A Passing
9.06.2005Ona’s dear friend, Ann-Marie, passed away yesterday morning. A fear-less, god-full woman, all will miss her.
In a post earlier this week, Ona wrote about her dear, dear friend:
[S]he was asking me if I knew that Jerry Falwell makes all his students at Liberty University sign an anti-homosexual pledge. Then she said, "I would scold him if I could and tell him God doesn’t make trash."
She doesn’t have a gay son or daughter. She doesn’t have a personal investment in the Queer rights movement except for the friends she has sought out in it. What she does have is a deep commitment to the belief that all people, just as they are, are created in the image of God, queer or not. At 82, her theology is a great deal more "cutting edge" than the majority of Christians in this country. She is a powerful ally because of the influence she has had in the senior residence where she lived. Every day, she lived an example of radical inclusivity in a population that didn’t have any "out" people living in it. This is the kind of ally we desperately need. I celebrate her existence and witness in my life and the lives of so many others.
Amen.