By Linda Hart Green
Actions and words should match. Easy to say but difficult to do. This truth applies to individuals, organizations and communities. A new sign at our city’s entrance on South Eighth and Lime streets has been enhanced with landscaping to look more attractive. The sign reads: “Welcome to historic Fernandina Beach.”
Welcome is more than appearance. Welcome is a learned skill that improves with practice.
Last weekend’s Pride parade and festival are examples of events where words and actions matched. The atmosphere was joyful. Attendees felt safe to be themselves. Rules and guidelines were followed. Organizers, vendors, law enforcement and festival goers all cooperated.
The wider community participated by lining the streets and cheering and waving as the parade passed. I had fun driving a borrowed convertible so I could chauffeur some local community leaders. Afterward, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.
There were a few naysayers from outside our community who tried to get attention. Some engaged with them. Mostly they were ignored. Nothing untoward happened, despite the fears of some.
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 17, the community has the opportunity again to match words and actions at the annual Juneteenth celebration. Juneteenth Jump-off takes place at the Peck/Charles Eugene Richo Field at 516 South 10th Street from noon until 7:00 p.m.
This is a chance to commemorate an important holiday with our Black friends and neighbors. The Black community has a long and storied history in Fernandina. We can benefit from learning more about it and by celebrating the culture and achievements of the Black community since the end of slavery.
This family-friendly event marks June 19, 1865, when the news of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached the last enslaved community in Galveston, Texas. Union troops brought this welcomed news by boat two and a half years after President Lincoln had made the proclamation, and there were enough troops there to enforce it.
The celebration of this momentous occasion began in Galveston, spread to other cities and towns in Texas, then to other states until it was finally made a national holiday in 2021. Participating in the celebration is a way to say, “I see all you have gone through. I celebrate all you have accomplished.”
A community is welcoming when it provides safe space for a variety of people and opinions and ideas. Author Jenny Gehman said it this way: “I have come to believe that the center of hospitality is not the creation of delicious food, a beautiful table or a spotless home. It is about the creation of safety. The question to ask others is, ‘What do you need in order to feel safe here with me?'”
I felt very nervous the week before the Pride festival. I knew that careful plans were in place to provide safety. I still worried that something might happen that would disrupt a sense of joy and celebration and cause distress. I was so relieved when nothing happened. I realized the nervousness I felt gave me only an inkling of the feelings that a member of a marginalized community must feel every time they enter the space of another group.
We can’t help others feel safe if we fear their difference and remain defensive with our guards up. This posture just leads us to react rather than respond. It leads us to put up barriers rather than try to bring them down.
I am under no illusion that welcome is easy to do or without risk. Vulnerability can feel dangerous. Learning about others can feel unsettling. Long held beliefs may be challenged.
But if we open ourselves to the possibility of the gifts of welcome, the experiences can also be enriching, exciting and fun.
We can start this journey anywhere, any time. It can be as simple as learning what the letters LGBTIQA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual) or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) stand for, rather than dismissing them as “alphabet soup.” When we don’t know something, we can admit it and ask for help.
Those of us of Christian faith and values can look to the many and varied examples of welcome in the ministry of Jesus who mirrored the welcome of God. His actions always matched His words.
I hope we continue to learn and grow together. I hope our community can feel like safe space for all. I hope that the words on our new city sign match how we live.
Linda Hart Green is Pastor Emeritus of Emmanuel Church, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and co-owner of Shady Ladies Art Studios and Gallery in Fernandina Beach. She holds an M.Div. and a Certificate in Pastoral Leadership Development from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Editor’s note: The Observer welcomes thoughtful commentaries when submitted. The opinions expressed in any commentary are solely those of the writer.
Thanks for this Linda!
Thankful for everyone’s safety.
Violence is never the answer if someone disagrees with another’s lifestyle. But truth balanced with love is! Jesus has the perfect balance of love and truth. His perfect love loves all and His love is in the form of action—His death on the cross and His resurrection to save us.
His perfect truth is absolute. It is His written Word. His Word does not need to change with the times because It withstands the test of time. God states clearly in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin. We are all sinners,and in need of a savior. But to celebrate in sin and label it as pride is dangerous. Jesus is here for us to repent and change our ways. He has a better plan for each of us. So please “pastor” do not use Jesus as an example in your virtue signaling and cherry picking. In your article you mentioned His love but you failed to mention His truth.
Joytim (or whoever you are hiding behind a code name), what you call truth and sin is your own opinion, and many people who are Christian and read the Bible would disagree with you. I encourage you to examine your own history and experiences and try to understand how you came to your beliefs. At the very least, try to understand that your beliefs might fit you and where you are in life, but do not fit other people. Remember, pride and arrogance are also sins.
