Saturday dawned bright and sunny. Despite an early morning chill, the sun had chased the chill away by the time late morning rolled around. The weather was decidedly warm, at least for the latter half of October. Warm enough that Alex shed his sweatshirt and was now sporting one of his favorite t-shirts, the one he got from Sun Records a couple years back when work had taken him to Memphis. ‘This t-shirt is mostly black,’ he thought. ‘I hope I don’t get too hot. Maybe I should’ve worn a lighter colored shirt.’
When Alex had told his friends at Peace Tree about Autumn Pride, he left out the part that (for two hours) he would be manning a booth for his church. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church had had a booth at the festival for several years. It wasn’t the only church at the festival, either. Both Ankeny Congregational United Church of Christ and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church had booths set up as well.
Jesse’s venomous response to the mention of religion had really bothered Alex. There was more to the story, of that Alex was certain. Alex had really hoped that Jesse would come to the festival. He thought he might surprise Jesse and let him know that some Christians are inclusive of everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. However, Jesse had texted him that morning that he was feeling under the weather so probably wouldn’t attend.
Alex had fun talking to several people who stopped at the Holy Trinity booth. So far, both Matt and Ian had stopped by to say hello. He saw Kevin but hadn’t had an opportunity to speak with him. A few more members of the group had said that they’d attend, so he hoped to see them as well.
There were some antics between the three church booths, which were set up next to one another. The teasing was all good fun, though. In fact, the congregations got along quite well. When Ankeny Congregational’s pastor fell and broke his leg late on a Saturday night the year prior, the members of his flock were redirected to Holy Trinity on Sunday morning.
The churches worked in tandem with one another when it came to social outreach, as well. Weekly meals for the underprivileged were rotated between the three congregations. The city’s food pantry and personal essentials pantry, which provided things like toothpaste, toothbrushes, and soap, were both hosted at Holy Trinity, which was the largest of the congregations. St. Paul housed a pantry which provided items needed by families with young children, such as formula, clothes, diapers, and wipes. The churches also had a monthly “noisy offering” where change was collected so people could pay to wash and dry their clothes at one of the local laundromats.
Alex had always believed strongly in the “social gospel.” Church was supposed to be more than just one hour of worship on Sunday morning. The work of the church was something to be carried out daily. Yet Alex often felt like he didn’t contribute. He supported the work of the three churches monetarily, but otherwise he had done little to act on his faith. It had been difficult to participate, after all. The pantries were only open during the day when he was working. Helping with meals was something else he’d not been able to assist with frequently. He was out of town so often; he couldn’t reliably be available to help with different missions of his church. All of this contributed to a feeling of guilt. So, when a one-off event like manning a booth at Autumn Pride came along, he raised his hand.
Sure, it made sense that a gay person would assist at Autumn Pride. But that wasn’t the reason he was there. Alex was only out to his new friends. He reasoned that his identity wasn’t germane to most others. He wasn’t hiding, of course, but by the same token he didn’t feel it was necessary to shout this fact from the rooftops. After all, that was just one small part of who he was. If it would come up in conversation, or if he was asked outright, he certainly would be honest about his identity. But until that happened, or unless there was some reason to discuss his identity with other people, he wasn’t going to go out of his way to let everyone know.
Despite the glorious autumn weather, the festival started off slowly. There were not as many people as in past years, which was somewhat disappointing. Of course, it didn’t help that the band that was supposed to play throughout the festival had to cancel at the last minute. Apparently, the festival organizers had scrambled and got somebody who played acoustic guitar and sang as a replacement act. But he wasn’t even going to get there until sometime after two o’clock. The festival only went until four.
Alex was happy when he saw Andrew and Robbie. At 27 and 20, respectively, they were some of the youngest members of the group. However, they also seemed to be some of the most welcoming. Despite the age difference, Alex wanted to get to know them better. ‘I guess that’s par for the course for me,’ thought Alex, ‘just one more case of fitting in better with the millennials and…holy shit, Robbie is so young, I don’t think he’s even a millennial!’
