You
can’t have failed to notice how Manchester City Centre is quite
liberally covered with Rainbows. Manchester is certainly getting in
the mood for Gay Pride. Rainbows have been in the news, too.
Sometimes I am embarrassed to call myself a Christian, when
fundamentalists claim that “the Gays” have somehow “Stolen”
the rainbow, as if Christianity has the sole copyright on the rainbow
– it appears in all three major Abrahamic religions and in others
besides, including Zoroastrianism and Buddhism.
In
Christian and Jewish Theology the Rainbow is a symbol of hope and a
symbol of a promise. It occurs in Genesis, following the mythical
flood of Noah when God sends the rainbow as a sign of peace and his
promise to never destroy, or flood the world again. Never again, says
God, will I try to wipe out life on earth. Look! here’s a rainbow
as a sign of my covenant with you and all of creation for ever.
So
when some groups of Christians trying to claim that like Prometheus,
the gays have snuck into heaven and stolen the Rainbow I really have
to chortle. And it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad that some
Christians haven’t understood the message from Noah – God said he
wouldn’t flood the world any more, but yet when faced with natural
disaster, with flooding and fire, it’s God punishing us wicked
humans, for allowing gay rights. But didn’t God said he’d not
flood the world ever again? … I’ll leave that with you. But if
I’d have known when you came out you got X-men style superpowers to
control the weather I’d have come out a long time before I did.
It’d brilliant on holiday. Good weather. Everyday. Manchester would
certainly be sunnier!
If
anything, the use of the rainbow by Gay Pride is perfectly
theologically sound. And is indeed a challenge to those who use
religion to fuel their own bigotry. A sign of hope, a symbol of a
promise never to hurt or destroy. An emblem of peace.
The
world-wide symbol for Pride is the rainbow, and the rainbow flag.
But it’s not just any old rainbow. The [Gay] Pride flag was designed
by the artist Gilbert Baker, a gay artist living in San Francisco. He
met and befriend Harvey Milk, the gay rights pioneer, who challenged
him to come up with a design representing the gay liberation
movement.
The
first two rainbow flags were hand-sewn for San Francisco Pride in
1970. No one quite knows what inspired Baker to adopt a rainbow as
the symbol for the first Gay Pride; it might have been the striped ‘Flag of
all the races’ which was popular amongst Hippies and Civil Rights
Activists; or it might have been the recent death of Judy Garland who
had become a gay icon and her seminal 1939 song ‘Somewhere Over the
Rainbow’ a Gay Anthem. In fact, I have sung it as a hymn; it was
wonderful.
But
don’t think it matters where the flag came from, so much as what it
means.
Each
of the coloured stripes has a different meaning
Red
for Life
Orange
for Healing
Yellow
for Sunlight
Green
for Nature
Indigo
for Serenity
Violet
for Spirit
Universal
values. A universal message. A message of wholeness; of bringing
healing; reverence for nature; of peace; and (despite the very
secular nature of Gay Pride) spirituality. Reminding us that the
spiritual self is not to be shut out of any aspect of our life.
May
we be reminded, that as it takes so many colours to make up a
rainbow, so it takes so many different people, to make a family, to
build a community. May we be reminded that God is gendered within
us. That God who is beyond gender and sex and sexuality, is in male
and female and intersex; is gay, straight, bisexual or queer. Or
none of the above. That God celebrates and rejoices in difference and
diversity. And so should we.
May
God walk with us, in all our rainbow glory.
Blessing
Leader:
To all the colours of the Rainbow:
Response:
We stand with you when we are persecuted.
To
all the colours of the Rainbow:
We
celebrate our diversity.
To
all the colours of the Rainbow:
We
welcome all in God’s family.
May we celebrate all life;
May we bring healing and wholeness;
may we dance in Sunshine,
And rejoice in Nature.
Let us find Serenity
And share the Spirirt. Amen
