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An Unofficial Guide to Mars Hill
OREGON S LGBTO NEWSMAGAZINE
Life changes convincingly: I spent last sum
mer preparing for a return to the city proper,
lazing repeatedly in any body ot water I could
find, amassing stamps in my imaginary happy
hour passport, and nurturing a fledgling friend
ship that would turn into one of my life’s most
important. This year, consumed by lost life and
love, my toes have touched only my bathtub’s
water, that aforementioned friend is bound for
San Francisco— but fortunately my happy hour
routine hasn’t changed. A hint of normalcy.
I also reread Joan Didion’s The White Album
and found a passage I’d probably seen a dozen
times before but never noticed. Facing an un
raveling marriage, she wrote, “Quite often dur
ing the past several years I have felt myself a
sleepwalker, moving through the world uncon
scious of the moment’s high issues, oblivious to
its data, alert only to the stuff of bad dreams.”
W hile I (hope I) haven’t been sleepwalking for
years, I related to her fixations. And while in
dulging in more than my fair share of melan
choly, I wondered what might reanimate me.
Then evangelical mega-church Mars Hill set its
sights on Portland.
This chain of churches,-gobbling up real es
tate like Starbucks, has been covered exhaus
tively by most media outlets. Many have aptly
pointed out a 700-member super-church is a
mere drop in the bucket in a much bigger, bet
ter-financed culture war; and people, regardless
lady about town
BY DANIEL BORGEN
of their misguided beliefs, have a right to
them—as we do ours. But religious beliefs,
much to the chagrin o f many, aren’t off limits.
W hile I don’t worry the Hill people will be
come a hazardous blight on our city’s landscape,
their ambush warrants an examination of some
of their core concepts. (I know a little about
evangelicals; I spent over a decade with them.)
Churches like Mars Hill actively advocate
the so-called “Great Commission”— a doctrine
best described as a hyper-intrusive sales quota,
a compulsion to convert every living person on
the planet (or as many as they can collect) to
specific teachings. Said teachings, as they (mis)
interpret them, unequivocally state that queers
are bound to burn for all eternity in a lake of
fire (hell). This is a real belief evangelicals heart
ily embrace— and leaders proudly display.
W hile we queers don’t demand much from
them, relocation to the Midwest aside, they do,
in their heart of hearts, long (and pray) for us to
renounce the gay and turn to their version of
Jesus. It is their paramount hope; no amount of
breaking bread or exchanging pleasantries with
them will alter that irrefutable certainty.
Churches of this ilk are getting clever with
their hateful rhetoric, burying it in vague gener-
SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
29
JÜ5
cals we’re not degenerates—if we love, we auto
matically are. Nor can we stop them from raising
countless closet cases and self-loathing queer
kids. It’s not like we’re talking to some reason
able Catholic who’s sort of on the fence about
gay marriage. To avoid hell, we must renounce
our sin, our being. Sharing our sad stories about
rough queer upbringings won’t alter the hate
woven into the fabric of their beloved belief sys
tem. And hate as euphemism is still hate.
I do find some hope in (sporadic) tales of
friends and family members recovering from
evangelical fever. That, though, usually involves
said members leaving their respective congrega
tions. While anything is possible, that’s the ex
ception, not the rule. I don’t anticipate an exo
dus from Mars. Theirs is a committed,
well-funded machine, intent on altering the
world’s social and political landscape.
Part of me wishes I could simply live in the
places hope resides, the split-second lull when
you glimpse possibility. I want Logan’s optimism.
But I’ve lived and seen too much fundamental
ism with all its entanglements to let my guard
down now—to me, the movement is the stuff of
Didion’s had dreams, intent on wrecking the
world to fit egregious views. Time seems better
spent tending to the reasonable and rational, let
ting the Hill people flail in the margins, preach
ing extremes. In the interim, we’ll ju§t be—and
perhaps stage a protest or two.
alizations. Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill pastor, said,
“I will never say homosexuality is okay because
it’s not. I will likewise never say that it is the only
sin or it’s a sin that rises above the other sins and
that the gay guy who comes to Mars Hill and
sits next to the couple that is dating and sleeping
together is any less or more righteous.” So “not
okay” is the new euphemism for “abomination”
and “deviant.” See how clever that is? You’re wel
come to come to church, you’re still going to hell,
hut you’re not going to a worse hell than the
straight sluts sitting next to you.
After the folks at Mars Hill announced their
Portland site, my friend Logan Lynn, Q_Cen-
ter’s public relations manager, graciously and
optimistically extended an olive branch to the
Hill people. (Let me he clear: I support Q C e n -
ter, I’ve spent years volunteering there.) Per
Logan, conversations were positive and civil,
and both sides left with a “better understanding
o f the other perspective.” I don’t doubt staff at
Q_felt that way, and I don’t doubt the Hill peo
ple felt they did the Lord’s work by meeting
with some homos. (Their website response im
plied as much.) Bonus: Maybe a meet and greet
could improve their standing with local media.
Soon I'll further cement my big gay sin in San
Nothing we say or do can convince evangeli Francisco— at Folsom. Email daniel@justout.com.
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