“Hey, Alex, I didn’t know you were going to be working here today!” shouted Andrew. Alex greeted the two with a smile and fist-bumps.
“So, are you like a pastor?” asked Robbie as he slipped his hand into Andrew’s after bumping Alex’s fist.
‘They are so cute together,’ thought Alex.
Alex explained that, no, he was a member of the church but wasn’t the pastor.
“Oh, okay,” said Robbie. “I guess I thought only a pastor would be at a church booth.”
‘What?’ thought Alex. ‘Man, this kid is…well, in the words of Archie Bunker, a ‘dingbat.’’’ Alex mentally chastised himself. ‘It’s very improper for me to think of him as a kid, just because he’s so much younger than me. And dingbat isn’t a nice thing to say, either. The ditziness adds to his charm, though. It’s impossible to not like Robbie.’
“Hey, Alex, are you there?” asked Andrew.
“Oh,” replied Alex, “just a brain fart, I guess. So, are you guys…”
Alex was interrupted by a sudden, loud noise. They and the other festival goers turned around to see what the commotion was all about. The loud noise had come from a young man, perhaps in his early twenties, extremely tall and thin with a shock of unkempt brown hair. He was standing on the sidewalk adjacent to SE Peterson Drive near the main entrance to the park, still several hundred feet from where the booths were set up. He was shouting through a bullhorn that was connected to an amplifier he carried in his right hand. ‘This isn’t the acoustic guitar guy, is it?’ thought Alex. ‘Is he even part of the festival? What is he trying to say?’
Initially, the amplifier was turned so high, that his words were garbled. The young man apparently realized this, as he stopped briefly, set the amplifier down on the ground and made an adjustment to one of the dials atop the box. When he stood and began speaking again, his words were much clearer.
“Sinners, you must repent! Homosexuality is a sin against the almighty God! Now is the time to turn from your sin and return to the ways of God. If you do not, you will be condemned to the flames of hell for all eternity!”
Initially, the festival attendees were confused. Some even thought that the turn of events was funny. But once the young man’s words became clear, some began to yell back at him. Then three men left the area where the festival booths were located and began to walk towards the young man. Fortunately, several police officers were present. Other festivalgoers followed the three men, but it was clear to the police officers that they were there primarily out of curiosity. Three officers stepped between the man with the bullhorn and the men who looked like they might do him harm. The man with the bullhorn seemed completely unfazed. He continued his “preaching” without missing a beat.
Once the police had calmed the festivalgoers down, one of the officers approached the itinerant preacher. “Sir…sir, I am afraid you will need to stop using the bullhorn.”
Finally, the young preacher seemed to become aware of those around him. He was silent for a few seconds, then said to the officer, “I am doing nothing wrong, officer. I have a right to free speech.”
“Yes, you do have a right to free speech,” the officer said. “However, you do not have a right to use an amplifier to do so. There’s an ordinance in this city which requires a permit before an amplifier can be used in a public place.”
“I don’t believe you. You just want me to stop. You’re on,” he sneered, “their side.”
“Well, you best start believing, or we’ll be taking a trip to the police station.”
The young preacher, however, stood his ground. He was quiet for several seconds, seemingly contemplating his next move, then raised his bullhorn to his mouth once again.
“Satan is alive and walks amongst us! He does not want the words of salvation preached! He…”
“Sir, you must stop using the amplifier. I really don’t want to arrest you, but I won’t warn you again.”
“He comes as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour! Repent of the sin of homosexuality!”
The officer had his hand on his cuffs, ready to make an arrest, but another officer stopped him and attempted to reason with the man.
“Time out! Sir, please, would you put down the bullhorn and amplifier?” The young man complied. “Please, sir, please sit down at this picnic table. We all need you to calm down.” Again, he complied, pulling a small Bible out of his back pocket before sitting. One of the officers moved the bullhorn and amplifier to another picnic table nearby. The young preacher again pushed his hair out of his eyes.
Once things had settled down, most of the festival attendees lost interest and returned to what they were doing prior to the interruption. Alex, too, had gone with the others to see what was causing the commotion. However, he was somewhat curious what would happen next and did not head back to the Holy Trinity booth. It was after two o’clock, anyway. His shift was over.
