More Light

I will now fill you in on everything that happened yesterday and so far today in the next few blogs:

First let me explain the ticketed events to you. Before GA, you could buy tickets to various special interest group dinners that feature a speaker and a meal. The dinners are something like $45. I was under the impression that GA would reimburse the commissioners, so I promptly signed up for about 16 of them. After this, a very unhelpful GA lady called me and said that I would never have enough time to go to all of them. Oops. So I reworked and limited them to about eight. :) Unhelpful GA lady said everything was good and that I would be reimbursed.

When I got here, I was given about six tickets. Some were missing (I think) because (as I discovered on the plane) I had signed up for some events that were at the same time. (Hey GA lady, why didn't you tell me that? And why did you take off "Hot Cakes and Hot Issues,"--that one was going to be great.) Also, as I had signed up for the events when I registered months ago and before we got our YAD schedule, I missed the first two because I had YAD events. (GA lady, I told you I was a YAD.) Also, it became clear to me that I would not be reimbursed. Sorry mom, it was GA Lady's fault.

So. I have made all these friends who didn't sign up for these dinners because someone else did their registration, etc., or only signed up for one; and our favorite pastime is meal conversations...but I leave for most of them. Super. But I'm here to learn and make friends, so, new opportunities, here I come.

So....

Saturday evening, I went to my first meal with a friend named Jay who happened to also be going to the same dinner. It was a More Light dinner.

More Light (http://www.mlp.org) is an organization in support of the full inclusion of LGBT (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender) members of the Presbyterian Church (USA). (Remember my Heath Ledger/homosexual rights campaign? It was happening right around the time Unhelpful GA Lady was unhelping me register for these dinners, which might have had an effect on the choices for dinners.) :) They have a booth in the exhibit hall where they are giving out handmade, crocheted, rainbow-colored scarves for commissioners to wear as a visual testimony. I got one the first day.

Let's review this. An eighteen-year-old girl from a town with one gay kid in her school, inviting herself to a dinner reception for the homosexual community and its friends. I have to say I had never been to anything remotely close to that dinner in my life. The closest to "gay" life I have been is the usual use of the adjective "gay" flippantly used by some of my best friends.
"I failed that test--it was so gay."
Really, friends? Must we be so insensitive?
Point is, I was ignorant and I was going to learn.

So back to the real deal; Jay and I entered from a side door, at which point I realized that none of the tickets in my hands were for a More Light dinner. Either I had nixed that one in my revised ticket purchase, or Unhelpful GA Lady was being herself again, but I went to a dinner last night without a ticket. (Does that justify missing two, mom?)

Jay didn't have a ticket either because (as I discovered as the night unfurled) his grandmother had helped organize it and about half of the people there were from his church. Jay is the YAD from the local San Jose Presbytery, and just graduated from Oberlin. (He's on my committee--Theological Issues and Institutions, too.)

So I sat down at a table in the front, not worried about not having the $45 ticket; I mean, could you find a more welcoming community?

There were four women there, one little girl, Jay's grandmother (a sweet smiling lady), and Jay.
I think that the four woman were two couples and that the little girl was their daughter. They were so nice.
Today I went to a Media Lunch (more about that later) and I will compare the two:
I actually had some connections to the people at the Media lunch. Some knew my mom, some were from my state (which is rare here), some knew my best friends. Nevertheless, I was the one who had to keep the conversation (of which there was hardly any) flowing. I came out of that lunch bored, exhausted, and irritated.
I knew absolutely nothing about any of the women at the More Light dinner. They were all West Coasters and hardly knew Pittsburgh, much less New Wilmington. Only at this dinner, they would call me by my name, ask me questions about myself, and I said goodbye to them when I had to leave early for my business meeting.

More Light was the church to me.

The speakers were great. A noteworthy and very sweet HRC (Human Rights Campaign) Leader (who I can't recall his name now) spoke and made my eyes watery. He spoke about a church he had served in with a very open homosexual organist. A man from the church had come up to the sweet HRC man and commented on how the organist was a bad example for the families in the church. Sweet HRC Man said how he knew why the man was worried, because he had met the man's son, Albert.

Months later, when he had moved to another church to serve, Sweet HRC Man got a call from the man's wife saying, "I know you just left, but we don't really know the new pastor well enough and I was wondering if you could come back to do Albert's funeral. The boy had hanged himself.

That boy was a child of God. What are we doing, Presbyterians? Why are we judging? Why? Why?

I feel so passionately that these actions are unjust. I just don't understand them. I mean, enlighten me. Sure, let’s hold people accountable. Let's help people to fight sin. But what if they just can't do that? Are we going to abandon them?

Jesus, I know from today on, for the rest of my life, I am going to sin. Are you going to abandon me? No way.

Why are we being exclusive? It's so far from what Jesus wanted us to do.

Bruce Reyes-Chow has a great way of saying about certain issues that he fully believes one thing, but understands that people who disagree truly believe that that is what God is revealing to them to be true.

So if you disagree with me, I believe that you truly believe that that is what Jesus says. I just see it more simplistically: love.

That's what we should do to everyone. No exceptions.

I have to go to a business meeting now, but more on this dinner and last night later. Enjoy all my other posts until then. :)