Maybe you've heard in the news about Harding University's identity crisis involving LBGT students on campus. I won't go into that issue in this post. It is certainly worth discussion for all Christians, and I don't mean the sort of discussion where we simply remind ourselves of the same talking points and scripture references with which we've fenced ourselves in over the past several decades. I mean some real discussion where we ask ourselves why Lesbians and gays feel that we're the ones attacking them.
Below is a facebook status from a friend of mine earlier today. I won't put his name, because I hope and pray that his heart changes one day, he'll feel ashamed for posting this on the internet, and when that day comes won't want his name associated with these words:
this whole gay thing at harding is absolutely hilarious... i dont understand why gays would even think about going to this school - but im glad they do and hope they all get kicked out and have less rights than the normal people here10 hours after this was posted, there were 70 comments. People immediately criticized him for various reasons, and others came to his defense. This is their idea of one doing his Christian duty to stand up for principles.
One response broke my heart more than any other. I paste it here below.
And this is the reason I left the church. The hypocrisy that exists in the church is unbelievable. To think that one sin is worse than another one is ludicrious. To believe anything in a book written by humans 2000 years ago as fact is the ...biggest bunch of horse crap ever. If you can believe that a god chooses to create people specifically to go to hell then I'll be right there in hell with them. There's no way in the world that i'd worship a god that would allow that. Christianity is filled with contradictions and hypocrisy and the church of christ is one of the biggest violators of them all. It is a brainwashing cult. Leaving was one of the best decisions I ever made. I can't believe I even took the time to know your name. What you said was one of the most ignorant things I ever heard. Do you also believe that I should not have rights because I'm black? I mean I can't help that. Wow j----, I'm disgusted.This was posted by my friend C.W. C and I were good friends in high school when he joined my youth group. C was brought to church by a friend of mine I grew up with. He became a believer after his first visit to our church. I give glory to God, that I was part of a terrific group of teenagers at my church growing up. C found our group of people to be different, appealing, and he wanted in. I can remember hugging him just after his baptism, which took place the same day that we met. I can picture standing in a circle afterwards and tell you what songs we sang and which faces were where. It was a victorious day.
Sadly, C is like the seed that fell in the rocky soil. He received the gospel with much joy, but after a few years' time and over exposure to the hypocrisy and intolerance among believers, he had a bad taste for the church and turned away from Christ all together.
Below is an email that I wrote to C. It's long. I wish it weren't so, but my heart overflowed for my friend as I thought of all the hateful things done by fellow believers, and I grieved for an at-home example of it playing a part in chasing away one of God's baby boys. I'm hoping the letter will prompt some honest dialogue between C and me. As you can imagine, the sort of dialogue prompted by facebook statuses above won't lead to anything but more devisiveness.
Dear C----,
We haven’t talked or seen each other in a long time. I hope you are doing well, wherever you are, with whatever it is you’re pursuing. Small talk aside, what prompted me to write you was your comment on -----------'s bizarre facebook status earlier today. When I saw the status, my heart sank into my stomach. Not only because Harding appears to be struggling with what ought to be a simple issue for any Christian (how to treat people – it’s kind of Christ 101) but that this was how I would learn about it. While I’m grateful to Harding for the education that some people have received there, and for the generous things they’ve done towards certain groups of people around the world, I’m sickened by their [their = certain people who represent the school, not a unanimous Harding body] inability to extend basic human acknowledgement to gays, outspoken women, or even people with liberal political ideas, like myself. To disagree is one thing, to de-humanize is another.
When I read your comment, I felt several things all at once.
(1) A sense of relief. Your comment and your feelings, in my opinion, brought to the table a certain degree of common sense. As I’d read the previous comments, both the ones that agreed and dissented with the status sentiment, I had thought “what would an outsider be thinking of all of this? Don’t we realize how obviously foolish this looks?” and your words articulated that absurdity better than I could have. While I disagree with your decision to leave the church, I am grateful you made some points badly in need of making.
(2) A sense of guilt. Chris, we are friends. I miss you. I miss conversations we used to have about everything from movies to music, literature, politics. Everything. I’ve looked at your facebook profile now and then over the last few years. I gathered that you left the church, but didn’t know much else. I work to be a good friend to my friends, and if you’ll still count me, I consider us to be friends. The fact that I didn’t message you earlier to ask how you’re doing, catch up, visit etc., is not the mark of a good friend. For that, I am ashamed and I apologize.
Add onto that, here I am writing you now. After all this time of doing nothing more than reading an occasional facebook status, it takes me seeing your response to a misguided facebook thread to do what I should have done – write to my friend and renew the friendship.
(3) A sense of objection. I am glad you said what you said on the FB thread. Yours is the perspective of someone who has learned the Gospel of Jesus, met the body of Christ, and said “No.” When shown an example, in a public place, of the kind of dismissive and narrow-minded bigotry that shapes the Church’s projected image, you stood up to it, unashamedly, and called it out.