After thinking over what he wanted to do, he approached the picnic table and the itinerant preacher. One of the police officers moved to stop him, but Alex calmly said to the officer, “I mean him no harm. I would just like to talk with him for a few minutes.”
The officer hesitated, thinking over how she should proceed. Alex was sure she would prevent him from sitting. He was surprised, however, when she motioned for him to sit. She and another officer remained close by, however.
Alex sat down at the table, opposite the young man. He turned his head and stared off into the distance to avoid looking at Alex. Both were quiet for more than a minute. Unsure about what he was going to say, Alex used the time to both collect his thoughts and calm himself. This was certainly nothing he’d ever done before.
Alex finally spoke. “Friend, tell me, what are you hoping to accomplish here?”
The young man responded softly but continued to stare elsewhere. “I am here because of the sin, the plague of homosexuality.” He finally turned back to face Alex, a look of determination on his face. “I am here to warn the sinners at this festival that they must repent. They must reject the sin of homosexuality. There is still time, but they must act soon before it is too late.” Both were silent for some time. The man brushed his hair off his face.
Again, Alex broke the silence. “I am not a Bible scholar. I am sure you know more than me about the holy scriptures, so please don’t hold it against me if I bungle what I want to say. There are a few passages in the Old Testament which seem, at first blush, to describe the sin of homosexuality. Certainly, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah seems to fit the bill, does it not? If I recall correctly, two men, who were really angels in disguise, travel to Sodom. Lot offers them hospitality – he offers his own home to them for a place to sleep, right? But then all the men of Sodom come and bang on the door and demand that Lot hand the two strangers over to them so they could rape them. Sounds awful, doesn’t it?” The man vigorously nodded his head in agreement.
“Well, you know what Lot did, right? Something that was truly horrific. He said to the men, ‘I’ve got two daughters, both of whom are virgins. If you leave the two men alone, I’ll give my daughters to you to do with as you wish.’ Now, I’ve got a big problem with that, but that’s a discussion for another day.
“Depending on who you believe, between five and ten percent of the population is queer. I’m using that term because it includes not just gay, but also bisexual, non-binary, and all the rest. Well, if no more than ten percent of the population of Sodom was queer, why were all the men in town wanting to have sex with these strangers? Genesis is very clear that it was all the men, young and old. I find that interesting. Also, Lot offered his daughters in place of the men. You’d think that at least 90 percent of the men would be happy with that, wouldn’t you? I mean, straight guys would rather than be with women than men, right?
“So, when do straight men have sex with other men? I can think of two situations where that is the case. Well, three if you count curiosity, but I think we can throw that reason out, because I’m certain all the men in Sodom didn’t become curious about gay sex at the same time.
“The first situation is when women aren’t available. You know how they say, ‘don’t drop the soap in the shower’ when you’re in prison? Well, when men go without sex with a woman, many will turn to the next best thing. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? We know that wasn’t the case in Sodom, though. I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m pretty sure Sodom wasn’t populated only by men. Even if there weren’t any other women available, Lot had just offered up his two virgin daughters.
“The only other situation I can think of where a heterosexual man is willing to have sex with another man is when a man, or men, want to exert power over another man. One particularly cruel and affective way to do that is through rape. I don’t think any of those things are disputed. But in both cases, it’s an example of, to put it very plainly, straight men going gay.
“Now, before those angels disguised as men went to Sodom, they stopped to see Abraham. Abraham, like Lot, was very hospitable. Fed the men and offered them shelter. The men in Sodom, however, were not hospitable. After all, they wanted to rape the two men! That’s not terribly hospitable, now, is it?”
Though Alex had intended the question to be rhetorical, the young man finally spoke. “No, it isn’t hospitable. But it was still gay sex they were after. What about Leviticus? Leviticus tells us that homosexuality is a sin!”
