What Can Christians Learn from the Gay Mardi Gras?

  I was having a conversation with a Christian friend of mine recently about Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. He looked at me thoughtfully and said:….they really know how to have fun.  He was commenting on the atmosphere of revelry and celebration that, on the surface, is encapsulated by Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. There is something lively and exciting about Mardi Gras that strikes a responsive chord with much of the public. Perhaps it’s the spirit of protest and creativity that draws many lesbians, gays and a large number of straights each year to the festival.

The event is a celebration of a nearly thirty year struggle for acceptance by lesbians and gays. The modern gay rights movement began with the Stonewall riots in New York city on Friday 27th of June 1969. Stonewall was a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Many gay bars were owned by the Mafia. Police would frequnetly make a raid, arrest some people and then extort money from the owners as part of a protection racket. The extortion game went on for some time until one Friday evening. Seven plain cloths police and a uniformed officer went into the Stonewall Inn not expecting any trouble. The police cleared the Inn and forced the patrons to stand outside along the footpath. This would not be business as usual.

   

 There are different stories about what happened. Some of the gays threw coins at the police. One version said a drag queen stood at the door to the Stonewall Inn trying to block the police from entering. A chorus of drag queens stood outside mocking the police and singing songs in a spirit of defiance. The crowd retaliated by throwing rocks and bottles. The situation escalated with some very ugly violent scenes as police and protesters clashed.   The gays and lesbians at Stonewall were backed into a corner. They were a minority with nothing left to lose. No reputation to maintain or promote. Like the Jesters of old, they were free to mock, expose and satirise a hypocritical and corrupt system. They exercised the kind of wer that only the powerless can employ. They embodied the irreverent spirit of the fool. A spirit that has been largely suppressed, ignored or marginalised within Christian cultures.  The suppression of the Fool spirit in Christianities has led to a loss of real freedom and power.  Many of us have a major attachment to looking good and projecting a favourable image or being successful at the expense of the life that Jesus promised us. A life coach said to a group of over worked, corporate heavies: You can either look good with your mobile phones, lap tops and other perks or you can have a life! The prophet Habbakuk prayed to God as he was in distress at the social and moral decline of Israel. God answered him and said he was going to use the Assyrians [Israel’s bitter enemies] to teach them a lesson. If the God of the bible is a God of love who desires to develop character and wholeness in his people then what are we to learn from the gay movement?

  The history of the gay movement [& other minorities] can teach us a lot about the power that comes from being a powerless minority in a world that can be very hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Imagine for one moment, the possibilities if, we cared more for pursuing the desires that God has given us and less about being respectable. Imagine the freedom that’s possible when believers are encouraged to be who they are rather than striving to look good or acceptable. Increasingly, people who are followers of Jesus Christ are feeling what it is like to be part of a minority grouping in the Western World.  Secularism, alternative religions & spiritual practices are becoming increasingly embedded in Australian culture. While this can be painful, disorienting and even confusing for many of us – there are enormous opportunities. The loss of the privilege status that Institutionalised Christianity has enjoyed for so long will bring create opportunities to recreate a freer expression of faith and practice.  Like the Stonewall rebels, with nothing to defend or protect, we can enter into the spirit of the Fool of Jester. The spirit of a free people with nothing to lose – the power that only someone who has given up an attachment to power can revel in and enjoy. Believers desiring to identify and strive for acceptance in the present age, will never be free to party.            

The Fool & His Money Are Soon Parted! Part 1.

The Fool invites us to over turn and suspend the normal rules of reality. One of area of my life where I am experimenting with stepping out and beyond my known and familiar world is in the realm of money. I was keen to discover what lay beyond beyond my judgements and attitudes towards money. I was recently challenged to give away a sum of money as part of a personal growth exercise to explore my personal beliefs, attitudes and feelings around money.  My initial thought was to give money to someone who was disadvantaged or fiscally challenged. Giving away money to someone who is in need was no challenge. I thought to myself: what would it be like to give away money to someone who is materially and financially better off than me? 

