This weekend has been so
spectacular. As the GCN has looked at what’s next I’ve heard a whole lot about
the “silent letters” and the “forgotten orientations.” Asexuality has been
called out specifically more than a few times (thanks!). I’ve also been
convicted, especially by Allyson Robinson’s plenary. I’m a “Side A” Christian, and I’ll admit that as often as I remind myself that “Side
B” Christians come to their conclusions out of long prayer and study and
reflection , I had fallen into the habit of thinking that Side B was something
to be tolerated, or respectfully avoided while the course of progress slowly
made it irrelevant. I thought Side B wouldn’t have anything to offer me, that
it was a relic of an old way of thinking.
But I attended a session on
celibacy, mostly because I’m a really huge fan of Lindsey & Sarah, the
bloggers who run A Queer Calling, and who were leading the session, I’d read
their post disowning the Side A – Side B terminology, and their posts denouncing
the celibacy mandate. The session ended up not being led by them (they were
there though, and I was still too timid to say hi afterwards), Ron Belgau, the
Side B of “The Great Debate” led it instead. At that session, he addressed the
group as a group of Side B people, which made me a bit uncomfortable. But when
we broke into groups and people immediately started complaining pointing
out how bad society is at friendship/any kind of non-sexual/non-romanticrelationship, I was like “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” and when they
started talking about their hopes and dreams for future relationships, and
models of relationships, I realized that I’d made a huge mistake. The people
that I had dismissed were exactly the people I’d been looking for. In the
months that I’d been looking for answers and options, looking for a path to
follow or at least a destination to trail blaze towards, I, out of a misplaced
derision, had over looked some of the people who would have been the most
likely to have already blazed that trail ahead of me.
Oops.
To all the Side B Christians: I’m
so sorry, thank you for being so radical, thank you for blazing a trail. So now
I’ve got a whole lot more reading to do. And I’m so thankful.
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