Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 14:22:28 -0500 (CDT) From: community Subject: Middle Tennessee State University THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARS IN THE NOVEMBER 28 EDITION OF xenogeny (xenogenyx@aol.com), ONE OF NASHVILLE'S LGBT NEWSPAPERS. For information on the Uniform Equality Committee and its efforts see http://www.mtst.edu/~mtlambda/uec.html This peice was written by Michael Grantham (grantham@knuth.mtsu.edu). It isn't easy to see how deep a national crisis permeates our local communinities when its relevance doesn't directly touch our lives. When we consciously distance ourselves from taking part in solving local problems it becomes even harder. Although local involvement does more than make one feel like part of the solution, its sometimes difficult to tackle issues here and now when sacrifice calls for, well - sacrifice. With a history of its own for centuries of shaping world attitudes and politics, Christianity in its modern Western Protestant context serves as an unfortunate taboo within the LGBT community. Breaking this taboo before religion cashes in on our ineptness to respond gives us victories recently experienced in Maine. The rhetoric of intolerance toward "homosexuality" is often successfully sold and packaged along with salvation. Why are so many reluctant to educate people that intolerance does not have to be accepted in this deal? On a November 12 trip to Christian Life Church in Murfreesboro, TN, an old answer sprang from a new issue. The experience I went through expressed a classic symptom of a church at odds with the basic tenets claimed to be held and acted upon. It was also a wake up call for change. The week before, WPLN aired a peice on a controversial play called "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames." The play travels a circuit of predominately Protestant "venues" selling VHS tapes, cassettes, and t-shirts to fund "the spread of the word of God." Scenes from the play feature emotional appeals from children who die and go to hell, forever losing the comforting presence of their mommy and daddy, unless the parents themselves were bringing up the back of the train. The play focuses on a number of cases where each character is living a day in their lives. As each dies they appear before the Book of Life where Jesus or Satan claims the eternal soul of the character caught center stage to something obviously bigger than the play itself. Besides hammering home a fire-and-brimstone element of traditional Southern Preaching, "Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames" was reported to contain scenes promoting old world veiws on the fate of homosexuals and a less than glossed over New World compassion for people with AIDS. Characters portraying both were sent to hell for their circumstances as Satan quotes scriptures sarcastically and then reassures them of their fate after all is said and done. Surprisingly enough, the play that travels internationally came home to Tennessee at Christian Life Church. November 12 was the first showing of 3 performances. Admission was free and I was there. Arriving some 10 minutes early, I sat in a crowd of 400...close to the rear exit. My plan to distribute some 150 pamphlets during the play's more controversial scenes justified my choice of seating. The pamphlet had "GOD IS LOVE" on the outside and on the inside said "The message and true word of God is simple. It is of Love! It is only when the words of man complicate things that HATE enters the equation. When you leave here tonight explore the possiblity that we all fall short of other's expectations. If the expectations of others were the judge of our lives as human beings, wouldn't we all be damning ourselves? Let no one judge another! GOD IS LOVE!" Across the bottom of the pamphlet was written, "wommen - men - blacks - whites - jews - muslims - homosexuals - heterosexuals are all the fabric of God's creation. Will you judge the work of God?" As I would soon find out, this must have been radical news to a few individuals who seemed to abandon truth and tolernace under years of hate filled training. Before the play began, the double door entrance was closed and made a locking sound. We were told to exit through a single rear door if we became "scared." Needless to say I remained throughout but could see why some kids would have to leave. Satan's voice was digitally synthesized to match our imagination's best version of the "eternal tormentor," and the lighting effects televised fear to a literally captive audience. The scenes directed toward the LGBT community and people with AIDS did not take place. As the play ended, a minister made a plea for those wanting salvation from the hell that now had their hearts racing. As 30 or so approached the stage I walked to the rear exit where an attendant would not let me exit. He claimed that the producer of the play didn't want anyone to leave and that the door was suppose to stay shut. After repeating my intent to leave (with a smile, ofcourse), he conceded and moved as I opened the door. Once outside I made a phone call and decided to place the pamphlets onto the cars that were also sharing a parking lot for Campus Twin Cinema. When I saw a lot attendant I approached him and showed him what I was doing. He then darted into the church and came out with four other men. Three men tried to take all the pamphlets off of the cars before people began to filter out of the confines of the church. One man grabbed me by the arm and "escorted" me to the Twin Cinemas. After telling me to leave, I told him he should think about what he was doing. I walked back to the church under shouts for someone to call the police. From my perspective the only disturbance made was by five men who didn't want other church goers to take my pamphlets. Yeilding to occasional beligerance, I met what I expected with a calm, yet assertive message. As I was pulled from one end of the parking lot to the middle I couldn't help to compare their questions and actions to stories some 2000 years old. "What spiritual authority are you under? I mean what church? What are you trying to say with this? Who wrote this? Are you saying God loves homosexuals or God created homosexuals?" Gandhi once said, "We must become the change we wish to see in the world." Sharing the knowledge that we are people is resource enough in fighting for the good of all. We can give that knowledge a voice by becoming involved with local causes. Where else but here? What other time but now?