The philosopher, Alain De Botton, coined the term Status Anxiety to describe the unpleasant experience when human beings feel that someone else has a higher level of status. There is a level of satisfaction or enjoyment gained from helping people who are lower status. However, top help someone who may in fact be higher or even a potential rival is another matter.   I decided on a bigger challenge. I would give some money to someone who had more money than me. In my imagination, I wanted to give $5 to a guy dressed in a dark business suit as he was getting out of his BWM. Anyway, my imaginary opportunity did not present itself. Is there a person or group that has more money than me and that I dislike intensely? Immediately, I had some inspiration. I’ll walk into the next bank and give the teller $ 5.     

 I went inside the bank and approached the teller. She smiled at me and said: Hello, can I help you? I explained to the teller that I wanted to make a transaction. However, I did not have an account with this bank. I said to her: I would like to give you $ 5. She looked at me with an expression of surprise. No really I said. I smiled and said: Have a great day as walked out the door. This was an exhilarating experience. The words of Jesus Christ began to make more sense when he said: love your enemies… In one act of generosity, I experienced a real sense of freedom and life. There is freedom, pleasure and joy beyond the narrow realm of judgementalism. Next time, do something generous towards someone you dislike, despise, look down upon or hate. It’s a great way to learn more about yourself.           

The Clown’s Universe: An Unknown Story

Three years ago, I participated in a Clowning Summer School. The Clowning Summer School is a surreal experience. It’s like entering clown universe where all the normal laws of reality are suspended. In clown universe, some of the laws of reality work in reverse or are upside down to our normal way of thinking and seeing. Clown’s have an elastic reality. There is nothing fixed or rigid in the clown’s universe. Reality is elastic, changeable, flexible and full of possibilities.  The clown’s red nose is the world’s small mask.  The red nose is an alternative frame that celebrates freedom, play, elasticity and the ability to take ourselves lightly. In clown universe, we have the freedom and the permission to laugh at ourselves and celebrate our silliness. In clown universe, clowns fools, clowns and jesters take the mundane and the ordinary, pull it apart and raise it to a new and higher level.   

One of the Summer School workshops was based on a series of physical postures. The facilitator guided us through a series of postures that described an embodied emotional state. One of them was called the Office Worker. In this posture, the facilitator told us to thrust our heads and eyes forward, tightening our chests while we moved briskly about the room focused on an imaginary task. Office Worker is very uncomfortable position to maintain for a long period of time without feeling weary.  

After this session, I was walking through the Brisbane City Mall. In the past, I have walked through the Brisbane City Mall in a trance like state hundreds of times in the past as a member of the living dead. This time, I decided to opt out of the consumer trance and observe the Mall through the eyes of the clown.  I saw a line of men and women dressed in suits. Their physical expressions embodied the office worker. Like Robots, they walked along the Mall with emotionally blank expressions on their faces.   I felt a sudden surge of excitement as I watched the people walking through the Mall.  Office Worker I thought to myself. They’re in Office Worker. This was a transformative moment. I wasn’t sitting in judgement on the people walking through the Mall. I was simply an observer.  An ordinary moment yielded an amazing discovery as I watched this group of people living out a parable of our times.  I enjoyed every brief moment of this theatrical experience. This was one of a number of transformative moments I have experienced looking at life through the eyes of the clown or fool. 

Traditionally, fools and clowns have one thing in common. They refuse to play by conventional rules. Clowns and Fools are motivated by enjoyment and the desire to play. They live and play in a realm beyond critical judgement and rules. Paradoxically, clowns and fools are wise enough to value rules in the same way that artists need structure to support their creativity. This gives them an other worldly quality. In the Tarot, the Fool is called the Prince of the Other World.  Clowns use day to day ordinary experiences as the fuel to energise their lives and offer this as a gift others.  

This online journal is dedicated to my efforts to explore life, the universe and everything through the eyes of the clown, fool and jester. Foolish Times is the ongoing journal of my experiments in the wisdom of the Fool. My aim is to experience the gift of transformation in every area of my life. I also want to rediscover and re tell the stories of the Holy Fool tradition within Christianity and walk in the steps of Jesus Christ, St Francis of Assissi, and other fools [of all religions and none]  who understood that the comic potential of the ordinary is waiting to be revealed in every waking moment.