Straight and Narrow

Two Genders. Two Sexes. Straight and nothing else. These are the binary concepts most of us have been taught. “It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Clever. But not true. Since a very young age, I have known that there were many people who were not like me, and while I made jokes (I make jokes!), it was never about hate or disgust; it was about having fun – and being ignorant. After all, you can’t tell who someone loves or what they think about themselves from the outside (unless they are wearing polyester leisure suits – that kind of self-loathing is beyond me). Unless someone is wearing a shirt with words telling me who they love, I have no idea. And it’s none of my business.

I came across an article recently about a physician named Magnus Hirschfeld, born in Germany in 1868 and considered the first modern apologist for homosexuality. He was, but he was so much more. He began researching all the things we have been discussing around gender and sexuality, and his findings were earth shaking. (The early 20th-century German trans-rights activist who transformed the world’s view of gender and sexuality). He was also Jewish, so you can only imagine the dangerous world this brave man had to live in. And yet, he spoke and wrote and researched and even was in a movie about being different. He died in 1935, just as the Nazis were gaining power and threatening to rule the world. The Nazis hated diversity, inclusion, and equity. They lived – at least, outwardly – by the straight and narrow.

Sexuality and gender are broad, and to define them as narrow is to misunderstand God’s creation. Even Jesus spoke of eunuchs.  “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.” (Matthew 19:12). Jesus’s entire ministry was about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, among other Woke concepts. Because Jesus didn’t care what you or I thought about things. Jesus cared about what was right, and He was murdered for it. Straight and narrow is fine, but it isn’t the only way to live. Being inclusive is God’s way. Equity – another word for Justice – is God’s way. Diversity is the very nature of Creation – and it is God’s way. There’s more to life than meets the eye. That’s where God is. To only believe in the straight and narrow is to miss God in the process.

Prayer – Holy God, we thank You for making such an amazing variety of humanity and all of nature. Give us the openness of heart and mind to appreciate just how amazing that is. Amen.

Today’s art is “Medallion” (1937) by Hannah Gluckstein.

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