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commentary – Spaces are made sacred by virtue of
the people who gather to make it home. These welcoming and affirming places are
more than temples where lessons about faith are taught to separate wolves from
lambs.
It matters when a congregation is
planted on sacred ground.
Close to 6,500 people have signed a petition to prevent Pioneers Church from opening its doors in the area made holy when
residents Married Durham.
Pioneers Durham is a retail, coffee,
and co-working space in the Hutchings Auto Supply Building located at 402 W. Geer
Street. The revenue from Pioneers Durham will be used to fund Pioneers Church,
a new congregation led by Sherei Lopez-Jackson and her partner Daniel Jackson.
The petition chides Lopez-Jackson for
supporting the position of the United Methodist Church to withhold ordination
from LGBTQ+ persons and supporting her denominations opposition of same sex
relationships.
“Under the limits of my ordinations
(united Methodist Church) and my own convictions, I am not permitted to marry
people within the LGBTQ+ community,” Lopez-Jackson said in response to her
critics.
More than 2,000 people took vows on
March 19, 2011, during Marry Durham
“Today, we marry each other. Beyond race,
beyond gender, beyond class, beyond sexual orientation, beyond religion and all
other declarations,” are part of the vows I wrote binding residents to each
other with a deeper commitment to protect our mutual interest.
Residents of Durham evoked the spirit
of their vows when Republican State Senator Peter Brunstetter introduced Senate
Bill 514, Amendment One, to the North Carolina General Assembly in September
2011.
Not in the Bull City.
Durham responded with a resounding hell
to the no when the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act (HB2) took effect
on March 23, 2016. HB2 required people to use the bathroom corresponding to their
biological sex as the designation appearing on an individual’s birth
certificate.
Not in the Bull City.
“We are married by our thoughts,” that’s
what I said that day. “We are married by a love made deeper by the strength of
the others in our community. We are more than the labels others create to separate
and define. We are married to the truth of universal claims. We are more
powerful because of every you in our city.”
More than 2,000 people said yes to
that. We meant every word. We’ve proven it by our enduring love for every person
who lives in the Bull City – beyond race, beyond religion, beyond gender, and,
yes, beyond sexual orientation.
I meant every word I spoke that day. We
all meant it.
We prove it by how we vote. We don’t
always agree, but the vows still matter. They have shaped how we think about Durham.
Ten years later, we continue to be impacted by the day we Married Durham.
It happened in the shadow of Pioneers
Church.
There are hundred of congregations in
Durham. Many endorse the position of Pioneers Church. They don’t accept the ordination
of LGBTQ+ persons. They refuse to marry same sex couples. Durham is a community
with diverse theological viewpoints.
Not all ministers think like me.
Granted, but it matters that I officiated
a wedding with vows aimed at defining the heart of Durham.
“I promise to promote the strengths of
the city I love, rather than to demean and destroy the reputation when I disagree
with the actions of others I vow to love,” I said that. I meant that. I still
do.
Churches are being planted across the
city. These gentrifying churches are planted to claim territory for their
hipper version of Jesus. They mingle a chic marketing strategy with a Bibicalist
bent. They bring a new swag to a white evangelical theological perspective
under the guise of a more modern, friendlier version of Jesus.
They occupy territory like the Crusaders
intent on winning souls to their homophobic white Jesus. They offer coffee and
pastries with space for millennial business owners while rejecting the humanity
of men and women in search of safe spaces to gather in peace.
We honor a moment in time where hands
were held, and the collective dreams of residents mingled to pioneer a new
movement. Statements were made about what we desire to be in a city made holy
by a love transcendent of all our difference.
Geer Street is holy ground.
It’s the place where we said “I do” to
what it means to be a community committed to loving and embracing each other
beyond differences.
Not in the Bull City.
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