I see you feel the need to correct me at the same time you minimize my credentials to speak to this issue by putting my title in quotes. What is clear to you is an interpretation of text you have been taught and choose to believe and follow which is your right. That does not mean you can dictate to others what is true. You see in a mirror dimly, as Paul suggests we all do.
joytim that is spot on. Full disclosure…I am born of a Jewish mother and raised Christian. “Jew for Jesus!” Attending First Baptist somewhat regularly. We are to welcome and called to love thy neighbor like Jesus did. But what this Pastor fails to mention is that each time Jesus reached out and ministered to save sinners (Zacheus, Mary Magdaline, etc) he called on those people to turn from their sin and sin no more. People like to throw His name out for political purposes such as this topic (also open border immigration) as this all inclusive figure but as Paster Green knows the first mention of hell, fire and brimstone was in the New Testament by Jesus Himself! Hardly the tolerant all accepting figure that some make him out to be. For Paster Green to condone, preach to or admonish others who disagree, let alone celebrate a lifestyle that by definition goes against the Bible is clearly not of God’s word and is leading people astray IMO. I don’t cast judgement on what is sin or not or what is in people’s hearts. I can only use the Bible as a guide and it is clear about sexual immorality in more than one verse and in both Old and New Testament. And that goes for “straight” people also…cheating, pornography, all of it. It’s all sin according to the Bible and most everyone is guilty of something at one time in our life. “We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” which is precisely why God came to earth as Christ and died as a sacrifice to reconcile us back to him. Surely it is not something to be “Proud”, celebrated or have a whole month publicly dedicated to when most Holidays…Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Veterans Day, Christmas, Easter etc. get one day (at least Hanukah has 8, LOL). I comment not with hate or to but with love and hope that some people who may read this may actually open their Bibles and find out the truth. Not what the world wants them to hear or what might be politically correct at the moment but what Jesus really said and did while on earth. Maybe someone who is confused or feeling unsafe will seek answers and feel welcome in a local Bible based Church that will bring real “safety” to their soul. God bless!
We should never welcome sin into our lives. Promoters of sin have a special place in hell reserved for them.
Pride is a sin, as well.
Always follow the “Golden Rule” and you will have no trouble treating people the way you would want to be treated..kindness is a virtue.
Linda, I really like how you reminded us about how Jesus welcomed others! For those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus, we all should follow Him in His footsteps and be as welcoming. Jesus got a lot of push back from the self-righteous religious people of his day for loving the outcasts. In a religious community used to basing their standing with God on doing the right things and earning God’s favor that way, they missed the new way Jesus was trying to show. The new way to be in right relationship with God wasn’t based on one’s own merit, but rather based on grace (unmerited favor). Those religious folks just couldn’t understand Jesus. In their eyes, Jesus was scandalous! He made religious people angry and upset when he spent time “those people”. The unconditional love Jesus showed to others infuriated them. Jesus was always about radical hospitality and welcome. With clarity of purpose, He simply loved everybody. This is just one of many things I love about Jesus. He loves me. He loves you. He loves everybody. We see examples of Jesus reaching out to the marginalized most often in the book of Luke. Jesus always had his arms wide open, ready to embrace any who heard His call to a new life. His arms were wide open when He hung on that cross too. It makes me wonder how Jesus would be treated by self-righteous religious people around today. Would he be crucified all over again?
I would like to point out that religion is just a way that humans have found for fulfilling certain needs. Some people need definite, black-and-white answers to some of the mysteries of life, and religion can provide that to them. For some people it’s more of a social or cultural activity. For some, religion is a personal way of getting through life. Religion is always only a personal opinion, and can never be the same for everyone. Just like people have opinions about what goes on pizza, what they like in an automobile, what clothes they wear, etc., your religion is just your own opinion about things. That’s all. Values and morals don’t have to come from religion at all; they emerge from a reasoned, responsible, and mature examination of life. Tolerance of differences and diversity are reasonable values. Intolerance and debasing others for their individual differences have no place in a mature society. Just my opinion.
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For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
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Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Mark, we have seen time and time again through history what happens when the masses “lose their religion”. I don’t even like to call a personal relationship with God through Christ “religion” but to rebuff your comment. Every time a society or country or empire as a whole loses their sense of “right and wrong” based on the 10 Commandments that civilization rots and corrupts from within and is destroyed. Every single time in the known history of the world. Facts are facts. We are seeing it right now with the moral and economic decline of our great Country led by corrupt politicians and corporations. China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and to some extent our own Government are all coming for our most valuable possession, freedom! And they laugh at us because we are doing it to ourselves.
Since I can’t find where any member of the Fernandina Beach Pride group have denounced what happened in Seattle at their Pride Parade, should we expect adult men exposing themselves to children, all in the name of belong.