Legalizing Sin

On a rainy Thursday I saw a sign
Not from God but from a church
Not always the same thing
In the shadow of my headlights it read:
“If you want God to bless America, stop legalizing sin.” 

I knew this was an affirmation
Of a bill that meant to overturn same sex marriage
To take our progress and set it back
Like a dance of danger, three steps forward and four the other way.

To be gay, I think all of us can agree, is not a sin. 
We can point to the Greek mistranslation of the Bible but the word of our God stays the same in any language: 
God
Is
Love.

Let he without sin cast the first stone, take the log out of thine own eye
But I
Have not seen signs that say that 
Only ones along the lines of “it’s bad to be gay.”

Sin is already legal in this country and it has nothing to do with who we love
In fact it is with those who hate
Another being because of the color of their skin, 
the one they go to bed with, 
The way that they pray,
and all of the things that seemingly make them unworthy
Of god’s conditional blessing.

Sin is already legal in this country and it has nothing to do with who we love
In fact it is with those who find it acceptable
To gun down unarmed Black and Brown people
To shoot children at school and cage them at the border
To deny healthcare to those who are dying
Just so the comfortable may live.  

Sin is already legal in this country and it has nothing to do with who we love
In fact the real sin is hatred
All of the phobias and isms that we inherit not from our genes but from our society 
Give us the predisposition for hate

But wait 

We pray
God give us strength 
To fight the good fight, fire with fire if necessary
Let the flames roar within our hearts
And may we overcome our fear of getting burned.

The cycle of liberation begins with us 
We can transform the narrative
Turn it on its head
Because when you think about it 
Isn’t that what queerness is all about?
We must work together
For our collective liberation
Because 
Those sins should not be legal. 
Amen, and God bless America.

Shelby Lewis (she/her) is a 3rd year Masters of Divinity student at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Her call to ministry came at age fourteen in the Episcopal Church, but she is on the ordination track for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) as of last year. Prior to attending Vanderbilt, she attended Elon University in Elon, NC where she won a number of awards including Elon University LGBTQIA Alumni Association Student of the Year. She aspires to become a university chaplain with an emphasis on social justice ministries. When she’s not writing poetry, you can find Shelby writing papers in the library and updating her cats’ Instagram.