A Rainbow Reflection
by Paula Sophia Schonauer

It is important to understand that the rainbow has not always been a symbol of diversity. Religious leaders in South Africa once justified apartheid by developing a theology that promoted segregation. They asserted that the separate colors of the rainbow were a reflection of God’s will to keep the races segregated.

Bishop Desmond Tutu used the term “Rainbow Nation” to describe post-apartheid South Africa after the African National Congress took power in 1994. According to Bishop Tutu the rainbow is a symbol representing diversity, a diversity that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. During an All Saints’ Sunday sermon in November 2005 Tutu urged the worldwide Anglican Communion to accept the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop to be consecrated in the Episcopal Church USA.

“Jesus did not say, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw some’,” Tutu said. “Jesus said, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all, all, all, all, all. Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful. It’s one of the most radical things. All, all, all, all, all, all, all, all. All belong. Gay, lesbian, so-called straight. All, all are meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All.”

Scientific analysis of the rainbow supports Bishop Tutu’s view. Sunlight is made up of the whole range of colors the human eye can detect. The only way to perceive a rainbow is for a ray of light to pass through a prism. Nature supplies this prism in the form of mist and rain. A rainbow consists of sunlight spread out into a spectrum of colors and diverted to the eye of the observer by water droplets. To perceive a rainbow one must be facing away from the sun, a reminder, perhaps, that God is present even when we choose to turn away. We can see God’s promise of renewed life as sorrows and struggles rain down upon us.

The rainbow is a miraculous apparition. One cannot substantiate the rainbow in terms of length, width, or weight. One cannot determine where it begins or where it ends. A rainbow is Godlike. We cannot grasp the dimensions of God, nor can we comprehend how God came into being. The rainbow is what it is. No person can truly possess it or control it; we can only accept it as a gift of promise.

Physicist W.J. Humphreys stated that the rainbow is a special distribution of colors (produced in a particular way) with reference to a definite point in the eye of the observer. As no single distribution can be the same for two separate points, it follows that two observers do not, and cannot, see the same rainbow. This asserts the fact that each eye sees its own rainbow. The perception of a rainbow is both a shared and personal experience.

We experience God in both shared and personal ways, and this is a true reflection of diversity, a diversity as broad as the whole spectrum of humanity. Waving the rainbow flag is an assertion of God’s promise of life, a recognition that all colors combined illuminate the glory of all creation.