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Michelle DeRusha

Every Day Faith. Faith Every Day.

gay

The Song is Wrong: They Don’t Know Us by Our Love

May 5, 2016 By Michelle

Bleeding Hearts

I recently saw a “New Yorker” cartoon that depicted God speaking to a frowning angel as they gazed down at planet Earth. The caption read: “I’m starting to prefer the ones who don’t believe in me.” I laughed when I read that, but it also hit a nerve.

Last summer I struck up a conversation with a middle-aged woman on a flight from Denver to San Francisco. We engaged in the kind of small talk two strangers sitting side-by-side on a three-hour flight do. She told me she was headed out to visit her son and his partner. I volunteered that my family and I were spending ten days traveling up the coast from San Francisco to Portland.

Our conversation rolled along amicably. I asked what she did for a living – she was a physician – and she asked what I did. When I told her I was a writer, she asked what I wrote. “Non-fiction and memoir,” I answered. “I mainly write about faith from a Christian perspective.”

My seatmate didn’t respond. Instead, she opened the book she’d been holding in her lap and began to read.

At first I thought maybe she hadn’t heard me. But then I realized the awful truth. By identifying myself as a Christian writer I had shut down the conversation. She didn’t say another word to me for the rest of the flight.

…I’m at Huffington Post, writing about a terribly uncomfortable experience … one that taught me about the importance of radical hospitality and love…

[A much shorter version of this post first ran last month in the Lincoln Journal Star]

Filed Under: gay, love Tagged With: Homosexuality and Christians

Assumptions Alienate

August 1, 2012 By Michelle


We’re gathered at Kristen’s house, three of us sprawled on the carpet, three on the couch, novels open in our laps. We are discussing a character in the book – a mother who doesn’t know her teenage son is gay.

“Well, I know one thing for sure,” I say, straightening up and splaying my paperback flat on the rug. “If my son were gay, as his mother, I’d know it, even if he didn’t tell me. I’m sure I would just know it.”

There’s a pause as my fellow book club members digest my emphatic declaration.
…I’m over at the Lincoln Journal Star today, writing the second in a series of posts about making assumptions. Will you join me over there for the rest of the story? (and if you missed the first post about making assumptions, you can read it here).

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Filed Under: assumptions, friendship, gay

Primary Sidebar

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Triple Type A, “make it happen” (my dad’s favorite mantra) striver and achiever (I’m a 3 on the Enneagram, which tells you everything you need to know), but these days my striving looks more like sitting in silence on a park bench, my dog at my feet, as I slowly learn to let go of the false selves that have formed my identity for decades and lean toward uncovering who God created me to be.

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