AmosL
08-10-2006, 11:08 AM
A PIERCING THOUGHT
Amos Lassen
A few years ago, two friends came over to question how I could still be religious while being gay. It wasn't a new issue with me and I had thought about it a great deal. Like so many others. I had alienated my faith during my college years and even more so when I came out as a gay male. Basically it was reclaimed in a rather strange way---after spending a day shopping at the local mall.
It happened early one morning when a friend called and greeted me with "come shopping." Now the world knows I love to shop so I didn't have to think about answering that I would be ready in five minutes. But getting dressed for a shopping experience requires a great deal of thought and I ended up meeting my friend, Avi, a little over three hours later. Avi was one of those gay men that would do whatever he could to be like every other gay man. He had been pestering me about how important it was to have his right nipple pierced and I decided that this shopping outing would include a trip to the nearby tattoo and piercing artist and a bright gold ring for Avi's nipple. Avi was very nervous and protested as I dragged him from his perch at Starbucks to the piercing shop. An hour later he was aching from the pain of his newly pierced nipple but as proud as a peacock. Soon we noticed a group of religious men standing nearby. Avi, amidst his "piercing" pain dragged me toward them and I thought to myself that there would be a confrontation. Of course there was. (Avi is not the most discrete person I know).
It went something like this:
Religious guy: "Hi men".
Avi: "Hi, nice religious guy."
Religious guy: "Would you like to pray?"
Avi: "What for?"
Religious guy: "It is a blessing to acknowledge God."
"Will we go to heaven?", Avi asked. I saw it coming. The poor little religious guy had never met anyone like Avi before but I knew what was getting ready to happen.
"Prayer will open the gates of heaven for you," the religious guy assured him.
"Even if we're gay?" Avi asked.
SILENCE
We left.
When I asked him why he did it, Avi explained. "What ever do you mean? If he told me that God is willing to accept me, I would have joined him in prayer. However, God's angel who was asking me to pray could not answer the question."
I suddenly began to feel really weird and very uncomfortable. It wasn't that I needed divine faith or approval for who I am. It was just that too many people would not look me in the eye because of it. It was because no one was trying to bridge the gap that began thousands of years ago and is not relevant to our lives today.
People, in general, are disturbed by moral problems--not their own but those of others. I have never understood why gay marriage, domestic partnership rights or the location of gay bars bother heterosexuals since the issues do not concern them anyway. For that reason alone, one sentence from the Bible which prohibits male-male sex has validated all the crimes that have been propagated against us in the past.
A month after this incident I visited another friend, David. David was a religious Jewish gay man. I asked him how he could combine his deep faith for God with his even greater affection for other men. "It's simple", he replied. "If God didn't want gays to exist, he would not have created them. But since we are all created in the image of God, apparently He has a little gay part in Himself".
Simplistic? Perhaps it is, but this one sentence made me realize a lot about myself, my relationship to God and His nature. Many say I have taken the easy way out. I feel quite the opposite. I still struggle with the concepts of God and homosexuality but like David said-- if I was created by God, I was created in His image. And that makes it okay. Now I often wonder, superciliously, if God has a pierced right nipple.
Amos Lassen
Amos Lassen
A few years ago, two friends came over to question how I could still be religious while being gay. It wasn't a new issue with me and I had thought about it a great deal. Like so many others. I had alienated my faith during my college years and even more so when I came out as a gay male. Basically it was reclaimed in a rather strange way---after spending a day shopping at the local mall.
It happened early one morning when a friend called and greeted me with "come shopping." Now the world knows I love to shop so I didn't have to think about answering that I would be ready in five minutes. But getting dressed for a shopping experience requires a great deal of thought and I ended up meeting my friend, Avi, a little over three hours later. Avi was one of those gay men that would do whatever he could to be like every other gay man. He had been pestering me about how important it was to have his right nipple pierced and I decided that this shopping outing would include a trip to the nearby tattoo and piercing artist and a bright gold ring for Avi's nipple. Avi was very nervous and protested as I dragged him from his perch at Starbucks to the piercing shop. An hour later he was aching from the pain of his newly pierced nipple but as proud as a peacock. Soon we noticed a group of religious men standing nearby. Avi, amidst his "piercing" pain dragged me toward them and I thought to myself that there would be a confrontation. Of course there was. (Avi is not the most discrete person I know).
It went something like this:
Religious guy: "Hi men".
Avi: "Hi, nice religious guy."
Religious guy: "Would you like to pray?"
Avi: "What for?"
Religious guy: "It is a blessing to acknowledge God."
"Will we go to heaven?", Avi asked. I saw it coming. The poor little religious guy had never met anyone like Avi before but I knew what was getting ready to happen.
"Prayer will open the gates of heaven for you," the religious guy assured him.
"Even if we're gay?" Avi asked.
SILENCE
We left.
When I asked him why he did it, Avi explained. "What ever do you mean? If he told me that God is willing to accept me, I would have joined him in prayer. However, God's angel who was asking me to pray could not answer the question."
I suddenly began to feel really weird and very uncomfortable. It wasn't that I needed divine faith or approval for who I am. It was just that too many people would not look me in the eye because of it. It was because no one was trying to bridge the gap that began thousands of years ago and is not relevant to our lives today.
People, in general, are disturbed by moral problems--not their own but those of others. I have never understood why gay marriage, domestic partnership rights or the location of gay bars bother heterosexuals since the issues do not concern them anyway. For that reason alone, one sentence from the Bible which prohibits male-male sex has validated all the crimes that have been propagated against us in the past.
A month after this incident I visited another friend, David. David was a religious Jewish gay man. I asked him how he could combine his deep faith for God with his even greater affection for other men. "It's simple", he replied. "If God didn't want gays to exist, he would not have created them. But since we are all created in the image of God, apparently He has a little gay part in Himself".
Simplistic? Perhaps it is, but this one sentence made me realize a lot about myself, my relationship to God and His nature. Many say I have taken the easy way out. I feel quite the opposite. I still struggle with the concepts of God and homosexuality but like David said-- if I was created by God, I was created in His image. And that makes it okay. Now I often wonder, superciliously, if God has a pierced right nipple.
Amos Lassen