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Looking Into The Face of
God
Marcus C. Pomeroy, March 29, 1999 --
[The following is a speech given at the SPARC Rally in
Harrisburg on March 23, 1999.] My faith
experience tells me that God is in each one of us and
that what we do to each other we do to God. Look around
at one another's faces, gaze into one another's eyes for
just a moment. Notice the person beside you, in front of
you, behind you, the color of his or her skin, its
softness and smoothness, or the etching that time and
experience has left. Some of us are tall, some short,
some young, some old, some male, some female. Some of us
have dark hair, some gray, some no hair at all. What you
are seeing is the face of God. This is what God looks
like, us in all our wonderful, beautiful diversity. This
is why all across the nation people just like us are
joining together. Our faith compels us to stand with one
another because we are all children of the same God. We
are here today because we share a common root system that
nourishes us with the passionate love of God. We are here
to claim with our brother Martin Luther King, Jr. that
where justice is denied to even one of us, justice is
denied to all of us, until there is justice for all of us
there is not justice for any of us.
A few weeks ago a member of our
congregation told us that she and her partner have not
even had the courtesy of a reply to their brief asking
for an advisory opinion regarding their effort to be
recognized as the legal parents of their two sons. The
judge does not even respond to their communications or
the communications of their attorney. They are rendered
invisible, not even afforded the dignity of being
recognized as worthy citizens of this Commonwealth. This
young woman bore her sons in her own body, her partner
shared with her every step of two carefully planned
pregnancies, labor and delivery. Together, these two
wonderful caring Moms, have built a home and tried to
insure the safety well-being and future welfare of their
boys, just as all loving parents would do. But the state
of Pennsylvania and this judge refuse to recognize the
validity and sanctity of their partnership, refuse,
apparently, even to recognize their very personhood, let
alone their legitimacy as a family. For that family, the
law as it now stands means that should the major wage
earner die, those two little boys would not receive most
of the financial benefits to which children of
heterosexual parents are entitled. I am here, you are
here, and thousands of others all across America are
joined with us because our faith claims that God demands
justice for this family.
My faith tradition tells me that where
there is love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control-
there God is present. Look around you. Can you see it?
God's face is not turned away from us. The voices of
hatred, violence, religious intolerance, fear and
socially sanctioned abuse have tried to drown out the
beautiful melody of our chorus, but our voices grow
stronger every day, and the power of our song of justice
and equality will never be overcome. We shall overcome.
Because it is God's song we sing, the song of creation
itself, the song of equal partners in faith, of equal
partners in God's love.Marcus C.
Pomeroy is the Pastor at Central Baptist Church of Wayne
PA, Harrisburg
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