Christians and the ‘aliens’ among us

I do not believe the Bible should be known as the “Holy Bible.” It would be more correctly titled “The Bible, Arguments about Holy Subjects.” Some good folks who realize the Bible falls far short of “Holy,” want to throw some parts of the Bible away. They are as wrong as those who want to surround the Bible with a halo.

The Bible has dozens of writers, some known and some unknown. All had something to say about holy things that were important from their own perspective. Disagreements among Bible authors are abundant. The Bible comes truly alive when the reader joins in the arguments.

There is no greater argument in the Bible than what the people of God are to do with the “aliens” among us. During most of the years that are background for the Bible writers, tribalism was very strong. Much of the codes of ethics and morality in the Old Testament assumes tribalism and sets standards of behavior within the tribes. However, migrations were a part of life and the sons of Israel often found aliens living among them. A valid translation of the word usually translated as “aliens” can simply be “people who are not like us.” One of the great arguments of the entire Bible is our relationship with people “who are not like us.” The arguments intensified when an alien married a member of the tribe and had children.

The Prophet Jeremiah put words into the mouth of the Lord God. “If you amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly with one another, if you do not oppress the alien….then I will dwell with you….” (7:6). The Prophet Ezekiel advocated (47:22) that in the division of land the alien was to be treated exactly the same as a tribal member.

Jesus staked his whole message on the second great commandment. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” A strong case can be made for the original form of the second great commandment was “You shall love the alien as a member of your own tribe.” There are no shortage of Bible passages that say God’s people ought to isolate and kill the alien. Therein lies the greatest of all the arguments found in the Bible. What are we to do with people who are not like us?

This great debate burst into my attention fresh and new with the spring 2015, issue of The Advocate. Most of my heterosexual friends have never heard of the magazine. I became a regular reader of The Advocate many years ago when I became a friend of gay persons and an advocate for full acceptance of gay persons in our churches. I soon discovered that, contrary to public opinion, gay people were not much different from me. Our churches and government leaders made gay people different from heterosexual persons when they truly are not. Perception has won over reality. Gay people are the “aliens among us.”

I think of The Advocate as the Time magazine among gay people and their friends. Its latest edition features an extended article about Larry Kramer. Larry Kramer is one of America’s greatest writers and an unrelenting advocate for full equality for gay and lesbian people. Kramer is a novelist and has a long list of credits for plays and screen scripts. Larry Kramer is pushing into public awareness again with the publication of his latest novel, “The American People, Vol. I.” The book is now off the press and the reviewers love it. It is more than 800 pages long. It could have been much longer, but after 800 pages Kramer has not gotten past the 1950s. Vol. II is partially written, but he does not know when it will be completed. He is busy writing other things.

Needless to say, I am eager to read Vol. l. It will be an opportunity to look at American life from the perspective of one of America’s truly great writers, who happens to be a gay person and a Jew. I often mention the phenomenon of perspective. In reality, we cannot see life other than to see it from our own unique perspective. I offer one example. The interviewer for the Advocate article asked “What president would you single out as the worst in U.S. history?” Kramer answered “Reagan, hands down, no contest. What with his being responsible for not attending to gays and AIDS death, he was responsible for killing more people than Hitler or Stalin.”

Is this an overstatement, or is it a truth that must confront us all? I suspect the legal acceptance of marriage of two persons of the same sexual orientation is a minor point in the process of America’s argument about full acceptance of people who are perceived to be aliens among us. Prejudice against gay people is alive and well in America and especially in American churches.

The decision of churches to reject the aliens among us is especially painful to me. The rejection of the alien by the non-religious is troublesome, but I can ask no more for them than justice under the laws of the land. But churches are made up of my brothers and sisters in Christ. They not only side-step Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they run roughshod over Christ himself.

About 18 years ago, after the publication of my book, “Pastor, I Am Gay,” I was the subject of an ugly cartoon on the editorial page of our local newspaper. I find comfort with people like Kramer and Jesus.