A National Reckoning: The Interment of Matthew Shepard

“There are three things I’d say to Matt: ‘Gently rest in this place. You are safe now. And Matt, welcome home.’ Amen.” ~ Bishop Gene Robinson

Matthew Shepard was laid to rest today at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., twenty years after he was murdered near Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard’s parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, asked for his remains to be interred in the Cathedral, in part, for fear that any other grave site would be a magnet for desecration. Sadly, their fear is justified.

I first learned of Matthew Shepard’s story after coming across an arresting image created by iconographer William (Fr. Bill) Hart McNichols, “The Passion of Matthew Shepard.” Completed in the year 2000, Fr. Bill released the image with the following dedication: Dedicated to the Memory of the 1,470 Gay and Lesbian Youth Who Commit Suicide in the U.S. Each Year And To The Countless Others Who Are Injured Or Murdered.

This morning, NPR ran a brief but poignant story about the interment of Shepard’s remains. Senior reporter Tom Gjelten noted that the National Cathedral is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, “among the most LGBT friendly” of Christian denominations. Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, who “knows the sting of prejudice firsthand,” would preside. (At his episcopal installation ceremony, Robinson wore a bullet-proof vest, and received death threats almost daily for years after.) To carry Shepard’s ashes into the Cathedral, said Bishop Robinson, will be “an indescribable honor for me.”

“We’ve had a straight son and a gay son, and they’re not considered equal,” wonders Dennis Shepard. “They don’t have the same rights, and why is that? I can’t get an answer from anybody. They want to take rights away from the LGBTQ community, but when I ask them, and compare it to my two sons, they can’t tell me why.”

Listening to the story in the car on my way to work this morning, it felt to me like a kind of communal prayer, a 3 minute national reckoning, mediated, strangely enough, by NPR. And a sobering reminder of the rhetorical and very real violence of “othering” that continues in our midst. “First they came for the blacks . . . then the Jews and Muslims . . . then the gays and lesbians . . . then the journalists . . . then my son. . . . And then they came for me.” But is anybody really listening? The news cycle continues, the next outrage is quick to follow.

GeneRobinson.Matt.Shepard — Bishop Gene Robinson carries the remains of Matthew Shepard, with Judy and Dennis Shepard following / Photo Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images

“Where there is hatred,” says Saint Francis of Assisi, “let me sow Your love. Where there is injury, Your pardon, Lord.”

May our remembrance of Matthew Shepard and thousands upon thousands more like him be a source of courage for all who remain on the margins, fighting for their right simply to be, to belong, to love and be loved. And may our shared lament be a source of healing for the dead and for the living, a veiled reminder, in ways that surpass all understanding, that death will not be the last word.

If you have a few moments to listen to the story, to pause, remember, and pray, I promise it will be worth your time. It may even spark something unexpected in you, something hopeful and beautiful, as it did in me.

Postscript: A few years ago, the Jesuit-run America magazine ran a meditation by Fr. James Alison, “Toward Global Inclusion of LGBT People within Catholic Communities.” As one might expect, the comments thread following the article reflects the contentious pastoral and theological divide that continues to afflict the Roman Catholic Church over this issue–as it did and continues to do so for the Episcopal Church. Jesuit Fr. James Martin has faced both gratitude and condemnation from fellow Catholics for his efforts to “build a bridge” of welcome and inclusivity for LGBTQ persons in the church. My own attempt to think and pray through these questions can be found here, as well as in Chapter 8 of Hope Sings, So Beautiful: Graced Encounters Across the Color Line.

5 Responses to "A National Reckoning: The Interment of Matthew Shepard"

Sandra Ahn says:

October 27, 2018 at 12:57 pm

Thank you Christopher.

The faith and courage of Matthew’s parents are a model for all of us.

With peace,

Sandra

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George McBride says:

October 27, 2018 at 4:54 pm

How appropriate that you link to your 2013 article on “essentialism while mentioning the Episcopal Church in this blog. That particular church, which condones both gay marriage and abortion, is becoming less “essentialist” all the time. Indeed, several years ago they would not even pass a resolution proclaiming Christ as Lord. As writer Charlotte Allen notes “When a Christian church cannot bring itself to endorse a bedrock Christian theological statement repeatedly found in the New Testament, it is not a serious Christian church.” I wonder if that will ultimately be the fate of the Catholic Church?

Now, maybe I’m just a Bible thumping, unenlightened “Christian,” but at some point a church has to retain some essential principles (By the way, “Christian” is how you yourself referred to some of President Trump’s spiritual advisers in a previous article). In any event, the Bible is perfectly clear on God’s stand on homosexuality. It is forbidden. Now, that particular teaching may be vexing to your liberal sensibilities, but it remains true. If you happen to reject it as “essentialist” or a vestigial belief from a provincial time, why believe in any difficult aspect of Christianity? Why not reject Hell and damnation? Why believe that Jesus is “essential” to salvation?

You mention the concept of “conscientious dissent.” OK, at what point does dissent become outright heresy? At what point are your beliefs so contrary to the Bible and Christian teaching that you are no longer a Christian? Christians are supposed to conform to the religion, not have the religion conform to them. But, perhaps that’s simply too much to ask of human beings. Perhaps, in the end, we believe what we want to believe.

You ask if “the mystery of covenantal love in all its potentially sacramental realizations might not also include homosexual love?” The answer, at least according to the Bible and thousands of years of Christian teaching, is no. Again, if you reject this, you may as well reject all Biblical teaching on sexual morality. Why contain sex within a covenant or sacrament? That’s old fashioned, repressive thinking. Jesus must have been a fool to tell men that even looking at a woman lustfully was sinful. What a prude! I should not only covet my neighbor’s wife, but also commit a little adultery with her. Why not?

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Jack says:

October 28, 2018 at 4:51 pm

My best intuition is that The Lord is best equiped to make moral judgments. “Who am I to judge” what God ultimately will decide. If that mind set was good ennough for Francis, I’m comfortable with the same mind set. I just do a poor job when it comes to judging.

Jack Goldberg

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1. George McBride says:
  
  October 28, 2018 at 5:33 pm
  
  So, are human beings never to make moral judgements? Are we never to call something good or evil? If that’s the case the author of this blog, Chris Pramuk, should immediately cease writing. He often rails against President Trump, white privilege, social injustice, etc. He’s clearly being judgemental. Here is a link to an informative examination of judgement and what Jesus has to say about it.
  
  https://www.facebook.com/MattWalshBlog/videos/1957902677576166/
  
  Reply
Kate Fannon says:

June 25, 2021 at 7:04 pm

If you want to be an essential Christian, obey Christ’s words on love as being above all else, on loving others as yourself, even your ‘enemies’. To do otherwise is not to be a Christian. You might also refer to the attempted stoning of a woman accused of adultery when Christ intervened and asked those standing around to throw the first stone if they without sin. Christ also said he would not judge the woman. So how is it that Christians are setting themselves above God, not following Christ’s words and example?

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