Happy Pride to the Beloved Community

The great, positive, uplifting thing about Pride and LGBTQ events is the sheer love and grace and sense of nurture. There was a Pride parade today in Louisville and people were laughing, smiling, hugging, holding hands, greeting one another, rainbows, colors, beauty, joy, singing, fun... welcome, welcome, welcome!

And this beautiful crowd of people? They were young and old and black and white and all ages and colors in between. They were grandmothers and grandbabies and people with disabilities and their allies and straight and LGBTQ... it was truly the beauty of all the world and diversity. And, as always, there were a handful of protesters - in this case, six white guys, one wearing a Nazi/white power "Jerusalem cross" symbol - gathered in a little knot and shouting down curses and hate. "You're going to hell!" they yelled. "Your church is NO church!" they shouted at me, seeing my church name on my LGBTQ friendly shirt.

Venom, bitterness, hatred, demonization, arrogance. You have to wonder what such groups hope to accomplish by contrasting their messages of hate and bitterness with the love, grace and beautiful joy and welcome messages from the Pride side? WHO would want to be part of that? You can see in one of the photos that, while most people just ignored them and their pathetic little pamphlets of "good news," when people DID accept the pamphlets, they just tore it up. Who needs that sort of hate and villainy? It's just sad and pathetic and I could almost pity them, if they didn't do so much damage in their vengeful arrogance and rage. One last point, a tip for other conservative religionists: If the churches who are opposed to LGBTQ folks just existing and being truly want to try to make a positive impact, they could come and protest the neo-Nazis who are being the face of conservative religiosity on their behalf.

Trillionaires, Bloodfights and Prospero

On nearly the same day that the world's first

trillionaire

was birthed

unnatural and misshapen and unholy,

I went to see the story of Prospero,

the antagonist of Poe's masterpiece

The Masque of the Red Death

A summary of the story:

The Masque of the Red Death is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1842. It follows Prince Prospero, who retreats with a thousand wealthy courtiers into a sealed, fortified abbey to escape a devastating plague known as the Red Death. After months of seclusion, Prospero hosts a lavish masquerade ball in seven color-coded rooms. At midnight, a mysterious figure appears dressed as a victim of the Red Death. When Prospero confronts the intruder, he drops dead, and the revelers discover the costume contains no tangible form beneath it. One by one, the partygoers die as the Red Death claims them all. The story is a powerful allegory about the inevitability of death and the futility of trying to escape it through wealth and privilege.

This seems apt, this weekend, as many powerful people gather to "celebrate" death and gore and power and privilege - a caged fight orgy of violence and twisted toxic masculinity. Always, the privileged invited to such parties, at great cost to the poor.

“There was much of the beautiful,

much of the wanton,

much of the bizarre,

something of the terrible,

and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.”

There's so much to be said.

"Prospero and his court are indifferent to the sufferings of the population at large. They intend to await the end of the plague in luxury and safety behind the walls of their secure refuge, having welded the doors shut to ensure no one enters or leaves."

~The prophet Poe

“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom:

She and her daughters were arrogant,

overfed

and unconcerned;

they did not help the poor and needy."

~The prophet Ezekiel

Prospero, sadly, is the perfect role model for today's toxic conservatism and the echoes of today's realities is truly prophetic.