Pastor’s Blog: All. of. us.
Please play the beautiful film above by Jenni Olson which features Harvey Milk’s own words and a beautiful recreation of his camera store.
When I march on June 12 in the Gay Pride parade in Washington, it will not be the first time I’ve marched. But it will be the first time since D.C. passed the marriage equality act and that makes it a wonderfully important moment. Clergy have been marching for a long time now for a number of causes. They were involved in the Civil Rights marches, though of course, not nearly enough were engaged and struggling for change as there should have been. They were involved in the women’s suffrage movement but not nearly as much as there should have been and in both of those movements it must be sadly stated and truthfully acknowledged that clergy were often the loudest and meanest of those who resisted human rights being accorded to African-Americans and women. That is the case today too. When you listen to who is denouncing the GLBT community, you will hear preachers and pastors. This only underlines the importance of this coming June 12 and why I’ll be marching in celebration of our GLBT brothers and sisters.
Riverside’s pastors have a history of being involved in demonstrations for human rights. Frank Foster had worked for racial concord and civil rights and was in the streets of Washington during the riots after Dr. King’s assassination. When he came to Riverside as its pastor in 1970, he insisted upon the “integration” of the church. We’ve never looked back. Frank and his wife Sarah were tragically killed in a plane he flew and crashed after an American Baptist convention in Colorado. In 1972 Robert Troutman was called as pastor of our church. He had marched in Memphis with Dr. King, was ostracized by his colleagues, disowned by the Southern Baptist officials in his city but this did not stop him from integrating Prescott Memorial Baptist Church. I met Bob in 1983 in a trip sponsored by Baptist Peace Fellowship to the Soviet Union. We went there to tell our brothers and sisters that we cared about them and knew that if there were a nuclear exchange, then more Christians than Communists would be killed. We met on that trip and sparked a friendship that eventually led to my coming to Riverside as pastor in 1992. Within the year of my coming here, we severed our ties with the Southern Baptist Convention (since D.C. Baptist Convention churches were usually dually aligned with the SBC and the American Baptists) over their oppressive policies toward women and their witch hunt of churches that were inclusive of homosexuals. Some of us organized in the 1990s and stood in the street with signs to demonstrate against the NRA and for stricter gun laws. I remember when Matthew Shepherd was brutally murdered and asked Countess to join me at the Capitol steps for a candlelight vigil that was being held in his memory. So Riverside has been an activist church.
That said, I am a Baptist who believes in the separation of Church and State. I don’t believe in publicly endorsing candidates or telling my congregants how to vote. And there are times when I demonstrate as a citizen, not as a clergyman. When President George W Bush announced that we would be invading Iraq, on the night of the televised announcement, I stood outside the White House fence and blew a rape whistle to demonstrate my opposition. But I didn’t wear a clerical collar or hold up a Riverside sign. I stood there as a citizen speaking only for myself.
I hope you’ll make an effort to join with me and Nicole Warren and other AWAB members to march on the 12th of June in the Gay Pride parade. We’ll have fun, we’ll feel strong and we’ll continue to bear witness that God’s love includes all of us. All of us. All. of. us.
I remember how when the movie MILK came out a group of us went together to watch it. What a great film and what a moving afternoon that was. Harvey Milk left a tape recording of instructions to be played in the event of his assassination. Unfortunately, that tape had to be played. In it, Harvey makes clear that he would not want any religious services and certainly not until the church had the courage to break their silence and speak out in defense of gay men and women. Harvey, a lot has changed. We are still a long way off from your dream but there is one small church on a corner in Washington DC that has broken its silence; has spoken bravely in fact; that marches and yes, marries gay couples. To be in that kind of church—interracial, inclusive and Christ centered, as we say—is a deep, deep joy. May we live, learn, wed and die together, embraced and undergirded by the promise of God in Christ that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.
Pastor Bledsoe
