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.            

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