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Today Matthew Shepard would be 35 years old. Except that he died 13 years ago when Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson tortured and murdered him, and left him to die hanging on a fence. Because he was gay. ...
Today Matthew Shepard would be 35 years old. Except that he died 13 years ago when Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson tortured and murdered him, and left him to die hanging on a fence. Because he was gay. He was 5'2" and weighed little more than 100 pounds when McKinney and Henderson beat him to a bloody pulp.
The video at the top of the posting is Dutch band A Balladeer's "Poster Child" commemoration of Matthew. It fits, somehow, that World AIDS Day falls on Matthew Shepard's birthday. A young man whose life was snuffed out by hatred before his time: he deserves to be remembered. His parents deserve to know that his brief life made a profound difference--as have the lives of every one of the multitudes of people who have now died from AIDS.
Steve and I talked today to a friend who has been living with AIDS for years now. He tells us he read a meditation piece at our local commemoration of World AIDS Day. At the commemoration, he saw another friend of ours whose only son died of AIDS as the epidemic got underway. Our friend tells us this friend found today's service painful. It opens a wound that has never entirely healed inside her--the loss of an only child, before that son had had time to live much of his life.
I'm thinking of all of this today in light of the response of some religious groups to those who are gay, to those who are living with AIDS. Early today, I landed on a Catholic blog site, the Catholic Caveman site, due to a link a friend emailed to me. Since the link showed me that this group of Catholic male bloggers (not one of whom appears to have the guts to reveal his identity as he blogs) use the word "faggot" casually and defiantly to refer to their gay brothers, I thought I'd use the site's search engine to search for that word throughout the postings on this Catholic blog. I was sickened by what I read, as you may also be if you click on the link I've just given you.
And I wonder what these Catholic gentlemen would ever do or ever say if they had the chance to meet Dennis and Judy Shepard. Would they tell them that their son was a dirty faggot who deserved what he got? Would they tell that to my friend who lost her only son, as well, to AIDS?
How does a group of Catholic men run a blog that features a picture of a priest saying Mass under its header, which has the inscription Ora pro nobis at the top of its page, followed by an image of the Blessed Mother, and which then has a row of saints' pictures beneath the Marian image: how, I ask, does a group of Catholic men run a blog with these features, and then write, casually and hatefully, over and over on their Catholic blog site, "faggot," "faggot," "faggot"?
Does it ever occur to these Catholic men, I wonder, that the Blessed Mother to whom they invite us to pray lost her only son, too? That she had to stand by powerless and watch as those who murdered her son hurled ugly taunts in his face while he hung, as Matthew Shepard hung on a fence alone in Wyoming, on the cross?
Where are those Catholic cavemen when the gospel account of Jesus's passion is read, I wonder? Are they standing with Mary and weeping at what unbridled hatred can do to people who don't deserve torture, humiliation, crucifixion, being beaten to a pulp and hung to die on a fence?
After having read the passages on the Catholic Caveman blog site that I discovered when I searched the site for one word alone--the word "faggot"--I'm pretty clear about the answer to that question.
The world deserves something better from followers of Jesus and Mary than what some Christians seem intent to offer it. May the memory of Matthew Shepard and of the many lives we've lost to the HIV virus, and may the courage and compassion of Matthew Shepard's parents, continue to open doors to healing and love in the world in which we live.
There are far too many points I would like to address here that you have mentioned or touched upon that I think would fill up several chapters of a book but let me try to focus on the one. Matthew.
There are some (very personal to me) things addressed here that spark memories. One is the death of my brother?s ?room mate? in the early nineties from AIDS. Yes, there was a very limited vocabulary for things back then, in living situations, there still is for addressing humanity, sexuality. I have come to the conclusion that anything sexual, if of age and consenting, and not harmful to the body or spirit, is what it is. Nothing profound there but common sense and not belonging in any religion concern or column. "Do not postpone joy." (from a bumper sticker)
The Dalai Lama uses the word Compassion to mean not wanting harm to come to others. In one sense his definition or interpretation mirrors a western concept of empathy which I think is the base of the teachings of Jesus and his golden rule. I think it was the lack of compassion of one human being, or two, to another, is what killed Matthew Shepard.
