Reflections on the occasion of the beating murder
of a gay man, Matthew Shepherd,
October 16, 1998 Christ Church Cathedral, the Rev. Dr. Eleanor McLaughlin
"What is to be done?" Some would say, mourn, give thanks to God for the brief life of this gentle and idealistic young man, Christian, Episcopalian, student of politics, though educated in Europe, faithful son of the West. And pray, pray for forgiveness and an end to these vicious acts of fear and retaliation against the Other, any whose way of being in the world questions what one newsman called the "masculinist" white, male dominant culture...To be gay, publicly, is to say to one and all, there are other ways to be a man, other ways to find human intimacy and love, to construct a family, other than the male=head, male=initiator, male=dominant world we all know and inhabit. Like Jesus, Matthew represented something other than the world's way of fierce, macho power-over all that is not like us.
As if to confirm this analysis, Matthew's attackers, still hot with the blood of Abel, went into town and beat up two other Others, a couple of Spanish speaking Americans, who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the public sidewalk of their hometown.
"What is to be done?" Yes, pray, as we do this afternoon, in union with the prayers of the Burial Office in St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Casper, Wyoming, Matthew's home town. But, the Gospel for Sunday, the story of the importunate widow reminds us that Christian prayer is never separate from the doing of justice. If the unjust human judge will finally respond to unceasing prayer, with the doing of justice, even more our God is a God of justice, and a God who requires of us, not only prayers, but a doing, a making right, a choosing of justice..
"What is to be done?" Some are calling for laws, more laws against crimes of hatred, more legislation to punish the guilty. That is good, may that be. But this afternoon, as a priest of the Episcopal Church, a gay woman, living in a faithful Christian union with my partner, the Vicar of a faithful and joy-filled Mission Church in South Barre, I call for something different. I ask, what is it that gives permission to the dark forces of fear and revulsion which results in these acts of violence---against the Other---Matthew Shepherd last week, and 4 months ago, James Byrd Jr., a Black man keel-hauled after a pick-up truck to a mass of unrecognizable human flesh in East Texas...What gives legitimacy to these violent acts, or the act of violence which my student Mary told me of at lunch yesterday at WSC...one of the boys in our women studies class called her under his breath, a f---ing faggot last week, in my class...and she said nothing, for she despairs, there is nothing to be done!
"What is to be done?" But to confront the easy and prevalent and hotly defended fears and exclusion which in our American culture are imbedded in and defended principally, by our Christian religion. Hate-crimes thrive in an atmosphere of religiously sanctioned judgments. It is not the violent tempered boys from the 'margins' we need to confront so much as the Trent Lotts, the Republican leadership which identifies homosexuality with crime and insanity, with the destruction of home, family and rightful male authority. "These young men could actually believe they are doing the bidding of their community" writes a student of extremism in our cultur in the today. Therefore, it is not the criminals I want to address, but the Bishops, bishops of the Anglican Communion, whose words are written all over our newspapers, "rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture, while in the next breath, calling for all to "minister pastorally and sensitively"...to those who live in their view, against the Holy Book of the community. How pastoral and sensitive was the pistol whipping of Matthew and the socially approved exclusions and abuses visited upon all who are unconsciously viewed as Other in this America...the poor, the dark skinned, the gay and lesbian. Even women and children, whose abuse and murder are reported daily in our papers are victims of the patriarchal privilege of husbands and boyfriends, the patriarchal privilege of Scripture literally read, as our Lambeth Bishops would have us do in the matters of gender authority. The Church is complicit in these crimes...conservative Christianity nurtures violence against those who challenge the authority of the Fathers...especially gays and lesbians who bend gender categories with such gay abandon!
What I can do, and what I invite you to do, is break the Silence about this Christian responsibility for violence against those we define as the Outsider--require that at the very least this my Church, and you in your Churches expose the fear and hatred of gay and lesbian people, which lie imbedded in our interpretations of Scripture, the fear and hatred of homosexuality which lie just beneath the surface of questions put to candidates for community and church leadership. We can break the Silence and demand that our bishops stand with those who voted against these fundamentalisms, these literalisms which break the necks of our sisters and brothers and violate the Great Yes of God, that Creation is Good and that all are called to Love, especially to love and learn from those who are Other than we are.
"What is to be done"? Break the silence and engage the Conflict which is inevitable as we challenge the easy placating murmers of Christian leaders and foot soldiers, frightened to follow the radical and all-inclusive love of our Blessed Lord....if there was ever a Queer Man, it is that Clown of God, Jesus of Nazareth, in whose Image Matthew was made and who now dances with his Lord!
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