ALL means ALL!

I recently saw an article of clothing worn by an older gentleman that read “I miss the America I grew up in.”

And since I am not the kind to be confrontational, especially to strangers, I did not ask what America he misses.

Does he miss the America where women were not able to open a credit card in their own name? Or perhaps the one where it was the husband’s right to force his wife into doing “her wifely duty” without repercussion? Or likewise, the one where it was also the woman’s right to also force her husband into doing “his husbandly duty”?

Does he miss the America where people traded postcards of lynchings of African Americans that happened well into the 1970s and made a celebration out of terrorizing others? Or the one where it was difficult for any person of color to hold any position of power?

Does he miss the America where it was okay to institutionalize, sterilize or even kill those who didn’t fit the societal norms, be it because of a disability, mental illness or sexual orientation? Or the one that made consenting acts between two people of the same sex a crime in many states?

Does he miss the America where children were beaten in schools for simply using their left hand to write?

On the other hand, I also heard a man from about the same generation and presumably same kind of income class speak out the other day about how proud he was to see how far we as a society had come. People are no longer afraid to live their lives, be it because of their origins, their sexual orientation, their disability, the divergency of their neurons, or their abilities to do good. Diversity is more embraced in the world and there is hope for the future, he said. He was happy to be in a society where no matter what, all can be welcome.

Some often long for things to remain familiar and known to them, ideals to hold up over their heads until all they remember is the shine. But if one were to look closely, that shine has some tarnish. The gilding has come off. The luster has dulled. And those lofty ideals they hold so dear are unattainable and even made-up fairy tales. Yet those that clutch to them use them to shun anyone who might be different than they are.

But there are others who look towards the future and dream of a hopeful place where no matter what, people are welcomed. The world is a panoply to embrace, not a place to shun others.

Church should be that way too.

In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot entertains angels without even realizing it (like many people have). He offers hospitality and safety to two men, knowing that should they have stayed in the city square where they had intended, they would be brutalized as the sun went down. Later, those cities were destroyed, but because of his deed, Lot and his family were spared.

But the reason that those cities were destroyed was not for the reason that some Bible thumpers fan-fictionalized it to be, but rather because the inhabitants were not welcoming and accepting of all. They ignored the downtrodden. They persecuted the orphans and the widows. They brutalized the immigrants and travelers. They were hostile to those they were instructed to love. They clung to their power with twisted terrors, rendering all those they deemed as “others” to remain marginalized. And those extremes remain evident even today in many places.

Church should be a place where we practice how to be in the world, not complain about who is in it.

~ a ten-year-old child at Mosaic UMC Church, Wilmington, N.C. (source)

We are called to be in the world, but not of the world. But I offer this…. we who are called by Christ are instructed to love as we have been loved by him. We have been instructed not to judge those who are “otherly,” but embrace them. Even Judas ate at Christ’s table on the night that the table became the center point of the faith. So why are people being excluded from it today, be it because of sexual orientation, ethnic origin, neurodiversity, perceived disability, marital status, or any of the other-isms that keep them shut out?

I don’t know about you, but I love the America of today, the one where the up and coming generation is more accepting of those from all kinds of backgrounds…. the one where people of all walks of life are embracing each other and learning we all have common ground. The one where we see issues in the world and speak up to fix them, making the ideal we cling to shine even more brightly in the face of adversity.

Why keep the magic of the hope, the love, the light, the peace, the joy only for ourselves? Why cling to tarnish and fear? Go out and spread the good news…. that the love we know is the love that states that ALL are welcome in gracious hospitality. All are loved. And no one is shunned.

ALL MEANS ALL.

Stay magical.

Write your own story.

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