, love people,” let’s put in a couple of words that completely turn our understanding in its heels:

Passion for God, Compassion for People

I first heard this when attending a conference in Kansas City about prayer. It really stuck. The simplicity of these words and the clarity of their definition have given a new life to a dry and dusty religious expression.

When I think of “passion,” It’s as much romantic as it is a kind of devotion that is centered on a fiery love affair with the Creator of the universe. It is a mutual affair that in another context might even be scandalous! And that’s the kind of love that I believe Jesus was talking about. When we think of phrases like “the lover of my soul” and “the keeper of my heart,” it’s clear that many of the writers in the Bible had this kind of passion in mind.

Just consider the implication. It’s a relationship with the living God, our Creator, the One who loved us enough to send His one and only Son to die for us—a passionate love—a love that can only be described as like a honeymoon. It’s the kind of love where you want to explore, to learn about each other (or rather, learn about Him). There’s a fire burning in your spirit, butterflies in your stomach. What a wonderful picture of His love for us! And imagine if we could have that same love for the Lord.

Then there’s “compassion for people.” It’s a real, living, relational kind of love that embraces all people no matter where they are. It’s compassion for those who are downtrodden, hurting, wounded, sick, imprisoned, and just plain rejected. Jesus showed this kind of compassion all throughout his ministry, and his teachings reflected that.

But there’s another side to compassion that we don’t always think about. It’s a kind of compassion that allows us to even have a sense of love for those who have rejected US. We’re often most critical of those who have actually picked up the stones, ready to stone the poor sinners. But what if we had enough compassion—or love—to show the love of Christ to even those who have cast us aside?

That’s compassion. It’s not pity. It’s love in its truest sense. Remember, dear friends, Christians, even those who have been the most hateful toward the ‘misfits’ of society, are our brothers and sisters in Christ. They are part of the great family of God. They are, in short, our neighbors—the very people Christ commanded us to love. We, the ‘misfits’ really want to have people love US, but isn’t it a two-way street? I think it is.

Don’t you just love it?

City Mayor: Charles Smith
City Council Ward 1: Barbara Johnson
City Council Ward 2: Deanna Mclaughlin
City Council Ward 3: Keith Svadba
City Council Ward 6: Marc Harris
City Council  Ward 7: Mary Nell Wooten
City Council Ward 10: Bill Summers
City Council Ward 11: Lisa Dotson
Governor: Phil Bredesen
U.S. Senate: Harold Ford Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives 7th Congressional District: Bill Morrison
U.S. House of Representatives 8th Congressional District: John Tanner
Tennessee House of Representatives District 67: Joe Pitts
Tennessee House of Representatives District 68: Tim Barnes
Tennessee House of Representatives District 78: Bruce Gibbs

A few weeks ago, I began a series on my blog and right here at Clarksville Online on Christianity & Homosexuality. There are a total of six passages in the Bible that are used as “clobber” verses for the GLBT community, and the series deals with each of them individually.

So many of us who either know gay or lesbian people, or who are gay, know the kind of religious verbal violence that is hurled at an alarming rate. This series is an effort to take a step back from our pet theologies and look at their literary, historical, and original language contexts.And that’s just the beginning!

This is a special 8-part series that is the basis of my new book (Coming Soon!), “The Rainbow Kingdom: Christianity & the Homosexual Reconciled.” At Christian Community Church of Clarksville, we’ve explored these themes in great detail. The time has come to put it into writing. The book, of course, will carry these into even greater detail that on my blog.

With the permission of Clarksville Online owner Bill Larson, I’ve decided to refer all readers of this series directly to my blog, Skipping to the Piccolo. My regular commentaries will return to their focus on Clarksville life and politics, which will be much more appropriate for this forum. My hope and prayer is that we can begin to overcome years of bad information and abusive theology so that we can walk together as Christians… ALL Christians.

As challenging as the idea may be for some of us, I provide this information as a service to the community; an opportunity for some of us to take a closer look at long-held biases and maybe look at our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender neighbors with an eye for love rather than judgement or condemnation.

