Dear Governor Jan Brewer,
I will have to admit right up front…I have only been to Arizona one time in my life. However, the state has in several ways touched my life time and time again over these past few years.
My trip to Arizona was for an interview with a church in Tucson seeking to call a new Pastor. As I made the drive into the city from the airport, I saw the landscape of Arizona spill out around me…miles and miles of desert, dry and gray with the random green cacti dotting the landscape. I immediately thought of the stories I have heard of our South and Central American sisters and brothers risking their lives to cross over into your state…escaping hardship I hope to never experience, in hopes of a new life…in America. I thought of the rough terrain they must navigate and the unforgiving “dry heat” that complicates their mission even further.
So my first impression of Arizona was rough…dry and gray. And I could only hope that the people I would encounter would be the warm, bright presence necessary to balance that of the surrounding landscape.
As I was given a tour of the city, I very quickly realized that the people were exactly what I had hoped for…generous, caring, friendly… completely contradictory to the desert that they occupy.
My perception of Arizona began to change very quickly. I began to see the beauty that the desert presents. I began to see the life that it enables. And, in those few moments, I was able to see the promise for ministry with a new church and a new life for me and my partner or 10 years.
Fast forward a bit and the church decided that I was not the one God was calling to lead them. So my search continued and included another congregation in Arizona. More open to the prospect of living in this desert state, I engaged in various conversations with the congregation with a glimpse of what life could be for our family.
As it would happen, I instead took a call to minister with a congregation in Rhode Island…far from the desert sands.
But I often wonder what life would have been like had things been different…had I taken a call to pastor a congregation in a state that is inundated with conversations about immigration reform and border-crossings, injustice and death. And now…seeing that Arizona is on the precipice of injustice once again with SB1062…I am conflicted in my heart as to my physical location. Had I been called to Arizona, I could be presenting this letter to you in person…standing alongside my LGBT sisters and brothers, asking you to do the right thing and turn this bill and its inner-hatred away. Had I been called to minister in Arizona, I would have been able to be a constant presence - calling for the justice rightly owed to one and all who identify in ways different than perhaps you do.
Instead, I write this letter from my office in Rhode Island, realizing that although I am not physically able to sit with you and have conversation, I am able to let you know where I stand.
I stand, first and foremost, as a child of a loving God, made manifest in the life and teachings of Jesus - calling us time and time again to speak the truth to power and to rally for change when we or others suffer injustice.
I stand as an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, a community that has taught me time and time again that when my voice is silent I remove myself from the conversation. I am called to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ - teachings that center often on the poor and marginalized. I minister with a group of people passionate about this calling and I stand before them as an example of living our faith out loud.
I stand as an openly gay man, once marginalized and yet now loved and affirmed in the church, in my community and day after day, further in the world…
Until something like SB1062 arises and threatens to change it all.
With the stroke of your pen, you have the unfortunate ability to light a stronger fire under the injustice that is already widespread. But also with that same pen, you have the ability to stand with me…with others who are just as passionate, just as deserving, just as concerned about being treated fairly. You have the ability to shut it all down.
Across the miles I call to you to make the right decision..veto this bill…and do it quickly, without blinking, because you know in your heart that is what needs to be done.
And know that across the miles I will be watching, as will others, eager to celebrate the work you will do in not turning back the clock to a time when the very being of an individual designated the services and resources available to them.
And although I am physically so far away…know that I am open to having further conversation with you on this movement. My voice will continue to be shared.
Blessings,
Rev. Timoth Sylvia
