“He’s Always A Mormon”
Sung to Billy Joel’s “She’s Always a Woman”

He can kill with a smile
He can wound with his eyes
He can ruin your faith with his casual lies
And he only reveals what he wants you to see
He hides like a child,
But he’s always a Mormon to me

He can lead you to love
He can take you or leave you
He can ask for the truth
But he’ll never believe you
And he’ll take what you give him, as long as it’s free
Yeah, he steals like a thief
But he’s always a Mormon to me

CHORUS:
Oh–he takes care of himself
He can wait if he wants
He’s ahead of his time
Oh–and he never puts out
And he never gives in
He just changes his mind.

And he’ll promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then he’ll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you’re bleedin’
But he’ll bring out the best
And the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself
Cause he’s always a Mormon to me
–Mhmm–

CHORUS:
Oh–he takes care of himself
He can wait if he wants
He’s ahead of his time
Oh–and he never puts out
And he never gives in
He just changes his tie.

He is frequently kind
And he’s suddenly cruel
He can do as he pleases
He’s nobody’s fool
And he can’t be convicted
He’s earned his degrees
And the most he will do
Is throw quote scripture at you.
Yes he’s always a Mormon to me.
–Mhmm–

I was very impressed with what Elton John said in USA Today yesterday. He recently sang at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding reception in Palm Beach. The article starts by quoting Elton John, “Jesus Christ taught tolerance. That’s the example we shouild follow. We should forgive, understand, be compassionate. We’re not all the same. Thank God! It would be so boring. If opposing parties stopped hurling epithets from rooftops and learned to exchange ideas, the rancor might subside”, John says.

The article goes on to say that John, who is in a civil partnership with David Furnish agreed to sing at the June wedding of Rush Limbaugh (one of the most conservative men in America) who opposes gay marriage.

“We talked a lot before I did it, and I was surprised how much I liked (him),” John says. “If I had done it just for money, I could have seen 40 years of my reputation go down the tube. As a gay man, I felt it my duty to find out what this guy thought. I did that before I played there. I felt there was a real reason for me going.” At the reception in Palm Beach, FL, John took the stage before 400 mostly Republican guests.

“I said, ‘I suppose you’re wondering what the (expletive) I’m doing here,’ and they collapsed in laughter. It took the heat off. I said, ‘I’m probably the most famous gay man in the world. I’m coming in peace. Please, let’s not say people are horrible because they are different. That’s not acceptable in this day and age.’ It was a good audience.”

John and Limbaugh still communicate by e-mail, the USA Today article continues. “There’s much more of a person in there than the public knows,” John says. “I believe dialogue is a way forward. Come on, what era are we living in?”

I believe the artists are gonna save this movement. Artists like Elton John who are willing to stop throwing tomatoes, throwing another feeble rally, throwing another billion letters and petitions (and dollars) that mean nothing and marching on the Vaticans of the world. We need to stop labeling our enemies as “evil” and we need to share our personal stories and listen to theirs. What are they afraid of? What are their FEARS? We need to look to Elton John’ss very sober and clear-eyed example. Use your talents constructively. Don’t wallow in the collective misery and anger and call to victimization. Take a real leap and try to see where some of these religious people are right. Maybe they don’t want their gay sons and daughters to experience some of the things I encountered put myself through. How can I change my life as Steven Fales to make the negative perceptions of our enemies in politics and at church and in my own family go away. How am I responsible for perpetuating the stereotypes. And how can I help change them. I can’t do that if I embody the stereotype.

What is our part in all of this? Even at thirteen, what is our level of accountability to be? Does it really get better? Or does it sometimes actually get worse once you come out? There are no easy answers here. But the one answer you can count on lies in asking, WHAT IS MY PART? Where am I giving the Mormon Church and others ammunition against me? How am I living my life, especially since my morality and value system is in question and I AM THE ONE SEEKING MY RIGHTS. What am I willing to sacrifice? My fabulous vacation? An affair that could damage my relationship with my loving partner? As a very wise elder statesman in the gay community once said, “Don’t give me my rights. Let me earn them!” Until we do that, we will not own our rights. And gay bashing will persist world-wide. Lady Ga-Gay can help us dance, but she cannot help us win.

By the way, I was bullied to tears over and over again in elementary school and middle school. Then I started out-smarting them and out singing them and out dressing them! It did get better. And I have two children to prove it!

The Pastor’s Pen,

Dear Steven

Last Sunday I preached a sermon entitled, “Living Positively”. In it, I challenged us all to live from the positive place and to “test God in all things”, knowing that changing our attitude can change our lives.

This week I met with a man who has been struggling with this very concept. He shared with me that he comes from a faith that was more fundamentalist. His family lived in fear of God and because of this he has grown up believing in a God who is “out to get him!”

He told me that, as an adult, as a gay man, he continues to hear the voices from his past and, even when his rational voice is telling him that God is all loving, he continues to hear the voice of his childhood telling him that God is not pleased with him.

I think that many of us can identify with him. Many of us have heard the voices that tell us we are unworthy, unloved, undeserving. We hear the rhetoric that has polluted and distorted the image of God that Jesus came to remind us of. We have bought into the image of God that has been taught us by our churches or by our parents.

In my conversation with this man I told him that the image of God portrayed by our institutions is not, necessarily the image given to us in the Bible. I told him that God is inviting us into an adult relationship with God – not a relationship through someone else, through our church, our pastor or indeed through our parents. God is inviting us as an adult, and as such it is vital that we meet God in this adult place. It is vital that we develop our own relationship with God. This is what Jesus invites us into.

Today, Anne Rice, author of “Interview with a Vampire and “Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession”, announced that she is quitting Christianity, refusing to be “anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-science and anti-Democrat”. In a later statement she said, “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me.” She continued, “But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

She echoes so many of my own sentiments. In becoming an adult believer and having an adult relationship with God, I no longer have to agree with everything that the church says, or a pastor says. I no longer have to believe in the God of my parents, or my childhood and I get to follow Jesus who, if you get to know Him personally, welcomes us all to love God, love self and love others.

I am grateful that here at MCCLA we are a diverse, radically inclusive community of faith and believe that Anne would feel more than welcome here. I intent to reach out to her and invite her to come visit!

Today, I invite you to come and welcome the visitor who comes to MCCLA this Sunday to explore the possibility that the God that they have known through a previous experience is a God who is inviting them to take a fresh look, a mature look, a questioning look, an adult look at the God who is found in Jesus.

And who know…. perhaps one day we might just see Anne in our midst, or someone just like her!

I look forward to welcoming you too!

See you Sunday, Steven

Sincerely, in Christ

The Reverend Dr. Neil G. Thomas
Senior Pastor