“Okay,” replied Alex, “Let me ask you this. Have you ever eaten bacon? Because if you have, you have sinned against God. Leviticus has very specific guidelines regarding what people can and cannot eat. According to Leviticus, Israelites were forbidden from eating any animal that does not have a cloven hoof and which also chews its cud. A pig has a cloven hoof but doesn’t chew its cud. Eating bacon, therefore, is a sin against God.
“Please help me to understand,” continued Alex, “because I really do want to understand. Why, of all the things listed in Leviticus, have you and so many other Christians latched onto homosexuality? Leviticus also says eating shellfish is a sin. Why do you feel a need to preach to sinners at a Pride event, but not to the sinners going to eat at Red Lobster?”
The young man remained quiet. Alex continued, “Let’s fast forward to the New Testament. Didn’t God come to, I think it was Peter, in a dream? In the dream, God showed Peter a sheet covered with a whole bunch of animals, including both ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ animals. ‘Unclean’ animals, of course, are the ones forbidden in the Book of Leviticus to be eaten. Yet God told Peter he could eat any of them. Peter refused, because, according to Leviticus, some of the animals were unclean. And what did God say? ‘I have made these animals clean’. In other words, the Old Testament laws were for the Jews of the Old Testament. But when God sent his son to earth, he fulfilled the law found in the Old Testament. So those Old Testament laws? They no longer apply!”
The young man interrupted. “Well, even if we disregard the Old Testament, Paul makes it very clear in the New Testament that homosexuality is wrong.”
“Don’t you think that we need to look at scripture through the lens of the twenty-first century, and realize things that weren’t okay at the time of Jesus are okay now? And vice versa?”
“Absolutely not. God’s word is infallible, and his commands then are just as valid now.”
“Really?” replied Alex, as he pulled out his phone. He quickly found the app he was looking for and began to search.
The young man gave Alex a quizzical look. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I see you’re carrying around a pocket Bible. You may think of me as a godless sinner, but I never go anywhere without my Bible, either. Aren’t smart phones wonderful? An entire Bible, right here on my phone. I just want to read you a passage from the New Testament.”
A few seconds later, Alex found what he was looking for. “Here we go. In Paul’s first letter to Peter, one passage says, ‘Slaves, take orders from your masters with all respect, not only if they are good and gentle, but even if they are bad-humored.’ So, since this is in the New Testament, you must be cool with slavery.”
“Well, no, but…”
“This is one of the passages slave owners in the American south used to justify slavery. It’s in the Bible, after all, and it doesn’t expressly say ‘don’t enslave people.’ In fact, it certainly implies that one person owning another person is okay. Therefore, God must be down with slavery, and we should be, too.”
“Of course, slavery is wrong...”
“So, you do think that our understanding of the world around us, and our understanding of right and wrong, has changed over the past 2000 years? So maybe the way things worked, the attitudes of people, and the way people related to one another in Jesus’s day were totally different than now? Slavery was pretty much accepted by everyone back in the time of Jesus. It was still accepted in half of this country in the mid-1800s. Nowadays, though, I think pretty much everyone agrees that slavery isn’t acceptable.”
The young man silently stared at Alex; anger evident in his eyes. Alex knew he was spinning his wheels with the preacher, so decided he needed to take a different approach.
“Okay, look, I know I’m not going to change your mind today about homosexuality any more than you’re going to change mine. But I do want to see if we can agree on one thing. You’ve heard of the Golden Rule, right?”
The young man nodded.
“It was a command of Jesus, given in the Sermon on the Mount. To paraphrase, it says, ‘do unto others as you would like to have them do unto you.’ Or more simply, treat everyone the way you’d like to be treated, right? We agree that this is a command of Jesus. It’s what he wants us to do, right?”
The young man nodded again; his anger now replaced by curiosity. He brushed his unruly hair back from his eyes.
“Okay. Would you like it if I came to your, I don’t know, next church pig roast, let’s say, and I pulled out a megaphone and an amplifier and started preaching about how you were all sinners for eating pulled pork sandwiches and needed to repent or be damned to hell for eternity? You wouldn’t like it, would you?”
