Sparrow
by Nathan Kitchen
Submitted to Affirmation following The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s reversal of their November 2015 policy changes that prohibited children of LGBTQ parents from being blessed and baptized and characterized members of the church entering into same-sex marriages as apostates. These changes became known within the LGBTQ Mormon community as the “exclusion policy,” “policy of exclusion,” or “PoX.” The day after the reversal of this policy was announced, Nathan Kitchen, President of Affirmation, invited anyone willing to and share their authentic feelings and all their stories of grief, anger, relief, sadness, happiness, confusion, whatever they may be that surround the rescinding this policy. “As President of Affirmation, I want to be sure Affirmation does not hide you or your stories as we move forward,” wrote Kitchen in his invitation. If you have reactions or a story to share about the reversal of the exclusion policy, please send to [email protected]. You can also read other stories and reactions to the reversal of the exclusion policy.
Sparrow
A bird is not an ornithologist
It just is
Living life as itself
Basking in the sun
and eating a morning mealAnd singing.
Oh, the singing!
Being
Despite book, proclamation, and policy
Being!
Naming does not confine nor words control
Neither two farthings.
For the thing jotted in a field notebook
is nothing for the bird in the field.Both man and God watch the sparrow fall
But in the watching
It is still a sparrow.
Nathan R. Kitchen
I love the defiance in this: do all you want, say all you want, debate and pontificate all you want–we exist, we exist, we exist. Thank you.