While I was aware I think of the act of his death, I did not fully focus on it until I encountered research on my blog of the boilerplate, largely GOP, hate rhetoric of two turds of human beings, some two years ago. One is Rep. Tim Krieger of the Pennsylvania Legislature who was holding up a Hate Crimes Bill which I do not know if it ever passed. The other is Rep. Virginia Foxx of the U.S. Congress who was adding her two cents of (hate) profound ignorance verbally on the House Floor in regards to the Shepard-Byrd Bill which is what I think now protects people in Pennsylvania on a federal level even if the people of Pennsylvania prefer to live in ignorance and Penn State football bravado rather than walking a mile in their neighbor?s shoes.
We must continue to push-back against the kind of stone age ignorance fostered in the mini-ice age of humanity experienced under the profoundly ignorant (evil empire) Bush Admin..
There is a quote from a very gutsy woman to my blog on hate regarding Matthew, from that woman who was married for thirty years to a Baptist Minister in the South, happily divorced, is happily remarried, and who now lives her life in harmony with herself and her own needs, a novelist and an atheist, and her response to the hate doled out to Matthew ?You gotta start teaching em when they?re young, to hate like that.? (push-back on ignorance everywhere in the schools, in the churches, teach it, go shout it on the mountain)
I can appreciate you wanting to yell ?abomination? to a blog that fosters a ?faggot? signpost, hate sign, but I disagree. I do not see blasphemy except in the heart and only God can judge in that department when it is truly in the heart.
But in another sense, abomination and blasphemy are mere words to describe the sad and tragic death of Matthew Shepard. (meme-negative)
I find it ironic that his first and last name reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew as preached by the Good Shepard. That the Spirit does speak loudly and clearly to the ages in instances if only one has ears. Can you not hear?
(There is a famous photo of Matthew, exterior, in a gray sweater. In the background of an old window or old door is a cross etched over his right shoulder. He that has eyes. Can you not see?)
In an Eastern sense, I believe the energy of a life not lived fully and richly as denied to Matthew is the energy used to ignite, the starting point of awareness and new beginnings. (meme-positive)
Michael, thank you for thought-provoking comments, which go in many directions--and so I'm picking and choosing among them as I respond, which doesn't imply I am ignoring some of your points.
I'm struck by your recollection of Virginia Foxx and her behavior as the Matthew Shepard bill was discussed. I have a sharp memory of that, too, and I feel grief when I remember that she stood right in front of Matthew Shepard's mother on the floor of Congress and informed Judy Shepard that Matthew was killed not because he was gay, but that the motivation for the heinous crime was a robbery and the hate-crimes bill a hoax.
That's why, as a fellow Catholic, I do consider it crucial to push back against the misuse of my church's beliefs to foster hatred--as with the Catholic caveman blog. I can't rest easy otherwise, since if I see and remain silent, I am no different than the Catholics who saw and remained silent in the period leading Nazi domination of much of Europe.
Catholic cave men? Well, that's how I look at Bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals as well as ALL members of the newly adored members of the Orneryariate (coming to dioceses near you in this country, too!)
I share your assessment, Jim. Cavemen who haven't come out of the cave enough, a la Plato, to know the difference between reality and the shadows dancing on the cave walls.
Bill, thanks. Excellent commentary on such a sad subject. I remember when first hearing about Matthew Shepard's death at the hands of bigots who left him there for dead. It is a real shame that there is such a website such as the "Catholic Caveman" one. Really pathetic to see such dribble... and right next to Holy pictures of Mary. I do not believe for a minute that they have contemplated at the foot of the cross with Mary watching her only son die nailed to a cross. They sound like adolescents who write that blog. You're right, so right, "the world deserves something better from followers of Jesus and Mary.... "
"Adolescents" strikes me as the right word to describe this immature, rather hysterical fear of gay men on the part of some overgrown boys who are defiantly certain that being heterosexual is like an achievement on their part, Fran. People secure in their own identities don't need to bolster their identities by hating on others.
