Reflection: The high hope of Double Rainbows
The Prairie Statement of the Great Rainbow Commission
(A paraphrase of Matthew 28:16-20):
Now, the Rainbow ones met on the virtual mountain, Zoom, where the vast distance across the Canadian prairies and the wide ocean that connects Korea and Canada was no longer a geographical obstacle, but a new bridge to their Rainbow conversation. Jesus was with them, adding richly-hued, daunting, dazzling colour to their hearts, and said to them, “All relations in heaven and on earth are my body. Go, therefore, and make Rainbow ones of all relations, baptizing them in the name of love, equity and the hospitality of God’s kin_dom overflowing on earth, and teaching them different Biblical hermeneutics and movements against homophobic/heterosexist readings and interpretations. No more stigmatization and discrimination! Teach everyone to obey the call of radical love and interdependence. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
This sermon was shared with St. Martin’s United Church on June 6th, 2021. Please watch at 15 mins 25 secs.
Let us begin with the crayon story behind the virtual choir video you just watched, “We Are a Rainbow”. ▶️ https://youtu.be/48rinNWfFqk
Last February, we, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, met on zoom for the first time, as a group. Yellow and Blue, the parents of one-year-old Jay, connected to the call from Tisdale, SK, and Green, Red and Purple joined in from Winnipeg, MB. Green and Red, Yellow and Blue had never met each other before. The one chance I had (by the way, I am Purple!) to get to know Yellow and Blue was during a Korean dinner we enjoyed when they visited Winnipeg two years ago. The five of us have been shaped by different life experiences; we all had different reasons for deciding to immigrate to Canada. Our individual time spent in Canada ranged from 2 years to 14 years. And yet, during our first Zoom call, one thing surged among us, which was so obvious and magnetic: The Spirit of Rainbow Christ calls us to work:
Build the hope of a double rainbow in Korea and Canada. “Paint the world in colours, proud and bold and free.” (The refrain of We Are A Rainbow by David Kai)
For our first task, we quickly put our efforts into choosing the name for our future network, Korean Rainbow United (“캐나다연합교회 무지개 연대”... The literal translation is ”Rainbow Solidarity in the United Church of Canada”). Our next task was to create two videos. The virtual choir song, “We Are a Rainbow”, was submitted to “RainbowYesu”(Rainbow Jesus), a loose network of LGBTQ Christians and rainbow alliances in Korea, which was organizing the 18th annual prayer gathering to commemorate the life and death of a queer youth in Korea who called himself Yukoodang. Yukoo means “My Six Friends”, and he wrote that his Yukoo were “alcohol, cigarettes, sleeping pills, make-up foundation, green tea, and a rosary.” Yukoodang, a 19-year-old gay youth, committed suicide on April 26th, 2003, in his office at Donginryun (“The Organization for Solidarity with LGBTQ Human Rights in Korea”) which had also been his nightly shelter away from his family since he was a young teenager. Yukoodang was a devoted Catholic. His baptismal name was Antonio. In spite of his frustration with the church, Yukoodang’s last words in his will were that he loved Catholicism and his God would bless Donginryun. At his death, Yukoodang left a 6-page letter next to his body, a rosary and a cross on his desk, and about 30 dollars for donation, which was all he had.
In his suicide note, Yukoodang wrote, “The God I believe in will accept me.” He also expressed anger and criticism towards homophobia and discrimination against LGBTQ people, particularly from the Christian Right. “How cruel and anti-biblical it is to discriminate against sexual minorities. After death, I can proudly say that I am gay, with no need to suffer, no need to hide myself anymore. ... If, with my death, I can repeal the anti-gay clause in the Juvenile Protection Act and enlighten the bigoted Christians who talk of Sodom and Gomorrah, I would give my life.” Yukoodang’s death did, indeed, raise awareness about LGBTQ youth in Korean society. Many LGBTQ people came out on the street to challenge the bigoted view that homosexuality is harmful to the nation’s youth. For the first time, the LGBTQ movement found Christian allies who would stand up for LGBTQ rights against the Christian Right. The anti-gay clause in the Juvenile Protection Act was repealed in 2004, a year after his death.
For the virtual 18th annual prayer gathering to commemorate Yukoodang, Korean Rainbow United asked the General Secretary of the United Church, Michael Blair, and the co-chair of Affirm United, Cindy Bourgeois, to send us prayers to share. ▶️ https://youtu.be/m-ixakuMRMI
Michael and Cindy expressed in their prayers the rainbow solidarity of the United Church of Canada with RainbowYesu and other queer*rainbow Korean individuals and groups. Every prayer gathered and offered that evening to remember all who have been targeted and harmed by sexual violence, homophobia and transphobia, bigotry against people with AIDS, especially queer youth and women, was deeply moving and had me in tears through the entire hour. The delicate Korean language touched my Korean soul. In that moment, a double rainbow bloomed, connecting about a hundred people on the Eastern and Western sides of the Pacific Ocean.
The United Church confesses “We are not alone” as the first verse of the New Creed. We are not alone, never have been, and never will be. In the spirit of global ecumenism and partnership, Korean Rainbow United hopes to create a double rainbow of hope as United Church members/friends and as Korean queer*rainbow people and allies, working and fighting together against oppression, especially the harmful theologies of the Christian Right, which are driving Sexual Minority members to their death and to social cliff edges even today.
Before we called our network Korean Rainbow United, (KRU “Crew” for short) we enjoyed using the code name, 1988 Project. In 1988, at the 32nd General Council, the United Church of Canada made the historic declaration that “All people, regardless of their sexual orientation, are welcomed to full membership and all members are eligible for ordered ministry.” It was a big moment that shaped the identity and the intention of the United Church.