“No, but…”
“No! There is no, ‘no, but!’ Jesus never said, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, except if they’re gay.’ The Sermon on the Mount gave no exceptions. You are to treat others with respect, even if you don’t agree with them.”
The curiosity that had been present in the young man’s eyes was again replaced by anger. He rose from the picnic table. “I’ve had enough of this,” he muttered. He grabbed the bullhorn off the nearby picnic table with his left hand, switched the amplifier on, then picked up the megaphone with his right.
Alex had only managed to say, “No, please don’t do that…” before the young man again began his homophobic preaching. “God demands that you live a chaste and decent life. Homosexuality has no place in God’s plan! You must turn away from your sinful ways before it’s…”
At this point, the young man was forced to stop by the two police officers who had remained standing nearby. One officer took the megaphone and amplifier from him, saying, “You were warned…”
Once the young man’s hands were free, the other officer pulled them behind his back. His hands were fastened with a zip tie as the officer began reading him his rights. The officer then walked the man to a nearby police car and placed him in the back seat. Alex stood aside as he quietly watched as the arrest unfolded, which only took a matter of seconds. Some of the festivalgoers who’d been nearby when the preaching started up again began to cheer.
Alex, who’d risen from the picnic table when the police officers had put a stop to the young man’s preaching, turned to those cheering and said, “Please stop. This is nothing to be happy about. There were no winners here today. Only losers.”
Once the police car had left the scene, only a minute or so later, the crowd who’d observed the arrest turned back towards the festival. Alex noticed that the guy with the acoustic guitar was just setting up on the small stage. Andrew and Robbie, who had been nearby watching with curiosity as Alex talked with the young man with the bullhorn, approached Alex. Andrew set his hand on Alex’s shoulder and said, “We heard some of what you said to that guy. You tried, mate. You tried.”
Alex put his hand briefly over Andrew’s as he turned toward him, a sad smile on his face. “Thanks, Andrew.”
Alex turned back toward the road. The police car was now out of sight. After staring at the road for several seconds, Alex once again turned towards Andrew and Robbie. “I’ve got something I need to do. Are you going to be here awhile? I’d like to see you guys when I get back, though I don’t know how long I’ll be.”
“Uh, sure. We’ll be here awhile yet. If you’re not back by the time the festival is over, just give me or Robbie a call or text, okay?”
Alex nodded, then walked towards his car.
-----
The door to the police department’s small, utilitarian lobby opened. The tall, skinny young man stepped through the door, which was promptly shut behind him by a police officer. Once in the lobby, he stood still, holding his bullhorn in one hand and his amplifier in the other. His pocket Bible had been stuffed into his back pocket. Confused, he looked at Alex, who had risen from the metal bench, nodded to the young man, and simply said, “Let’s go.” The young man remained rooted to the same spot, however, giving Alex a look of utter confusion. Alex motioned to the man with his hand and said, “C’mon, let’s go.”
Alex walked to the door. Completely unsure of what was going on, the young man ultimately decided to follow. Once outside, Alex pointed to his car in the small parking lot. Alex unlocked the doors, then took the bullhorn and amplifier from the man and placed them in the trunk. He motioned for the young man to sit in the passenger’s seat.
The young man finally spoke as Alex started the car. “They told me someone was here to pick me up. I had no idea who it could be because I didn’t think anyone who would care knew I was at the park. I don’t have a mobile phone to call anyone with, either.”
Alex turned his head towards the young man. In response, he said, “I thought the cops had to give you one phone call when you got arrested!” His attempt to lighten the mood seemed to have no effect on the young man. “Seriously,” Alex continued, “I figured you’d need a ride to your car. It’s got to be at least three miles from here.”
“Why did you come to pick me up?”
“Well,” said Alex, “remember how we were talking about the Golden Rule before you were arrested?”
The man nodded.
“I had just made a big deal about treating others like you’d want to be treated. When I saw them putting you in the police car, I realized that if I’d gotten arrested, I’d like someone to pick me up when the ordeal was over. I would’ve been a total hypocrite if I didn’t treat you like I’d wanted to be treated.”
Another nod from the young man, who was otherwise silent.
