Dailykos has been filled with diaries about Rick Warren and the queer community. Forgive me for adding onto this pile, but I wouldn't write this if I didn't think that that I had something important to say.
Anger can be a helpful and protective response to wrongdoing, but anger can also be an obstacle. Personally, I have been pondering how my anger and the anger of my fellow members of the queer community could be directed and used so that it is helpful, so that my anger can be used to further the queer rights movement. Today, I came across some writings about and by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and I was struck by his words. I propose that the Warren controversy represents an opportunity for the queer community to reflect on it's goals and purposes, learn from civil rights victories in the past, and move forward with a renewed perspective on how to make our goals reality.
As many people have discussed both on this website and on others, President-elect Obama's invitation to Rev. Rick Warren has set off a wave of anger and outrage, particularly in the gay community, and the energy and groundswell for these feelings stems greatly from Proposition 8 and Warren's support for and involvement in passing that anti-queer proposal. The LGBTQ citizens of America are feeling acutely attacked, marginalized, and dehumanized. Given this context, it is not surprising that Obama's invitation to Warren set of a firestorm of controversy. Anger, hurt, and resentment are all understandable and predictable reactions, and, if I might say so, healthy reactions.
In a sermon that Dr. King wrote while jailed for civil disobedience and delivered in 1957, the Reverend admonishes civil rights workers to turn toward love and forgiveness in order to deal with the hatred and violence they experienced. The entire sermon can be found here, and I highly recommend reading every word. In this space I want to place merely a few words:
A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.
I find it highly improbable that President-elect Obama would be unfamiliar with the philosophies and teachings of Dr. King, but whether his decision to invite Rev. Warren arises from political game-playing or from an understanding of the power of love and forgiveness, I would argue that the most effective way for the queer community to respond is the same for both cases.
I came to this conclusion after, among other things, considering the right-wing Evangelical response to Rick Warren accepting Obama's invitation. Rick Warren has been facing criticism for 'working with the enemy,' so to speak. From some Evangelicals' point of view, co-operation and general nice-making with a high-profile pro-choice individual like Obama amounts to betrayal. Clearly emotions are running high on both sides.
So what is the effective response? Love and forgiveness. To all those Americans whom we see as hate-mongers we must say, "I respect your beliefs and I respect your right to hold those beliefs, but I disagree that those beliefs should be expressed in such a hateful way." We must say, "I forgive you for the anger and hurt that your words and actions have caused. I do not condone them, but I forgive them." We must say, "Your animosity is misplaced. I do not hate you; I love you. I do not wish for harm to come upon you; I wish for you to live a life of joy. It is my hope that you can receive this love and let it open your heart."
Let me clear: anti-queer acts and words are hate. Such acts are not excusable, but they are forgivable. If we approach those who wish to do us harm with an attitude of love, we can create the positive change that hate is powerless to effect. I believe that we can see the beginning of this positive change in the way that Warren has been pressured to proclaim his love and acceptance of gay people. His words are not enough, but they are a beginning.
We must not let our anger and hurt cloud our eyes and block us from our goals. We must speak out against hate and the abuse of our civil rights, but we should do so from a place of love, not hate.
To our most bitter opponents we say: "We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."