It’s not enough to be a “well-intentioned religious believer”. The intentions of religious believers unconnected to justice, to mercy and most of all, to truth, often do a tremendous amount of harm.
We buried a wonderful seminary graduate today, World AIDS Day. Rev. Anthony Hollins was an HIV-positive, African American gay man, a pastor, a dancer and an AIDS activist.
When the doctors told Anthony that he was HIV positive more than a decade ago, he refused to let disease and self-pity rule his life. He decided to dedicate his life to the divine calling of telling the truth about AIDS and the truth about God’s love for him and for all people, gay or straight, black, brown, or white, male or female. He helped people, especially in the African American community, tell the truth about their sexual orientation and live openly and truthfully. His intention was justice for those who are HIV positive and mercy for those whom some of the “well-intentioned” religious moralists despise and ignore.
Anthony was my student and my close friend. He frequently told me of how deeply he was hurt by the attitudes of the “well-intentioned religious believers” who refused to recognize the way in which their prejudice against gay men, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgendered people helps keep those folks in the closet and helps spread the disease. He was profoundly pained by the moralizing attitudes of those “well-intentioned religious believers” who think the AIDS pandemic can be fought without condoms and without truthful sex education.
Can such a big social problem such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, or homelessness or poverty for that matter, be solved by “well-intentioned religious believers”? Not without telling the truth about homophobia, about greed or about selfishness, that’s for sure.
It just isn’t enough to be “well-intentioned”. You have to be brave enough to face the truth of peoples’ lives, indeed the truth of your own life, be willing to do justice without counting the cost, and have mercy without limit.
I was glad to see that Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church was at least addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS and I know that Anthony would want me to build bridges to this work. He would tell me I should encourage those “well-intentioned” evangelicals to recognize the way theologies that are not fully inclusive of gay folks actually help spread the disease and ruin lives. I know he would want me to do that, and I will.
Just not today. Today we buried Anthony just like we have buried so many other fine young people, our seminary students and graduates, helped into their graves by the lack of truth and justice and mercy on the part of “well-intentioned religious believers”. Today I need to grieve.
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