Here are the links: Skipping to the Piccolo

NOW ONLINE:

• Part 1: Can a person be gay and a Christian?
• Part 2: When in Rome… Exploring Romans 1:26-27
• Part 3: Burn, Baby, Burn! Sodom & Gomorrah
• Part 4: The Abominable Snowjob: Leviticus Uncovered
• Part 5: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10…who inherits the Kingdom?
• Part 6: David & Jonathan

COMING SOON:

• Part 7: Other Biblical stories of note
• Part 8: How then shall we live?

So won’t you join me? You can easily subscribe to the blog on the page to be notified when the new posts are added over the next few days.

See you there!

He spent a couple of paragraphs slamming bigots in various cultures and got a lot of positive responses, including from me. But the more I think about it, I wonder if I should be so encouraging to that kind of mindset.

As that distant piccolo continues to play its cheerful tune that guides my skips, I remember the kinds of responses I had when I encountered different cultures and races as a child. My generation never had to deal with the culture shock of desegregation. I never saw “white only” or “colored” signs on movie theatres or water fountains. They were as ancient as history could be.

In fact, I thought it was perfectly normal that my father, a young judge who had just been appointed by then-governor Lamar Alexander in 1979, would strike up a profound friendship with a ridiculously tall African-American pastor named Jimmy Terry, Sr. I went to school with one of his sons, and never did understand why he and I didn’t have the same kind of friendship that our fathers did. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I liked to skip a little too much. I’ll never really know.

Even more than 20 years later, Pastor Terry is still very much of a friend of the family, and I know even today that I can walk into his very conservative church or home and be welcomed with genuine love and warmth. He recently introduced me to a friend of his with that all-too-embarrassing, and all-too-common “I knew him when” speech.

“I knew David when he was THIS high,” he said as he held his hand to around his knee.

“Pastor Terry,” I interjected, “You’re so tall I’ll ALWAYS be that high on you!” Alas, it’s the truth.

Sadly, I heard some children my age call me “nigger lover” because our family would have friends from all walks of life. We would even visit our cleaning lady in her apartment at Lincoln Homes from time to time. In reality, my father taught us—his children—that respect and friendship is color-blind. But he didn’t have to teach that with words. He taught it with his actions.

He recently told me that he was in a local chapter of a Christian organization, and there was a discussion on how to bring growth to the group. He pressed for involvement of the African-American churches. Naturally, the idea was met with hostility and an utterance of “nigger lover” by one person. Dad smiled and said he considered it a compliment.

In a classic example of divine humor, a member from another chapter moved into the area and wanted to serve locally. His German-accented wife was told over the phone that he would be welcomed. When he arrived, my father smiled ear-to-ear. The transferring member was black and quickly became an integral member.

I’ll always have an appreciation for anyone who’ll look beyond what they see in order to build relationships. Whether it’s social status, skin color, sexual orientation, they are all outward expressions or appearances of our lives. But they are not expressions of our hearts. People like my father and Pastor Terry understand that.

Sadly, many in our community do not. They’ll only look for every single reason why a certain group of people should always be second-class. It doesn’t matter if they’re marginalizing blacks, Hispanics, or the GLBT population. They’re not looking to build bridges, they’re looking to expose weaknesses.

They’re the first to point out the faults of a race or a community by the failures of a few… or even many. The darkness of their own hearts has blinded them to the reality that we are all in this thing called life together. Instead, they have to elevate themselves by trashing others.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the people who called me “nigger-lover” in school were the same kind of people who called me “faggot” every time I passed them in the halls. The attitude is the same. “This is what separates you from me, so therefore I’m better than you.”

We “enlightened people” might even pre-judge a bigot by their attitude just like someone else might pre-judge a black teenage girl because of her skin color as she enters a clothing store as a shoplifter to be watched like a hawk. We would call the latter “racial profiling.” It’s just prejudice. No fancy names are required. It can be subtle, that prejudice. And it will darken our hearts without our even realizing it.

Because of this, I have to search my own heart on a regular basis. Am I pre-judging someone because they might not like my sexual orientation, or the fact that I will work toward equality for all people?

Well, maybe I am. Now I have to decide if that’s a bad thing.