CJ says we should start a new christian group called CALM. It's for Christians Against Legislating Morality. This came in response to a group that is meeting at our church this Friday call LUV. It stands for Let Us Vote. They couldn't have picked a more inappropriate name if they tried! It's a group trying to get a vote to overturn the ruling that made gay marriage legal in Iowa. This is the second type meeting our church has hosted and it makes me sick! Is this the reputation we want those outside our church have of us? This is exactly the kind of thing that make the unchurched turn away. They see this kind of action as bigoted, hate-driven and unloving. What is the church supposed to be known for? LOVE!!!! Everything we are considering doing in the church should first be examined for what it will show to those outside the church. Will this show the love Jesus came to portray or not? If not, we shouldn't do it!
The debate about homosexuality in this country has done more to damage the church's effectiveness than just about anything since segregation. We need to wake up and realize this!!! Our stance doesn't need to change (unlike segregation) but our approach does. We can still believe homosexuality is a sin but not vote against them. We should love them! We should seek to understand them. Where are they coming from, what has happened in their life, who are they as a person, not as a homosexual? We should show them the love that Jesus showed the prostitutes and other "sinners" he hung out with. He was their friend, he loved them and THEN he talked to them about their sin when it was appropriate. Why do we not realize how much more people we could reach for Jesus if we acted as he did not as the religious right tells us we should???? We are doing the exact opposite of what Jesus did right now! And we still have the nerve to call ourselves the "body of Christ"??
If you look at many of the questions Jesus was asked in an effort to "trap" him in the context of his culture, many of them were politically charged! Every single time he refused to answer one way or another, thus not "taking sides" or joining a party in today's language. So if we want to be like Jesus, we should not ask is gay marriage wrong but how can we love those that want gay marriage. We should not ask in what instances, if any, is abortion right but how can we love both the mothers and baby affected by the circumstances that led to her seeking an abortion.
"We are called to be set apart" I hear all the time at church. And it's true. However, the meaning behind that I think is often wrong. We aren't just supposed to have less sin in our lives, we are supposed to have love motivate all we do. (unlike "the world" which doesn't have the love of Jesus) As a result we WILL sin less because sin hurts those we love, but you can see the difference. We can sin less and not love although that attitude often introduces new, more sinister sins (because we tend to ignore or even accept them in the church, which make them more dangerous) like self-righteousness, pride, hatred, intolerance, and rejection of the "sinners" we are called to love.
I hope in the future, we, as a church, will remember our reputation does affect how the unchurched views us. The worse our reputation is, the harder it is to introduce who the person of Jesus really is to those who are seeking him.
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This is my life. My thoughts, struggles and dreams from the superficial to the profound. This is me.
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About Me
- Rachel Shaffer
- I recently moved back to my hometown in small town Iowa from the suburbs of Kansas City. I love my husband, CJ, and my daughter, Dani, more than anything in the world. However a close second is music!
2 comments:
Hey Rachel, I'm sure I would join "C.A.L.M." if given the opportunity. :) Good post, and good thoughts.
I think that honestly people involved in these conservative/Republican efforts have good intentions but just don't understand what the actual right thing is to do. Maybe they think it is easier to use the law to keep the church "pure" than to work with people, meeting people where they're at and loving them individually... because that does take work and a lot of time and effort that the average church person might "not have time for." In fact, in churches full of people who are convinced that they should always vote Republican and that capitalism is our friend, there can be a total absence of empathy for people different than them - whether poor, homosexual, or an unwed teen mother.
It's interesting how you talked about reputation. I bet that's exactly what the church/community is worried about - their own reputation. If they loved like Jesus loved and accepted those who wouldn't normally go to a church, it would definitely change their own reputation in the community. It's pretty sad how backwards it all is.
On the other hand, my husband and I left the church we had been attending because we felt like there was little accountability among church members (even being involved in the worship team on Sunday mornings, I had virtually no accountability, and no one else did either) and overall ambiguous messages sent from the pulpit sometimes concerning multiple topics. I think that in general it is really easy for churches to drift to polar opposites of either being completely accepting of everything (think Unitarian/Univeralist) or being hardcore legalistic (which probably happens a lot in reality, though usually over specific issues).
So really all I'm trying to say is that I think Jesus really had God's spirit on Him so that He could look at things on a case-by-case basis. Anymore, it seems that the goal is to take a political stance about certain issues or have doctrine to fall back on, instead of trusting Jesus to guide us as we live life and encounter different people and situations. It's a lot easier to count on ourselves than the Lord. But it's definitely not right.
I think a look at the early church would be wise in sorting through this issue. The early church was marginalized yet spreading like wildfire. It was when Constantine made Christianity the official religion that the Jesus movement lost it's center, both in mission and in lifestyle.
If gaymarriage made parts of Chrsitianity illegal, that would actually be a good thing for Christians. At least, I think so.
So I understand the fear, but we're not to operate out of fear but out of love.
When we try to enforce certain (because we ignore others) Christian ethics through a top-down/legal approach we COMPLETELY miss the way of Jesus and the early church.
Also during the early church, marriage was done differently than it is now. The problem is that we've brought the Christian symbol of marriage together with the Government's civil agreement. We need to let those two become seperate again, putting an end to this fight.
If gay people want to get married and have it legitmized by the State - let it happen. But it doesn't have to happen within the church.
Of course, in our form of government, we had the chance to have our wishes heard through voting. In that case, vote your conscience. Just don't go slapping the Christian label on it (even though one man and one woman is the Christian model) becuase that misses the whole point of the Kingdom of God.
And what if we were able to enfore Christian morals in every area of social life? What would that accomplish? Look at the places where the church has ruled - like in Europe - Christianity is hated there. Because for centuries, people there were exposes to a false view of Christianity and told it was Christian, so they're rejecting something that is not the Kingdom of Jesus.
One final thought. Why don't we get petitions to end war? Jesus clearly taught against voilence yet most conservative Christians support every single war our presidents decide to fight. It would be much more costly (both in our pocketbooks and our civil standing) to oppose current wars than it is to oppose gay marriage.
Money and Comfort are the idols of the North American church.
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