A Mighty Fortress Indeed

October 30th, 2005

This morning I went to church! I was invited to do a book signing at a big LGBT church in Dallas, the Cathedral of Hope. Frankly, as a godless heathen recovering Catholic crypto-Buddhist, I was a little apprehensive.

But boy, did I get my blue state socks blown off. First of all, I haven’t seen such a huge, diverse crowd of gay people all in one place since…well, since the Halloween parade the night before. But here they were all sober and fully clothed. This place is amazing. It’s a buzzing hive of activity. There’s a bookstore, there are people tabling about the state anti-gay marriage amendment, there’s a Day of the Dead altar with candles and skeletons, there’s a whole kids’ wing, there’s a choir and musicians and big video screens and the joint is packed. Four hundred at the early service, six hundred at the later one. Plus they have a very politicized, progressive mission. As it says in their bulletin, “Jesus was the ultimate liberal.”

I hung out for a while as the first crowd left and the second one assembled. In between meeting lots of lovely people and signing books, I looked on slack-jawed at the stunning spectacle of community.

Then I stayed for the beginning of the second service. And when the processional began, with people in robes and the organ booming and the stained glass and everyone singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” I was ready to crawl to the altar.

The pastor was very moving. She talked about the church as a refuge from the busy activity of our daily lives, and from our inevitable suffering, and I almost wept. I think the guy next to me DID weep. At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, he definitely gave his boyfriend a loud kiss. Then I had to leave for the airport, and in the lobby I ran into Lucie Blue Tremblay, who was there to promote The Breast Exam Project.

Who knew that all this stuff was going on? I have to get out more.