A recent controversy over a comment that Mark Driscoll made on his Facebook page has me thinking again about how the church treats the LGBTQ community. In response to Rachel Held Evans' framing of Driscoll's demeaning remarks as bullying, I was one of the many who sent an email to the elders at Driscoll's church.
It would be silly of me to think that my one little email would make a difference, but while drafting it, I also thought about how to communicate face-to-face with fellow Christians who behave in hurtful ways toward gay people. As a former member of a tribe that would wholeheartedly agree with Driscoll and his church, I remember that I equated any wavering of my beliefs with sin, so it's nearly impossible to "win" an argument or convince anyone to change their minds. The consequences of thinking differently about an issue like homosexuality (or hell, or inerrancy, or...) are eternal, so a productive, well-reasoned conversation can be difficult.
In light of this, I was careful to point out that asking fellow Christians not to bully is not necessarily the same thing as asking them to change their stance on homosexuality as a sin. While I do not believe that being gay is a sin, and have written previously about the painful, personal cost in not taking a stand on divisive issues, I just want to suspend that debate for a moment and grant that conservative evangelicals do not have to change their belief that being gay is sinful.
The thing is, it shouldn't matter whether you believe that homosexuality is a sin! In terms of how you treat others, why should your belief about what is and isn't a sin a factor? Sadly, many Christians have held up homosexuality as this horrible unforgivable sin, which hinders any showing of love or grace toward this community.
I do not understand the selectivity. I recently shared something pretty personal: I struggle with binge eating. Aside from what the waistlines of many American evangelicals may tell you, gluttony is a sin. I realize that, especially with disordered eating, a lot of complicated issues are involved, and I'm not disregarding anyone's need for professional help. For the sake of argument, though, let's frame my struggle solely as an issue of self control. It's obvious that many other believers struggle with this, too.
But does our lack of self control and inability to conquer this sin completely bar us from the church? The same could be said for materialism, divorce, addictions, or even something as simple as not following Philippians 4:8 (whatever is noble...whatever is pure...think about such things). Chad Holtz did an excellent job of pointing out this contradiction a few months ago, in a post titled Dear UMC, Please Don't Ordain Me.
Christians' holding out on the LGBTQ community, expecting them to "stop practicing" before they will be welcomed into fellowship, is saddening and hypocritical. If we were all expected to get our acts together and stop sinning before we could be involved in a church community, we'd all be in trouble. Why is the bar set higher for our gay brothers and sisters? Imagine if Christians quoted--and lived out--John 8:7 more often than they hurled obscure passages from Leviticus!
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