Given the level of maturity exhibited by the cavemen, I suspect as followers of Jesus (cough, cough) they would be hiding in some room somewhere, or otherwise denying they had anything to do with that 'common criminal'.
In some ways Matthew Shephard's murder seems like a lifetime ago. Then, I read the headlines about bullies beating up gay high school students and young gay men committing suicide.
I have that same feeling, Ralph: a lifetime ago. And yet not at all far in the past, when we can open the paper any day of the week, it seems, and read another story about a gay teen being brutalized or driven to suicide.
I saw that, too, Crystal: over 100 followers. If you look at the stats counters and numbers of followers at many of the far-right Catholic sites, you'll see the same thing: lots of followers.
Yet Jesus had only 12 apostles, and most of them ran away from him at the cross . . . . And so I remind myself that making a difference in the world is not a question of playing a numbers game, since Hitler could command thousands of adoring acolytes.
OMG, I just checked out that Catholic Caveman Site. Kind of scary. He even said, "They need a new Queen Mary I to burn a few people. I think if she was alive today that this guy would scare her too. What undisguised hatred.
That site reeks of neo-nazi rottenness. Yet some apparently ordinary Catholic women write into it as if trusting it for spiritual guidance. The evil effects of homophobia go very wide and very deep -- it, more than anything else, could spell doom of the Catholic Church.
One other thing, Mary I was highly unpopular when she died, largely because she insisted on going through with the burnings of people condemned as heretics, and her husband Philip of Spain disapproved.
There are some people who think that so long as the word "Catholic" is used it, ipso facto, is holy and worthy of adulation (and don't forget those contributions that we so desperately need to keep our ministry of support for the Magisterium and the Holy Fodder on the air? Any amount will do, but $100 really makes us pee our pants, dontcha know?)
Adolescent cruelty seems to be running rampant in our society today. Not all adolescents behave that way, but you see a disturbing lack of empathy and selfishness evident in the bullying behavior of the Catholic bloggers you mention, in our politics, in the appeal of a Christianity founded upon cheap grace and personal economic advantage, and in the inexplicable appeal of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, all of which are destroying what remains of civil society. It appears we have a lot of people out there who are chronologically adult, but are still stuck in emotional adolescence.
You're so right, Kathy. If you'd told me fifty years ago that, at this point in our history, a contender for presidential nomination of one of our parties would be suggesting we put children to work a la Victorian London, I wouldn't have believed you. Cruelty galore.
I seriously pray that if they see enough visual imagery such as the 1400 Police Clones of the LA Empire arresting non violent protestors, that they will understand they are their own worst enemy. I probably will need a great deal of help with this prayer. :)
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I'm a theologian who writes about the interplay of belief and culture. My life partner Steve (also a theologian) and I are now in our 40th year together. Though the church has discarded us because we insist on being truthful about our shared life, we continue to celebrate the amazing grace we find in our journey together and love for each other. We live in hope; we remain on pilgrimage....
Religion and Public Life in the Southern Crossroads Region: The Showdown States. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira, 2004. Ed. by William D. Lindsey and Mark Silk.
Shailer Mathews? Lives of Jesus: The Search for a Theological Foundation for the Social Gospel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
?AIDS, Homosexuality, and the Churches in America Today,? Bulletin for Contextual Theology in Southern Africa and Africa 7,1 (2000), 45-48.
?The AIDS Crisis and the Church: A Time to Heal.? In Christian Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender, ed. Adrian Thatcher and Elizabeth Stuart. London: Eerdmans and Gracewing, 1996. Pp. 347-66.