I'll not dwell on yesterday, but instead look to tomorrow.
What yesterday, Dec. 19, 2013, showed me is the notion that we can ever come together about an issue such as homosexuality is simply wrong. We can't. It is a barrier that none can cross. I had hoped, and still hope, that we could come together as a church, as the body of Christ, and understand that though we might always disagree with each other on a whole range of theological and doctrinal ideas, we could be civil.
We can't, if yesterday's social media blitz was an example.
After the Chic-fil-a day a while back, after other such flair-ups, I wanted to believe there is a place at the table for moderate liberal and moderate conservative persons in my denomination, heck in all of the body of Christ. I'm not sure that works, any longer. The United Methodist denomination seems to be splitting apart as those on the far left and far right lob bombs at each other, with each digging in deeper in their positions.
Well, let me state it clearly. I believe that homosexuality is a birth happenence. I believe that it is also incompatible with Biblical teaching. How those two things could be equally true troubles me beyond belief. How can a loving God allow someone to have feelings that are incompatible with the Bible's teachings from birth?
Oh, wait. He allows all of us to have that. All. We're no different.
All have fallen short, Paul so plainly tells us. All. He allows those feelings toward sin, toward temptation, toward lust, toward gossip, toward cruelty, toward the dark. He does. Why? That's way above my pay grade. But he does.
So, how do we equate that with homosexuality? The difference is Jesus. All who come to Jesus are welcomed in, as long as we repent and fall before him in surrender. The gay community simply says what it is doesn't equate with sin. They want to change the perimeter. I don't believe they can.
Still, I'm a pastor. I must pastor persons who are gay, who want to find happiness with a partner, and believe that without that they can't be happy. I must be able to say something to them other than they're morphing into bestiality. If I can't say to a person you are loved by God for who you are, then how do I pastor that person? That's what is the bottom line here, I think.
So, what do I do? Mostly, I ignore it. I don't preach about it. I understand and love friends who are gay, even while believing their lifestyle is wrong, and I never get around to the discussion because I can't come to words that will work.
Robertson in his words about gays, sex, and black folks back in his day did conservative Christians no favors. He made those of us who wished there was some true leadership on this issue to think about how on earth we're supposed to pastor to those who don't want to be hurting, and if we can't do that, then what are we doing here?
The irony is he included drunks in the same sentence with terrorists and homosexuals. I am a recovering alcoholic. I take no offense to what he said there. I was born an alcoholic. It's in my genes, the way other things are in what makes us, us. I can't rewrite the scriptures to make it okay to be drunk. If I could, there's a chance I would. If it was okay for me to drink, still after 18 years, I would probably drink to get rid of problems. I discovered that was an upside down logic, and that the drink was just another of the problems.
But I am a sinner, a person who needed a savior. I found one in Jesus. I believe that with all my heart that If I had one drink, just one, I would revert to where I was. I was born a drunk, I'll die a drunk, but I don't have to drink because I accepted Jesus as the way, the truth and the giver of life. Phil Robertson can group me with all the sinners in the world he doesn't judge, and he would be right.
I read tons of opinions yesterday on blogs all over the U.S. Some were much better than mine I say humbly but reluctantly. Some were not very nice.
I simply want to sign off on this subject by saying this: If I, we, can't seek and save the lost and the least, then we should quit using Christ's name. Does that mean we ignore scriptures? No. We can't. It means we can talk this thing through if we quit hurling bombs. In some ways, I suspect, it is about how you say it, not what you say.
Jesus ate with sinners. Can we not talk to them?
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