Had a conversation last night with a guy who set foot in a church activity this month for the first time in about 15 years. He came to faith in Christ out of a Catholic background, and showed up in an ultra-Fundamentalist Baptist church because it was down the street from his house. He walked out of the church a couple of weeks later after the pastor said during his sermon "If Jesus doesn't return first and it's time for me to go, I want him to die in a car wreck that takes out a whole van full of gays."
I told the guy, "I want to be as careful as I can when I say this, lest I commit the same error from the other side, but I'm fairly certain those kinds of guys are going to be the end of my ministry someday. Because one of these days I'm going to meet one of them, and they're going to say something like that to me. Then, you'll see my picture in the newspaper the next morning with both my hands still clinched around their throat."
I hope I could control myself better than that, but frankly, it would be the challenge of a lifetime.
This guy's story, coupled with the GodHatesFags.com goofballs being fined for obstructing funerals makes me need to let off some steam. Then I'll go back to reading and reviewing books.
What ever made the Church think it was okay to get the Gospel so bass ackwards? What ever made us think that God hates people who don't love Him, when He loved us when we didn't love Him? What ever gave us the right to legislate morality for people who don't know the Chief Legislator? Who do we think we are?
I see that Pat Robertson just endorsed Rudy Giulianni for president today. Well thanks for that Pat, because the rest of us Christians were sitting around scratching our head wondering what the heck we were going to do with the upcoming election, and needed a really spiritual person to tell us who to vote for. Meanwhile, all my buddies who don't know Christ are mixed up; are we promoting Jesus or are we promoting the Republicans? Because sometimes it's just so gosh darn hard to tell.
I know you're not supposed to blog when you're frustrated, but this thing wears me out.
I'm doing my best to share Christ with people I meet. Not Jesus the conservative politician, not Jesus the gay hater, not Jesus the policeman... Jesus the Christ. And I already have one strike against me because most people who don't know pastors aren't real likely to open up to me about their belief systems. And then doofuses like these guys come along and ruin any shot I've got at sharing my story with the people I see every day because they're too busy preaching an agenda to preach the Gospel.
Please stop. Please stop adding stuff to the front of the Gospel that doesn't belong there. Please stop telling people that the God of the Universe will only love you if you change your behavior. That's not the Gospel. The God of the Universe loves us despite our behavior, to the point that He sent His Son to die in our place, and offers us eternal life as a gift. Whether you're living a homosexual lifestyle or vote Republican is not the issue. Please stop pretending it is.
/rant
5 comments:
This is why I faithfully read your blog. I think I'm going to have a crick in my neck from nodding so much.
The single only conversation I ever had that made me think that I might one day be able to consider Christianity was when this guy told me to stop agreeing with everyone else's definition of Jesus and go to the source to find out who He is and what He's like. And just to see if all those jerks I had encountered were wrong about Him, I did. That's when I met Jesus the Savior.
It sure did take a lot to get there though.
Amen, and Thank You.
Now this is why I've kept up with your blog! The book reviews are informative and thought provoking but this, this is truth and passion.
Bass ackwards :) Oh how that brings back memories of growing up fundamentalist. I remember well the exhoration I received when a church member overheard me say "darn!"..."Young lady, don't you think for a minute that God doesn't know what you were really saying! And he is not happy with you!"
It's no surprise that I struggled for many years to accept that God loves me, and others, despite behaviour.
There's a certain sense of unity and healing when a group of people raised in a strict fundamentalist church get together and swap war stories. Now there's a book!
Deb,
Really great to hear from you. Hope you guys are doing well. I think of you and pray for you often. Don't be a stranger.
I used to engage in culture war polemics. Growing up in a fundie S. Bap. church had me (errantly) believing that reactionary responses to secularism were the path to holiness. Fortunately, reading the Bible disabused me of this foolish notion. Encountering Jesus painfully showed me I was a Pharisaical hypocrite. Thank God for grace! I still have question tho'... If God isn't a Republican, and if I can't trust Pat Robertson's endorsement, does that mean I should vote for Hillary?!
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