They are making a Broadway musical of Dreamworks' movie The Prince of Egypt. It's in previews where we live before they attempt to bring it to Broadway. My son really wanted to go, so I took him last night. (Mind you, for those who have lost track, my delightful gay son is now 11).
Stephen Schwartz wrote new music for the musical, and in the middle of the first act, there is a scene where Moses tells Ramses that he is a Hebrew. Ramses first reaction is, "No one must know." My son leans over to me during this scene and whispers, "It's like his 'coming out of the closet' moment." I cannot tell you how profoundly this impacted me.
I don't know if this feeling was intentional or not, but it sure seems like it was. There is no Biblical evidence to suggest that Moses' adoption was a secret, so I doubt there was ever a real moment like this, which just leads me to think the directing parallel was intentional for the impact it would have on modern audience.
The song in the scene contributes all that much more. Ramses is singing, "I Will Make It Right," while Moses sings back to him a different song, "No Power on Earth."
There is so much about this that just strikes me as profound. Moses knows he is a Hebrew in his blood, and he cannot escape it, despite being raised in the Egyptian court. Just like gay kids raised in straight homes in heteronormative communities know it in their blood. They know that "no power on earth" could change it, as Ramses is singing about how he will make it right, about how they can hide it, when Moses so clearly knows it cannot be hidden. Ultimately, however, you see in Ramses that he just loves Moses. The stage is a raked stage on which director Scott Schwartz does something really interesting with this scene: he puts Moses' back to the audience, downstage, so we get 100% of Ramses reaction. It reminded me so much of my own reaction.
My son has not grown up with a lot of closets, but when he found words to describe a truth of his desires for his future, for me and my husband, our first reaction really was, "No one must know." We accepted our son, and it didn't change anything about how we viewed him, but there was so much fear for all it might mean, that our reactions were centered in fear.
I re-read the Biblical text today and thought about the idea of God-breathed scripture. If the story of the Exodus is not literal, which history suggests it is not, then it is, like the rest of scripture, a story God uses to teach us things. Among those things, in my mind, is the notion that some of us are born with differences that make us unique, different from the majority, different from the culture of power, and sometimes different from people we love. Sometimes it is possible to hide those differences. They are things that no one has to know. But people don't live their best lives when they live hiding those differences.
Is being gay a choice? No, not any more than Moses' Hebrew blood was a choice.
But is living gay a choice. Yes.
We all have a choice on how we live.
Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well."
As we find our awareness of our inmost being, we can live that life, or we can choose an easier life. Would a life of celibacy, or a life of faking heterosexuality be "easier" for a gay person? In some ways, probably. For a young person who will be kicked out of their house if they come out, then yes, I imagine keeping secrets is probably a little easier.
Moses chose to be the leader of the Hebrew people. It was not the easy path, by any means, but I think the lesson there is clear -- when you choose to be who you are, God honors that.
