A POEM on the occasion of evangelist Franklin Graham coming to Liverpool with a message of condemnation for LGBT+ people.

By Steven Shakespeare, author of several books including Prayers For An Inclusive Church, and long-term supporter of our first Open Table community in the city.

I’m told I choose the nice bits:
a mallow-hearted saviour
mouthing toothless platitudes
about acceptance and love.

I’m told I leave too much out:
the black and white of judgement,
the ‘made them male and female’,
the kiss of stones and hellfire.

I must have read it all wrong:
how love is the hardest part,
love the heart blown open wide,
love the risen, unconsoled.

I must have put too much weight
on the cross where love deposed
the devil from his glass throne
and his straight white path of pain.

I must have placed too much trust
in ‘neither male nor female’,
in queer kin and love’s new names,
in faithfulness above all.

I think it’s too late for me.
I am born again and claimed
by love as fierce as the grave,
stronger than the coldest hate.

And I will not stop loving
those who have taught me to love.
And I will not stop reading
words that have wrung out my heart.

Thank you, Steven, for your solidarity.