Easter holds many different life memories for me. At my age, I barely remember the days when the festival was a "gay" event. Not in the sense that the word is most often used today to describe a community within our society. Prior to the association with homosexuality, "gay" would be used to describe a manner of dress or decoration.
At a time when it was more in vogue to show off your new Easter outfits, females of all economic means would appear on Easter morning in gaily adorned Easter dresses complete with some variation of a "gay" Easter bonnet. The show at most churches, country clubs and restaurants on Easter Sunday would have rivaled even the most outlandish drag show today. Certainly, for many who participated and enjoyed the Easter pageantry, it would have been a sin to appear on Easter Sunday in an outfit that your friends and neighbors had seen before.
How things have changed over the years! Not only has the word "gay" taken on a more common usage than in the past, those who would have engaged in the pageantry of Easter may entirely miss the message of the celebration. It is true that Easter is a celebration of life and that may be secularized and minimized to Easter baskets, colored eggs and a fictional bunny rabbit who supposedly hops by your house to deliver the goodies.
As a former Lutheran Christian pastor and openly partnered gay man, the message of Easter has not changed. The most important festival of the church year takes place every year at Easter. "For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." [John 3:16] Nowhere in the biblical Scriptures' promise of salvation does God base His gift on one's sexuality. Faith is the key to the hope of salvation through the Savior.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Celebrate again a new "gay" life with all its hopes and promises!!
~ DB Turnmire
At a time when it was more in vogue to show off your new Easter outfits, females of all economic means would appear on Easter morning in gaily adorned Easter dresses complete with some variation of a "gay" Easter bonnet. The show at most churches, country clubs and restaurants on Easter Sunday would have rivaled even the most outlandish drag show today. Certainly, for many who participated and enjoyed the Easter pageantry, it would have been a sin to appear on Easter Sunday in an outfit that your friends and neighbors had seen before.
How things have changed over the years! Not only has the word "gay" taken on a more common usage than in the past, those who would have engaged in the pageantry of Easter may entirely miss the message of the celebration. It is true that Easter is a celebration of life and that may be secularized and minimized to Easter baskets, colored eggs and a fictional bunny rabbit who supposedly hops by your house to deliver the goodies.
As a former Lutheran Christian pastor and openly partnered gay man, the message of Easter has not changed. The most important festival of the church year takes place every year at Easter. "For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." [John 3:16] Nowhere in the biblical Scriptures' promise of salvation does God base His gift on one's sexuality. Faith is the key to the hope of salvation through the Savior.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed! Celebrate again a new "gay" life with all its hopes and promises!!
~ DB Turnmire
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