I still have not seen the final episode of Game of Thrones. After watching…enduring…suffering through… (are there any other terms in the thesaurus) every episode of every season, I still have not seen the final episode. Miraculously enough, I’ve neither heard nor read how the series ends. I don’t have a clue what happens! No one has let the cat out of the bag and ‘spoiled’ the ending for me.
With that in mind, this is a ‘spoiler alert.’ I’m about to share intricate information about the upcoming South Carolina premiere of Gay Chorus Deep South. The film will be shown this Sunday, June 9, at 5:00pm at the Peace Center. Purchase your tickets this week, if you haven’t already. Stop reading if you want the complete show to be a surprise.
First, there is some cursing in the film…not a lot…but there is some. If your children or your great-grandmother is attending (no offense to great-grandmothers…just an attempt at humor), be sure and prep them for the language. Also, you are going to laugh, cry and experience a range of emotions. Finally, you are going to hear First Baptist Greenville referred to as a ‘southern Baptist church.’ I almost asked the film director to correct this during the edits. We have not been associated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) for decades. We have retained historic Baptist principles abandoned by the SBC (sole competency of the believer, autonomy of the church, separation of church and state) and this has separated us from the SBC and its affiliates. We spend much of our time explaining how we are not ‘that kind of Baptist’ but we are a ‘different kind of Baptist.’ The truth remains, however, for those outside the Baptist bubble we are often seen as a Southern Baptist Church. We are in the South. We are Baptist. Most outsiders have no access to the nuances of our ecclesiastic family struggles. The film beautifully portrays our church, however. What the gay chorus expected when they entered was not what they received. Like most people who enter our doors, the chorus was amazed by grace – true grace. May it ever be so. I’ll see you this Sunday at First Baptist…and then at the Peace Center. Spoiler alert – I’ll be beaming with pride in both places.
— Jim