When will it get better?

My daughter has written a moving and disturbing reflection on the issue of bullying and violence targeting LGBTQ people. As always, I cannot say enough how very proud I am of my daughter, who is now a columnist with an online parenting magazine, Connected Mom. She is a wonderful parent and an incredibly gifted writer. Her blogposts and her columns move me, challenge me and more than once have left me in tears.

Please go and read the whole thing. But here is the most challenging part:

When will it get better?

When will the hatred and cruelty and Dehumanizing end? When will LGBT couples be recognized and afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples? When will LGBT people be allowed to live freely and openly no matter what their profession? When will the ‘alternative’ LGBT lifestyle be awarded more consideration and respect than flamboyant pantomimes on prime time?

When will cowardly men stop hiding together in alleys waiting to extinguish all that they have been taught to hate about themselves? Which generation will it be that finally breaks free of the learned hate & teaches the next to be peaceful and accepting?

The bullying, unfortunately, doesn’t end at the doors of high school. It is institutionalized, it is ingrained, it is everywhere. Maybe our capacity to deal with it gets better, maybe we find a little more power in our lives, more independence and control and feel a little more at home in our own skins. But the bullying doesn’t end with high school.

We keep saying it will get better but people are dying and I am tired of waiting.

At her baptism, her mother and her godparents and I promised on her behalf that she would "persevere in resisting evil," that she would "strive for justice and peace," that she would "respect the dignity of every human being."

She is keeping those promises we made on her behalf. That is why she is tired of waiting.

How do I proclaim hope to my daughter? To the families of those countless young men and women - not just the six we heard of in the last few days, but all of them - who saw no way out of hopelessness and despair? To the next victim? And the next? And the next? Where is the Gospel, the Good News?

It does get better.

Not fast enough. Not by a long shot. And too late for some to see the victory this side of the Jordan.

But in the end, evil will not triumph, even when evil steals the mantle of righteousness and blasphemes God by speaking hate in his name.

Evil will not triumph.

In the Words of Dr, King:

When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

Thanks be to God.