As many daily (weekly, monthly, you've read it once) readers will attest, this is a religion blog with the occasional journey into my previous life as a sports writer/editor.
Yesterday, the two became mixed again.
I'm absolutely sure you heard the news of the day on Monday:
1) Jason Collins, a long-time NBA player, came out as a gay person. Collins says he is also Christian.
2) Tim Tebow, a short-time NFL player, was released from the New York Jets and has a questionable at best chance of hooking up with another team. Tebow is a very notable Christian athlete.
Let me begin all this by saying I support Jason Collins and his right to be anything or anyone he so chooses and to say anything about that. That's the nation I live in, was born in but still choose to live in. I also support Tim Tebow and his right to say anything about what he believes and his right to be anything or anyone he so chooses.
I'm not sure why that should come as a surprise to anyone who knows that I follow the King of Kings who says over and over we are to be about love, but darn if it doesn't continually surprise folks who seem today to equate Christianity with intolerance and in some cases out and out stupidity.
I would have left all that alone till I happened to read about this reaction to Collins: Chris Broussard, ESPN NBA writer on a show called Outside the Lines answered a question about Collins and his religious belief this way, "Personally, I don't believe that you can live an openly homosexual lifestyle or an openly premarital sex between heterosexuals, if you're openly living that type of lifestyle, then the Bible says you know them by their fruits, it says that's a sin. If you're openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals, whatever it may be, I believe that's walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ. I would not characterize that person as a Christian because I do not think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian."
It is amusing to me that this created a headline on various Internet sites along the lines of "Chris Broussard says Collins is a sinner." Really. This is shocking?
Via Twitter, Broussard clarified his comments. "Today on OTL, as part of a larger, wide-ranging discussion on today's news, I offered my personal opinion as it relates to Christianity, a point of view that I have expressed publicly before," he tweeted. Saying that he respected those who disagree with him he added, "As has been the case in the past, my beliefs have not and will not impact my ability to report on the NBA. I believe Jason Collins displayed bravery with his announcement today and I have no objection to him or anyone else playing in the NBA."
Remember the key phrase words here: I offered...my personal opinion ... as it relates to Christianity.
Again, the man was asked a question about the fact that Collins is, according to his own words, gay and Christian. I find it fascinating that line of questioning even comes up on the day that the first athlete in the mainstream sports to come out as gay. It wasn't enough to simply ask about the struggles that must have taken place in Collins? Was the questioner actively looking for someone to bring out the "other" side?
Broussard, who by the way I've watched quite a bit but never have heard him say a word about Jesus, the Bible or Christianity before, answered the question. And immediately he caught hell, as if what he said isn't believed by evangelicals -- and still some mainline denominations -- around the world.
The United Methodist Book of Discipline, which I admittedly pull out so seldom I had to go find a copy, says this (still, despite numerous almost yearly and certainly every four years attempts to change the language): "Homosexual persons no less that heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth. ... Although we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching, we affirm that God's grace is available to all."
The UMC is as mainstrain and left-leaning as some, and yet it still, at this late date, says this. It is debated and will be I guess till the language is changed or Jesus comes again.
The question of the day is two-fold:
1) Can a gay person be Christian?
2) Is it still okay to believe the Bible teaches something differently?
3) Is it still okay to talk about your Christian beliefs in public?
Okay, that's three-fold. I cheated.
The answers are:
1) Collins in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America,” today said of Broussard’s comments: ”I am a Christian. I will state that very proudly…You can’t please everyone”
The answers lies in what you belief, for God does not make any of us believe anything -- which translates into problems for me most of the time. I only know this: I sin. I try not to. I do not try to say that the problems I still have in all areas of my life are not sin. I do not rewrite scripture but instead do everything I can to see what the Word says about this particular subject, and I acknowledge that even those things are very personal. I'm not allowed by what I read to make concrete judgments about anyone. Instead, I try to remember that I have indeed sinned, sometimes greatly, and yet I can't pick up the first stone. To me, what Collins is (religiously) is between him and Jesus. I believe with all my heart that the Bible teaches (Romans 10:8), If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from death; you will be saved. For it is by our faith that we are put right with God." No where in there is sin discussed, and I believe the expectation of change comes with profession of faith. Still, there is room to discuss this.
2) It's becoming increasingly harder. Tebow was often raked over the coals on ESPN for being an openly Christian believer. Some, I think, blended dislike for his vocal support of Christ with dislike for his football talents. His story of working in orphanages and teaching and preaching was often a detriment.
3) It's becoming increasingly harder. If saying you believe the Bible at the very least appears to say that something is sin is enough to force apologies and statements, one must think that soon and very soon it will become almost impossible and the culture war over this subject will be done.
The problem is any of us who agree with Broussard, and I do, are often painted as cousins of those wackos in Kansas with their hate signs and harder hearts. That is far from true. One brush doesn't paint all Christians and it doesn't paint all non-believers either. Anyone who believes sinners aren't welcome in church clearly doesn't understand the whole dynamic. Not only are sinners welcome in any church I pastor, I don't know anyone who isn't one.
Collins says "I’m from a close-knit family. My parents instilled Christian values in me. They taught Sunday school, and I enjoyed lending a hand. I take the teachings of Jesus seriously, particularly the ones that touch on tolerance and understanding. On family trips, my parents made a point to expose us to new things, religious and cultural. In Utah, we visited the Mormon Salt Lake Temple. In Atlanta, the house of Martin Luther King Jr. That early exposure to otherness made me the guy who accepts everyone unconditionally."
Being a Christian has nothing to do in essence with values, and if one studies the teachings of Jesus seriously one would see both tolerance and on occasion intolerance (I am the only way to the Father). Trips to religious and cultural places have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus, though I'm sure they were pleasant trips.
If tolerance means accepting everyone for who they are, I'm all in. God allows -- get this once and for all -- all of us to be who we are. I'm a recovering alcoholic. I have had numerous struggles over the years in that area before I stopped 17 years ago. I hid what I was, who I was, did not go to church, had no relationship with Jesus except that I stayed awake many nights waiting, waiting for something to change. But that's who I am and who I will always be. God, I believe, loved and loves me anyway. He loves every one of his children, straight, gay, those living with someone without marriage and on and on. No where in that statement is something about condoning it. But He -- and I -- allow it.
It was a monumental day. We say hello to a journeyman basketball player many had never heard of and perhaps say goodbye to a very famous journeyman football player.
Just another Monday in (less than) paradise.
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