Noah’s Ark and Useless Snark – Taking Back God’s Rainbow

(This following portion was written by the nice me; the reasonable, mostly empathetic me.  A little further down, there’s a portion written by snarky me – feel free to skip that part.)

Every year during Pride Month, I expect to see a few homophobic posts on Facebook – most the time I just shake my head and try to think about something that makes me smile, like “Wow, they are going to be so shocked when they get to heaven and have to spend eternity with a bunch of queer folks they tried to keep out!”  

But this year I’ve seen an uptick in posts about “taking back God’s rainbow.”   The rainbow, to conservative Christians, is a symbol of God’s promise never to destroy the world with a flood again.  They seem quite offended that the LGBTQ+ community is using it as a symbol of “pride.” (I’ve attached a few of the milder examples below but I’ve seen others that are angier and more inflammatory.)

In order to stay in relationship with the people I love who draw such unnecessary dualistic lines in the sand, I have to remind myself of three things: 

1) They think they are doing the right thing and they are just reflecting (regurgitating, if you will) what they have been taught;

2) We still have lots in common and I need to focus on the things that bring us together and try not to contribute to what divides us;

3) Anger and judgement only add fuel to the fire – I have to focus on love and try to see people as God’s treasured creations, so that I can treat them with the respect and dignity that I expect them to show others. (again, this is the nice me – as you will see later on, God is still working with me on all three of these!)

The nice me says, “Take my hand; give me a hug; let’s fellowship over some delicious Southern food! And then let’s sit down and open the Bible together and review what we share in common about rainbows! (And no, I am not exaggerating or being sarcastic, and those exclamation marks are necessary to convey my genuine enthusiasm over people who will come and “reason together.”)

A rainbow is a symbol of God’s promise.  YES!  I couldn’t agree more.  And it’s a promise that is meant for ALL people, not just people who know the Bible story.  There’s no “taking back” anything for God – He doesn’t need us to defend Him – He’s God, for god’s sake!  The Bible even says, several times, that the rainbow is a covenant/promise between God and “all of life on the earth.”

When a rainbow appears in the sky, it blesses and inspires and intrigues and creates awe for every single person who beholds it – every Christian, every atheist, every agnostic, every Muslim, every straight person, every queer person . . . everyone.  You might want to “take back” those promises or limit their reach, but I hate to break it to you – God’s love is not limited to the people whom you deem worthy.

Please don’t be a blocker of God’s love; be a giver. The Bible tells us to edify (build up) so why are we so eager to tear down?  Your judgement will not change anything or anyone for the better; but your love might.  Your condemnation might make people feel unworthy, and it might make you feel like you are being faithful, but you are just damaging people whom God loves.  He gave His life for queer people too.  Do you really want to be the reason that someone walks away from God’s love?

Here’s an example:  I met this precious young man at the Boston Pride parade and when I first saw his t-shirt, I thought he might be a protester because I’ve seen the symbol on his t-shirt posted on social media by many of my conservative Christian friends.  Of course, I struck up a conversation and he said his Dad’s side of the family had also posted the image with negative intentions, so he decided to embrace the image and “take it back.” His sweet and supportive Mom was there with him and we hugged and swapped stories about the things we see from our conservative Christian friends (we both agreed if we happened to run across any protesters, we were going to go over and hug their necks and tell them God loves them too!).  But his story struck me as sad.  His extended family had painted him as a demon, so in an act of defiance, he just owned it.  It was a misplaced effort, in my opinion – I felt like it probably made the unaccepting family members feel even more smug and justified. 

But look at this kid . . . does he look like a demon to you?  He was a beautiful soul just trying to protect himself from the very people who should love him and have his back.

This is what we are doing to people.  Instead of drawing them into the loving presence of Jesus, we are driving them away.

 

(And now I’m going to ignore my own advice and give you a window into the snarky little a-hole that lives in my head.  She rarely runs the show, but she’s always there offering her opinions (and frankly, she has some good points, so I relent and give her the floor occasionally).  If you like thinking of me as a nice person, this would be a good place to stop reading.)

The self-righteousness (ahem, pride) of the “take back God’s rainbow” agitation is almost comical when you really consider the Old Testament story.  I mean, God was so disappointed in us and so regretted that He ever created us, that He nearly wiped us off the face of the earth.  And the guy whom He used to start over (Noah), who “found favor in the eyes of the Lord,” promptly got off the boat and got so stinkin’ drunk, he passed out naked and then proceeded to curse one of his sons who accidentally saw him (and his grandson who didn’t even see him but who got vicarious punishment, I guess).  I’m sorry, but the rainbow is one of the few nice things about this story.  It’s definitely not a Biblical passage that gives you warm fuzzies or makes you feel particularly good about humanity.

And often, when I see those rainbow posts by faithful Christians I want to say, “Oh, so you’re upset the gay community has taken your Old Testament Noah’s Ark rainbow to represent their pride in God’s beauty and variety and vibrancy in this world?  Well, I’m upset that you have taken the cross – which represents God’s love for us and his ultimate sacrifice – and you have made it into something divisive and hateful.  You have hijacked Jesus and made Him into your own image, some sort of American political caricature.  You have twisted the Bible, a love story to humanity, and made it into a weapon of control and shame.  If you are upset that a group has “hijacked” your rainbow, that’s just a little taste of how you make other people feel when you try to hijack the love of God.  (Thankfully, I can feel all that and let it go pretty quickly because, as Richard Rohr says, “God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.”)

Okay. Whew! I let snarky me have a little tantrum and I’m done.  Life is too beautiful and there’s too much good in the world to stay too long in snarky-town.

I’ll leave you with this:  A rainbow forms because of light reflected through/off water droplets.  Without light, there’s no rainbow.  Without light, there are no colors. 

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12.

Look around at all that God is illuminating; look for the good fruit; look for the “light that leads to life.” 

If you really want to “take back God’s rainbow,” then reflect His light that leads to life.

(Be like Ellie – she is the best ally!)

Some other photos from the Boston Pride Parade that made me smile and gave me hope.