HAPPY EASTER: Gay worshippers find special meaning in Easter

According to SF Gate.com:

The Rev. Jim Mitulski says no week tells the story of his life as a gay man quite like Easter.
The story begins with Palm Sunday, Jesus' jaunty entry into Jerusalem, where people placed their cloaks and tree branches on his path to welcome him. For Mitulski, it feels like a gay pride parade - a public and political celebration beyond government control.

Holy Week then evokes a broader and deeper arc of gay life, Mitulski says, from violations of Jesus' due process and a Last Supper with outcasts like him, to betrayals by those closest to him, his crucifixion and then resurrection - a new life after coming out from his tomb.

Predominantly gay churches, which have flourished in the Bay Area for decades, embrace a unique theology that shows parishioners how the Bible reflects many of the struggles they face every day. On no day is that more true than today, Easter, the faith's most sacred day of the year.

Easter "evokes from us the experience of resurrection in our own bodies and in our own spirits," said Mitulski, the pastor at New Spirit Community Church in Berkeley. "It's not just a retelling. It's an embodiment."

Both religious and secular society have heaped messages upon gays and lesbians that their bodies are sinful or their sexuality a product of mental illness, said Rev. D. Mark Wilson, a pastor at Tapestry Ministries in Berkeley. AIDS is described by some Christians as punishment from God.

But Wilson and others believe the Bible repeatedly decouples the idea that sin is associated with the body or that illness is punishment.

In Second Corinthians, the apostle Paul says he prayed three times for a thorn to be removed from his flesh. God doesn't remove "the thorn" but says his grace is sufficient, which some interpret as God telling Paul to accept his body for what it is.

"Being 19, in the closet and doing everything I could to pray away my gayness, that scripture spoke to me," said Wilson, 49.

The symbolism of the body can extend to the night of the Last Supper, where Jesus' washes the feet of his disciples - a vulnerable act that was countercultural at the time. Jesus acknowledges that two disciples will turn on him, including Judas, who betrays him to his Roman executioners. After Jesus' arrest, Peter denies knowing him.

For Mitulski, the betrayals evoke painful memories from the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. Then a minister at Metropolitan Community Church in the Castro district, Mitulski officiated more than 500 funerals. The victims had often been abandoned by those who knew them best.
"It was not unusual for a person to be in San Francisco without friends or family that they grew up with during the time they were dying," Mitulski said. "That story has an unfortunate and familiar resonance."

Mitulski said the Castro district church he led from 1985 to 2000 was over 90 percent gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. New Spirit intentionally strives to have a congregation that is half heterosexual.

Some straight people believe such blended churches fortify their faith.
The Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart, 57, said gay theology forced her, a straight married woman, to broaden the definition of family and commitment to loved ones.

"Queer theology challenges categories and causes us to go deeper into stories, images and questions of faith and, in a sense, liberates us as well," she said.

This Easter morning, New Spirit congregants will mark Jesus' resurrection. Some see it as a coming-out story. Jesus comes out of the tomb. He is reborn. For those who have HIV - including Mitulski, whose doctors told him he would die in 1999 - Easter is a reminder that they have new life. They will celebrate being together, decked out in their Sunday finest. They will celebrate being alive.

"We're not in church because our parents wanted us to be here," Mitulski said. "We're here because it's an authentic expression of what we've experienced."

E-mail Matthai Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com.

Happy St. Patty's Day: Who's Irish?

Lots of celebrities are likely to be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day tonight—but you might be surprised to discover which of them actually have Irish roots. The Daily Beast lists 8 you might not expect:

Barack Obama: Yes, it’s Obama, not O’Bama. Nevertheless, the president has an Irish great-great-great-grandfather.

Christina Aguilera: She’s known more for her Ecuadorian roots and Latin rhythms, but her mom is Irish.

Harrison Ford: As Adam Sandler noted in “The Chanukah Song,” he is part Jewish—and half Irish.

Alicia Keys: She’s black, Italian, Scottish, and a teensy bit Irish.

Ben Stiller: Known as—as Time magazine once put it—a “big Jew,” he’s actually half Irish.

John Travolta: He always seems to play Italian guys—and his dad is Italian—but his mom was Irish and he grew up with Irish traditions.

John Stamos: He played a Greek on Full House and he really is half Greek, but Uncle Jesse's character was almost named Adam Cochran—and his mom is Irish.

Janeane Garofalo: The half-Irish comedian got in touch with her roots in 1997’s The Matchmaker, set in Ireland.