In 2019, the United Church launched, in partnership with Affirm United/S’affirmer Ensemble, “Iridesce: The Living Apology Project”. During the following two years, Iridesce gathered personal stories from members - queer, trans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, Two-Spirit, non-binary people within the United Church past and present. Allies, friends, family members, ministers and community members to LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit persons also contributed stories. The impact of the 1988 decision was addressed, and other issues, such as division and affirmation, lament, hurt, terror and healing were addressed as well, with an acknowledgement of the need for further education, apology and reconciliation even after 30+ years. Now, the final report of the Iridesce project is complete. It should be a valuable resource for United congregations and other churches.
The United Church might feel that we “passed” an important stage in 1988, but for many of our global partner churches in the world the fight, in 2021, is still in the “present progressive” tense. Over the years, it seems that the United Church’s mindset has shifted to looking inward, looking only at ourselves, concerned with our dwindling membership and resources. However, rather than looking into the well and saying that there is not enough water, worrying primarily about our own survival, the United Church can find ways of growing through solidarity with partner churches, asking and answering questions about the meaning of gospel and ally-ship in progressive faith.
We still have the Rainbow Christ’s work to do. The UCC’s experience and history is an immensely valuable resource beyond our denominational boundary. The spirit of The Living Apology Project must grow and draw the circle wider with our partner churches. Inspired by Kwok Pui-Lan, the Asian Feminist Theologian pioneer, I would like to invite you to an epistemology — which means, how we think, how we “see” things: Training Affirming Ministry to grow with the bamboo stake of a transnational approach.
Here’s a short story from my life. When I was a high school kid, my mom came to me with a newspaper article in her hand and asked, “Are you one of them too?”. I had just finished having a bath. Drying my wet hair, I stole a glance at the article. It was an interview with a lesbian university student. Surprised and unprepared, I said, “No”. At the time, LGBTQ rights were barely on the surface of public talk. You might hear worry or gossip from parents and teachers if you were thought to be ‘different’, but I didn’t grow up hearing any hate-mongering condemnations from the pulpit about homosexuals going to hell, never able to be saved. The Great Commission of Homophobia arrived with hot air from the Christian Right, especiallyAmerican Evangelicals, while I was in my twenties. Now, the seed of anti-LGBTQ hatred is securely planted in the minds and mouths of the leaders and members of the major conservative Christian churches in Korea. Protestant groups, in particular, have made an all-out effort since 2007 to stop the passage of an anti-discrimination law which would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Our KRU member, Red, wrote, ”How many lives should be taken from us until Korean churches and society finally give ear to the minorities’ loud mourning and outcry? They still trample on the dignity and rights of full human beings in the name of God’s love.”
The Christian Right’s Great Commissions of LGBTQ hate and condemnation are not only spiritual but political. They are pests that threaten God’s gardens. Aren’t we all beautiful? Some are geraniums of a variety of colours. Some are begonias of a variety of growing styles. Some of us are mints, kales, basils, lavenders, cosmos, roses. But when the winds of Christian Right Evangelism blew, they arrived with a plague of homophobic thrips and aphids for God’s plants. They sucked the rainbow sap. Their numbers increased, and God’s flowers deformed, withered, died. Let me ask: Where did the winds of the Christian Right blow from in the first place, and where are they blowing to, now?
It’s been three years since the last time I saw my parents in Korea. When I missed them so much, I used to think that I was separated from them by the great Pacific Ocean. When I kept thinking this way, my heart grieved even more. Then, lately, an insight came to me: The Pacific Ocean does not only separate me from my parents: we are also connected by that great ocean, my mom and dad, and I. The prairies and the Pacific Ocean connect us all transnationally. This insight really comforted me.
Have you been thinking that Asian contexts are irrelevant here? Are we so different? Truly, Canadian and Asian/Korean contexts, people, cultures may look different, without direct relation. However, there is a profound relationship between Asia/Korea and Canada that invites us to transnational, missional solidarity, even if you are not of Asian ancestry.
Buddhism teaches the wisdom of non-discrimination. This means that there is no such thing as a separate self, as a strictly independent entity. The understanding of interconnectedness and interdependence creates radical love and compassionate acts towards the Other. Thich Naht Hanh teaches that the misconception that you and I are separate selves, with no relation, is spiritual discrimination and can be the cause of injustice. Perhaps one of the big obstacles in the United Church to this transnational approach may be the thought that Asian issues are either old or new, outdated or irrelevant. Apathy might hide the belief or the sense of superiority that we (The United Church of Canada or Canada itself) have surpassed the stage of necessary interdependence, and are advanced, and therefore, we do not need a direct connection; we have no spiritual obligation to each other.
I invite you to a new epistemology - - a transnational approach as the global body of Christ to solve problems together. To stop the thrips from spreading over the earth, on the winds of the Christian Right. To help more and more myriads of double rainbows bloom across denominations and nations. With the faith that fights spiritual separation and discrimination, we can, together, push for change. Push for the Great Rainbow Commission to expand and overflow on the earth.
A Prayer from Ha Na:
In his life, Yukoodang, remembered as a quiet friend to many, enjoyed writing sijos (traditional three-stanza Korean poems) and a collection of his sijo poems was published posthumously as “My Hon (spirit/soul) Rains Down as a Flower” in 2006. I wrote this prayer inspired by his sijo poems and the title of the book.
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