Prayers for Bobby - Leroy Aarons [45]
She made a second appointment with Whitsell, and a third. Then she agreed to come to a service.
The experience animated her, giving her permission to question the infallibility of Scripture. Consider this, she thought: these men, these prophets, Moses and the rest of them quoted in the Bible, were intermediaries. The prophets were not God; they were ordinary people who merely lived in a different time and place.
For example, she thought, nobody takes Deuteronomy 22:18 seriously today. No one in his right mind would condone stoning a rebellious child to death. There were other biblical admonitions honored totally in the breach these days: that lepers wear torn clothing and cry out, “Unclean, unclean!”; that adultery with a neighbor’s wife be punished by death; that having intercourse with a menstruating woman be a capital offense; that no clothing of mixed fibers be worn; that bastards not be allowed in the synagogue; that a brother marry the wife of his dead sibling.
So the church no longer recognized many things as being sinful or worthy of death. Why, then, wouldn’t her son’s homosexuality be among them? True, the Bible declares the death penalty for “men lying with men.” But she could see Moses instituting such a law in the name of procreation—to get the Jewish nation to grow. If one were to examine the Bible in the context of the period in which it was written, as a document authored by humans interpreting God’s will, that left room for error. How much did Moses really know about human sexuality?
This was exciting—and scary. She was moving very fast. One Sunday, Joy drove Mary to MCC services and waited for her outside. A gay church held no interest for her, and besides, weren’t they going to interpret things in their favor just as other churches did? Joy herself was beginning to question any organized approach to spirituality. One good thing was happening, though: her mother’s spirits were picking up.
In the sanctuary, Mary noticed immediately how “normal” most of the people there looked. About forty men and women crowded into the tiny living room. They were well dressed, probably professionals. The mixed congregation of men and women would have passed for that of any traditional church were it not for some same-sex couples holding hands or with arm over shoulder. The church used the King James version of the Bible, and Whitsell offered Holy Communion. Mary moved to the small altar to receive the wafer and wine.
Mary felt a quality of camaraderie in the small space, a sense of oneness with the spirit of God that surprised and moved her. It took a few visits for her to realize that these people were elated because they were able to bring their spiritual and gay natures together here without fear or embarrassment.
She remarked to Larry Whitsell during one of their talks, “You know, I never felt such a sense of the spirit of love in church before.”
“I’ve had many people say that,” he replied. “People who come here are hungry for the spirit, to connect with the Divine. They had to be very determined to keep that connection considering the hostility and rejection most of them had to go through in their native churches. So what happens here is a mix of joy and gratitude, a rediscovery that they are worthy of God’s love, just like anyone else.”
Mary confided, “You know, Bobby came here a couple of times. I discouraged it. But I think now the reason he stopped is he never could allow himself to feel worthy of God’s love. And we didn’t help.”
As the discussions accumulated, Whitsell could see that Mary needed ongoing help to ride out the turbulent change she was experiencing. “Have you heard of P-FLAG?” he asked.
She had not. “This is a national group,” he explained, “literally ‘Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays,’ that has been very successful in reconciling parents to their gay kids and vice versa. There’s a local chapter trying to form. I think you would learn a lot.