A WING AND A PRAYER "Dream a Little Dream"

Be bold enough to dream of a world where all people speak a language of dignity and mutual respect. Bringing that dream to reality will not be easy, because you and I will have to help tear down those towers of power every day. We build them ourselves when we're not well-grounded in God. And the fearful around us build them higher every day. - p. 95

++Katherine begins the fifth section of her book, "Opening Up to the Vision of God," with this vision of the Peaceable Kingdom, or as they say in GHOSTBUSTERS, "Dogs and cats, living together, MASS HYSTERIA!!!" There are always boundaries, there are always walls, there are always suspicions. And the need to preserve is always greater than the desire to change. It's Friedman's family systems, that we would rather prepetuate the status quo than to try to change or shake the system.

But can you dream? Can you imagine a world in which we can see one another with love and acceptance, instead of doubt and suspicion? Can we allow ourselves to embrace change, not just in others, but in ourselves?

It's the argument of The Episcopal Church's desire to break down the walls of prejudice that have for two millennia kept gay/bi/lesbian persons outside the doors of the Church, outside the realm of God's salvation. The labels don't help us define who we are; they help us establish and maintain who are not JUST LIKE US! "Thank God I'm not one of those____!" Go ahead...fill in the blank! Who are you blessed by God NOT to be? How has God placed you in an ivory tower of Christian purity?

Guess what...those towers were TORN down on Golgotha almost two millennia ago. It's Biblical, it's Holy, and it's TRUE.