Alex laughed. “I’m just glad that they didn’t require posting bail.” He shifted the car into drive and pulled out of the police station parking lot.
“So,” continued Alex, “have you ever been arrested before?” The man shook his head no. He again pushed the unruly hair from his eyes.
“Me either,” responded Alex. “Though I have ridden in the back of a police car.”
“Why on earth would you’ve ridden in a police car if you weren’t under arrest?”
Alex laughed again. “Well, last December I was driving down the Interstate a little northeast of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It was early evening, but it was already dark. I didn’t even have time to react when a deer suddenly appeared in front of me. Fortunately, the airbags didn’t deploy when I hit him. However, my rental car wasn’t drivable. I called 911. The tow truck was there within no more than four minutes. It didn’t take the driver long to load the car on the flatbed. He said not to worry that the cop hadn’t shown up yet. He drove me to the auto body place and was nearly done unloading the damaged car when the cop pulled into the yard. They talked a bit, and then the cop offered to drive me to the Harrisburg Airport, which fortunately was not too far away, to pick up a new rental car.”
The man again simply nodded in understanding.
“You know, I don’t even know your name,” commented Alex.
“John,” said the young man.
“Well, John, I’m Alex, and I am pleased to meet you, though it could’ve been under better circumstances.” After a moment’s silence, Alex asked, “What did you have to do once you got to the station?”
“I got fingerprinted and had my photo taken. Otherwise, I just sat around until they said I could go. I guess it was pretty simple, since the punishment is only a fine.”
Alex nodded in understanding, before saying, “We’re getting close to the park. Where did you leave your car?”
John gave Alex directions, then remained quiet. A moment later, Alex spoke again. “Please don’t feel obligated, I am not trying to convert you or anything. But I’d like to invite you to my church. Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, tomorrow, or any Sunday, really. Services are at 8:00 and 10:30 am.” He then added, “I’d just like you to see church from a different point of view. Not like I’ve got all the answers, Lord knows I don’t. And it’s not like my church is perfect, either. But I do like it. It truly is my spiritual home. I’d like you to see what it’s like, too. But like I said, no pressure.”
After another brief silence, Alex added, “Part of our mission statement is that we accept others unconditionally. In other words, you’re always welcome. Everyone is welcome.”
The festival was winding down when Alex returned to the park. He parked his car, then walked to the Holy Trinity booth. Someone from the St. Paul’s booth tossed a water balloon into the Ankeny Congregational booth, but it landed on the ground without rupturing. Nobody in the Ankeny Congregational booth even noticed. He was happy to see that the good-natured teasing between the three church booths was continuing, even as the booths were being disassembled and packed away. When Pastor Catriona saw Alex, she smiled, stepped away from the booth, and put her arm around Alex’s waist. She was a tiny woman, only a little more than five feet tall. She guided him a few steps from the booth before stopping.
“What on earth happened back there?” she asked. Alex gave a brief synopsis of his discussion with John, the arrest, and his retrieval of John from the police station. He ended with the invitation to church that he’d extended to John.
“Alex, I think you get a gold star for today!” replied Pastor Catriona. She continued, “It’s so very hard to try to talk about things like you did with John. Change is hard for people, especially when it’s something that you’ve been indoctrinated with all your life. Conversations like the one you had today generally only result in people talking past one another. But picking him up from the police station, and then inviting him to church, well, that is going to stick with him a lot longer than anything you said to him at the picnic table.”
As Pastor Catriona and Alex finished their discussion, he looked up to see Andrew and Robbie standing quietly a short distance away, holding hands, waiting patiently until his conversation with Pastor Catriona ended. “Hey, Pastor Catriona, I’d like you to meet two new friends of mine!”
After a brief chat, Pastor Catriona excused herself and returned to the remains of the booth, which was now little more than a table, two folding chairs, and a box of pamphlets. Andrew asked, “What on earth happened with the preacher guy?”
Alex replied, “I know it’s early, but I’m taking you two out to dinner. How does Texas Roadhouse sound? Let’s get some grub, and I’ll tell you all about it.”
Posted 11 December 2024