Pastor Annette's Blog
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
![]() July 25, 2023 Beloved: The other side says Trans kids are God’s kids. It stayed up longer than I thought it would — one month and a day — before someone stole it and bent the posts, rendering them useless. That surely took some effort! The same day our sign was vandalized, a local person shared a post from our Facebook page to his. The post was about our past seminary intern who is a trans woman. The comments were unkind to say the least, and he mentioned that our sign had led him to post about our church. It might well be a coincidence, but I’m inclined to think not. I’ve filed a police report and let our seminary intern know, so the necessary safety precautions can be taken. There is nothing new about people’s prejudice toward children. Today is Emmett Till’s birthday. He’d be 82, maybe a grandpa now. Instead, he died when he was only fourteen years and one month old, after being abducted, tortured and lynched. He was a child! A child whose existence was so great a threat to the people around him, that even the suggestion that he speak for himself was too much for them to bear. Horrific violence was the outcome. Adults beat a child nearly to death and then hung him. And the similarity of that poor child’s experience to the experience of trans kids in our world today cannot be overstated. Not when a six-foot swatch of vinyl in a church yard suggesting they are God’s own is so offensive the very posts holding it in place must themselves be twisted and destroyed. The following is cut and pasted from a study on the mental health of transgender and nonbinary youth: Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) youths are disproportionately burdened by poor mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation and attempts. These disparities are likely owing to high levels of social rejection, such as a lack of support from parents and bullying, and increased stigma and discrimination experienced by TNB youths. They have good reason to be afraid and depressed. Fourteen trans people have been murdered so far in 2023 and trans people are over four times more likely than cis gender people to be victims of other violent crimes such as rape, sexual assault, and aggravated or simple assault. But guess what else is true (again the mental health study noted above). Those statistics change dramatically and for the better when trans kids have a supportive adult in their lives: a teacher, doctor, coach — and maybe even the church they drive past on their way to school. They may never come in our door, but they might see that sign and for just a moment believe there are people somewhere who believe they belong as much to God and as much to this world as every other kid. So I’ll get another sign, probably a bigger one. I’ve got lots of steel t-posts, and I expect Tate, the young man who pounded those first posts into the ground, will happily pound another set for me too. And if the new sign gets stolen, I’ll just get another, and another and another and another after that. I don’t have anything better to spend money on, if that’s what it takes to keep telling the truth to the kids in this community: God loves you exactly as you are. I pray we know it for ourselves as well. ~ peace & prayers, pastor annette
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I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
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February 2025
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