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Our Rainbow Flag

rainbow-flagIt occurs to me that you may or may not be familiar with the history, purpose, and meaning of the Rainbow Flag. In case you’re interested, I thought I’d share. We tend to link it to the LGBTQ+ Community, and it is…but it has evolved to represent so much more.

Did you know? The original ‘rainbow flag’ was created by Gilbert Baker in 1978 to celebrate members of the gay and lesbian political movement, and has come to represent the Oneness and Unity of all people. It is comprised of eight colored stripes stacked on top of each other to evoke a rainbow, a symbol of hope. Baker assigned a specific meaning to each color.  Although this flag has gone through a number of iterations, including the addition of the black and brown stripes to represent people of color, the original meaning lives on.

We fly this version of the Rainbow Flag during our Sunday Gatherings at Mystic Heart to demonstrate our hopefulness, our basic faith in Spirit and in humanity, and to offer an outward sign of welcome to all people.

In case you weren’t aware, our flag shows eight colors:

  • Red represents Life.
  • Orange stands for Healing/Wholeness.
  • Yellow reminds us that we are Light.
  • Green reminds us of Nature, and on the importance of caring for the environment.
  • Indigo is the color of Serenity.
  • Violet stands for Spirit, and reminds us of our Spiritual Nature.
  • Brown represents Native American, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, and other brown-skinned people.
  • Black stands for people of African descent.

I thank you for being the warm and welcoming people that you are. I am so grateful to have your support in helping to create a Love-Soaked World. And I pray that this message has been helpful.

Wishing you the most beautiful of days…

Love,

Rev. Diana L. Johnson

Comment(1)

  1. Reply
    Chris Johnson says:

    When Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984, he formed the Rainbow Coalition to work for greater equity among people of color and to dismantle systemic injustice. To me the Rainbow Flag now symbolizes all people who are marginalized by our current social systems. We still have much to do to level the playing field.

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