For those of you who may not know, I’m involved in a play right now called Seven Passages, the title coming from the seven passages in the bible that deal specifically with homosexuality. The reason I wanted to be involved is because I felt like this is a really important piece to be doing right now, especially in Grand Rapids, MI. You may remember from before that I’ve been very insistent about the church beginning a dialogue on this, and I feel like this is a big piece to that.
The thing that makes the play so powerful, in my opinion, is that the entire thing is going to be constructed from interviews with over one hundred people that consider themselves gay and Christian. So the power really comes in hearing peoples’ stories, and that’s something that anyone on either side of the debate can relate to.
However, since we don’t have a play yet, we haven’t so much had rehearsals as we have had meetings (hence the reason I’ve been reading about Gay Christians, as I mentioned yesterday). One of things most noticeable thus far about our meetings has been the difficulty of the conversations we’ve had so far. Though the tension in the room with us has been thick at times, it has all the more convinced me that this is a very important project for us to be working on. If the conversations were easy, then either this topic isn’t that controversial, or we are not covering it well enough. I imagine early artists working on pieces about women’s rights probably had similar heated debates.
My only hope is that we can tell these stories honestly and artistically, and that a dialogue can begin.
I totally agree with the “if it’s easy then something is wrong.” sentiment. With a topic like this, where there are so many angles and so many ways to tell this story, it totally makes sense that people are passionate and heated. I feel like that’s part of the story too though in a way. That the process gets intertwined with the topic and that your experience working the play is part of the larger story of gay Christians. Basically the telling of the story will change you in someway and that that matters.
I’m really, really excited that you’re working on this. I wish I could be. I know Stephanie and David will at least give a voice to many unasked questions because I don’t know if anyone really can give answers.
I imagine it feels a little like Angles in America must have felt like. I’m glad you’re doing this…really…and I think you’re right, Grand Rapids needs this…we’ve been too quite on this issue for a long time.