Who’s the robber in the parable of the Good Samaritan?
“The Good Samaritan” by Liz Lemon Swindle
Listen in on this interchange:
Evan: Some folks put the issue of LDS LGBTQs “on the shelf.” They can’t figure out how to reconcile the two, so they put it aside for now. I understand that having a shelf available on which to store our concerns when we’re too tired to productively wrestle with them can be important. That being said, for some of us, there simply is no shelf – there’s only a bleeding LGBTQ loved one on the road to Jericho (GayLDSCrossroads, page 11).
Marci thought: That seemed so relevant, with priests and Levites walking by on the other side. But then came the chilling realization: if the LGBTQ loved one is the victim, and allies are trying to be the good Samaritan, and some people look away like the priests and Levites, who's the robber? I sent that alarming thought to Evan in an email with this subject line: “I hate to say this out loud, but. . .”
Without missing a beat, Evan dropped his response into Chapter 1 of the manuscript like this (GayLDSCrossroads, page 11):
Side note: By drawing this analogy to the Good Samaritan parable, I do not intend to make myself look better than fellow church members who are not engaged in LGBTQ allyship efforts. I understand that for most of them, they may not be sufficiently aware of the pain our LGBTQ siblings are feeling to properly see them as the injured traveler fallen on the roadside. I’m hoping this book helps create more awareness of that suffering.
Then Evan added this similarly humble follow-up idea, suggesting that, at some time, we have all inadvertently been the robber: I also do not intend to compare the church to the robber in the parable. I recognize the robber intended to harm the traveler for selfish gain. But church leaders have acted without such deliberate malice when teaching doctrines that are harmful to LGBTQ church members. So an empathy-building question for all church leaders and members might be: “What would it mean to you to find out that you were unjustifiably hurting someone, robbing them of opportunities to maintain well-being and to experience healthy love and joy – and you didn’t even know it?” I think in different contexts, we all have inadvertently been the robber in the parable at one time or another. Once we realize that, I feel that the real test of our discipleship becomes whether we respond by changing roles to act as good Samaritans – to try to fix the harm we have caused. (GayLDSCrossroads, page 11).
Marci’s response to Evan: “Wow. That just blows me away. It’s what we’ve been saying all along about church leaders, that two things can be true at the same time: they’re good people, and they don’t get it. The same can be true for me: I can be a good person, and sometimes I just don’t get it, and I cause harm. And that’s ok – what matters most is what happens next. That is two big life lessons wrapped into one: if I’m afraid to look, that’s an indication that there just might be something good under the scary part. And if I or someone else or even the whole church has robbed inadvertently, we can repent. That’s what the Atonement of Jesus Christ is all about.
“The Good Samaritan” (modern) by Liz Lemon Swindle