Yesterday, we remembered Maundy Thursday, the day in the Christian tradition where we retell the story of the Passover meal Jesus shared with his friends before being handed over to an unjust government. Usually on this evening, as the chaplain at Warren Wilson College, I am privileged to wash my students’ feet as Jesus washed the feet of those gathered to eat with him the night he was betrayed. The ritual marks a disruption of power; Jesus takes on the lower task, offering radical hospitality and honoring those whom the religious and political parties of the day saw as suspicious. We remember Jesus and his friends telling the story of God’s faithfulness and deliverance to freedom. At the end of the meal, with bread and wine, he foretold of his body breaking and blood being spilled. Jesus was turned over to authorities who ultimately executed him.
This year, instead of participating in our usual rituals at the College Chapel, I traveled with a group of LGBTQ students to Raleigh to stand against House Bill 2, which strips local governments of the ability to protect LGBTQ persons where the state fails to do so. It also specifically targets transgender people by denying them the right to use public bathrooms that accord with their gender identity.
…. read the rest of Brian’s letter at http://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/03/25/guest-columnist-taking-stand-house-bill/82248440/