For the latter reason, I cheer for you. But there are a few points you made, about which I’d like to offer a different view. I know you’ve been preached at before; you’ve probably been forced to defend your stance and beliefs many times, so if you’re wanting to say “Stop right there”, I get it. Trust me. Also please trust that I do not want to “tell you why you’re wrong” or attempt some sort of “proof through debate”. I have no doubt that you may dispute some of the things I’m about to say, and I would love nothing more than for you to do just that. For us to have an open dialogue about things we have in common (like, for instance, sexuality being no grounds for determining a person’s worth, or their “acceptability” in churches, universities, or anywhere else) and things where we differ (keep reading.)
You mentioned, in your comment, that the church is nothing but a cult. As a member of the church, I feel the bite of those words.
I step back and examine it: We have sets of rules about what we can/cannot do; we close our eyes and pray to a Being who supposedly created the reality we know yet can do no wrong; we believe this Being hears us because we’ve heard of a man who walked the earth 2000+ years ago that assured us he was the Son of said Being. Add to that, sometimes we do not even pray these words out loud, and yet somehow the Being still receives the message as if through divine telepathy.
In addition to these beliefs, most of us devote a substantial portion of our income to our congregations, believing that we are the body of the Son of this Being, and that in using our money to carry out His will, we’re somehow being him to the rest of the world. Being the Being.
Sounds like a cult. Smells like a cult. I hadn’t given it much thought before, but a picture is starting to form. It doesn’t stop there.
We believe that these things - our faithful adherence and belief in the Son of this Being who does no wrong - means we cannot die. That’s right. We have the arrogance to believe that death itself can’t kill us, but rather only serves as a passage into an eternal life where we live free from the pains and struggles that are part of the earthly human experience.
That last part, where we deem ourselves immortal, seems to put the icing on the cake, doesn’t it? I mean, as if it weren’t enough that we believe in an invisible God because of his supposed son, but now we can say that we’re better than everyone else.
Recap. What are we? * A group of people conforming to a set of values (though if you ask most Christians, and don’t allow them to answer with talking points, you’ll find that save a few ideals, our values have much disparity), * believing that one person/thing can give immortality, *devoting fortunes to this thing, *indoctrinating our children, and *seeking out other recruits, or “converts” as we prefer to call them. *Can you believe that recruits are actually told to cease being members of their families? “We’re your family now.” Wow!
I’m rambling on, but you summed it up in one word. “Cult.”
Unless.
In my opinion, there’s only one thing that can cast this in any different light. That is the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. And here’s the thing: I believe he did. I believe that Jesus Christ was put to death, and that his body ceased to be a vessel of life, but on the third day, he was resurrected.
That takes away any middle ground. LORD, liar, or lunatic, as C.S. Lewis put it. The possibility that he may or may not have been a man, just a good teacher, vanishes. He is LORD because everything he said and did was real; he is a liar because he claimed all of these things that were not real; or he is a lunatic because he himself believed all of these things that were not real.
I’ve never not known about God, standard Bible stories, and the basic dos and don’ts at any point in my life. But I have only been a follower of Jesus more recently. I used to read the Bible in order to try to find out what was right and what was wrong. Or even, who was right and who was wrong. The Bible was, to me, a way to find out what I could and could not do, listen to, hang out with, etc.
Then, thanks to some wise teachers I had in my life, and some new-found maturity of my own (for which I give God credit) I realized the Bible is not about me. It’s a story about God and his people. The Bible is a story about a God who loves his children so much that he will stop at nothing to redeem them; to hold them close to him despite everything they will do to push him away. Read in this light, the teachings of Jesus take on a whole new meaning. A practical meaning that makes sense.
Here’s where I get stuck. The teachings of Jesus point me to love, truth, humility, meekness, kindness, being slow to speech, and things like that. As a result of learning the teaching of Jesus, I have a peace that I never had before. I wouldn't say I'm a better person than I was before I started trying to follow Jesus. In fact, I would say that my deeper understanding of his perfection has served to make me more aware of my own comparative filth than ever before. But in light of the perfection of his teaching - I honestly find it more bizarre to believe this man was a liar or lunatic than to believe that he is, indeed, the Son of Almighty God.
I wish I knew all the particulars. I want to know where his spirit dwelled while his body was lifeless. I want to know if he arose with any memory between the time of his death and his “awakening”. But I don’t. I understand all the reasons not to believe.
Chris, I’m going on longer than I thought I would when I sat down to type this. In fact, I started this over my lunch break and got so worked up I had to come back (it’s night time now) to finish it.
I could never ask you to swallow or accept the hatred shown by some of my fellow believers in Christ. And, what’s more, I could never support their use of the teachings of Jesus to justify de-humanizing of God’s children.
I guess if I have one request it’s this: Please consider the teachings of Jesus. People have worn his name proudly while acting in terrible ways, but please don’t count it against Jesus.
If you choose not to write back, I understand. If the only reason you choose to write back is to let me know how you’re doing and make small talk, I’d actually really enjoy it. But if you write back, and would be willing to have an honest dialogue about the teachings of Jesus, right and wrong, or anything along those lines, I’d relish it.
Hoping to hear from you soon. Your friend,
Sam
