June 18, 2022

 

Rules

 

He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” – Acts 10:28

 

The Apostle Peter was a Jew. He followed the laws he’d been taught and, yet, God called him to something else. First, God showed Peter that it was okay to eat meat Peter had always been taught was unclean. Then, God showed Peter that it was okay to eat with and fellowship with Gentiles. And because Peter followed God, many became believers and were filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

A family I know has been torn apart by the issue of homosexuality. It’s caused such division that the father refuses to speak to his son. This devout family is so focused on its beliefs that it can’t see God’s heart. And the son? Well, he’s now questioning God’s love too.

 

Is homosexuality a sin? I’ve heard all the arguments both ways. I am familiar with the verses. I know it is condemned by the Bible, just as I know the Bible condones slavery and the inferiority of women. In fact, the Bible at times contradicts itself. It speaks so clearly about slavery and yet Paul says this in Galatians 3:28:

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

 

People say they want to go back to the sexual ethics of the Bible but I wonder if they’ve ever read the book. I have – in several different versions. I have no interest in polygamy, fathers selling their daughters into slavery, or powerful men forcing women to be concubines and worse. And those are just a few things.

 

So, what about homosexuality? I don’t know. Does God condemn sexual rituals to false gods? I believe that He does. Does God condemn powerful men forcing young men into prostitution and worse? I believe so. But does God condemn two men or two women from a loving relationship? I’m not so sure about that.

 

Jesus told us the two greatest commandments. Do remember them?

 

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:37-40

 

Love God and love your neighbor. It seems fairly simple to me. I don’t know about the issue of homosexuality. That’s for God to sort out. But I do know that God didn’t call me to judge. God has called me to love.

 

How much better our world would be today if we would remember that.

December 16, 2018

Words Reveal the Heart

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. – 1 Corinthians 2:14

We were talking about love. We were talking about putting God first and loving others as ourselves. We were talking about loving people who believe differently than we do and trusting God with all the rest.

The normally soft-spoken woman erupted without warning. She’d been watching soap operas and other things on YouTube and she used those “facts” to launch a vicious attack against homosexuality. Everyone in the room was shocked.

We are a diverse group. We are liberals and conservatives and all of us in between those two extremes. We are accustomed to passionate opinions that we don’t always agree with. It’s okay. We love Jesus and we love each other.

This was not that kind of sharing. It was mean and vicious. It was an opinion based on lies and ugliness. It was clear she doesn’t know any homosexuals and really hasn’t done any legitimate research. Isn’t that how it usually goes?

I really don’t care how you feel about homosexuality. This column isn’t about that. It’s about hating people you don’t know based on lies you choose to believe. It’s the same thing that happened to women (another woman in the group pointed this out), people of color, and those who are Jewish. We hate what we don’t understand which, in our minds, allows us to justify our behavior.

I don’t have a lot of answers. I don’t. Neither do you. We aren’t God and we don’t understand His ways. We aren’t meant to understand this side of heaven. That’s where faith and trust come in to play.

God has called us to love without exception. We are to love people who are different from us. We are to love people who harm us. We are to love others because He loved us first. God is love. If we believe that, how can we not love others? How can we justify refusing to be the hands and feet of Jesus?

People don’t come to Jesus because His followers (that would be you and me) criticize and condemn people who believe differently than we do. People don’t know how much God loves them because we lash out in anger and fear. People know Jesus as Lord and Savior because we love them no matter what.

Maybe my views are a product of my upbringing. That’s generally how it goes. My grandmother believed the Bible teaches that blacks are inferior to whites. It doesn’t, of course. I challenged her on it one day and she never backed down. I didn’t either. But it taught me something. It taught me that bigoted people will use the Bible to try and justify their beliefs. That’s why it is so very important to know what God says for ourselves rather than try and get our “facts” from YouTube, Facebook or television.

As I said earlier, I don’t have a lot of answers. But I do believe this: God has called me to love everyone. He has called me show others who He is through my actions. Through Him, I can love people who make decisions I don’t agree with. Through Him, I can forgive those who have hurt me deeply. Through Him, I can have civilized discussions about what the Bible really says.

Your words reveal your heart. What do your words say about you?

March 20, 2018

Double Standards Extinguish Light

A just balance and scales are the LORD’s; all the weights in the bag are his work. – Proverbs 16:11

The news caused barely a ripple in this conservative town. The President had lied to the leader of another country. He admitted it. And all the conservative Christians said nothing.

They are a vocal group, these folks I know. They are quick to point out, again and again, every sin from politicians on the other side of their aisle. But the standards are different when it is someone they support.

It isn’t the first time. Extramarital affairs are the norm in this man’s life. He does it again and again and again. No one says a word. If the media brings it up, then they are being mean and unfair to a good man.

Years after the fact they are still bad-mouthing a man who lied to cover up his own indiscretion. They are still condemning his wife for forgiving him and working to rebuild their marriage. Different standards? Without a doubt.

Why is it that we look past the bad behavior of some politicians and condemn the same behavior in others? Yet we don’t understand why the world around us doesn’t think too highly of Christians. They look at us and see hypocrisy but we can’t see the same thing in ourselves.

We fight to throw out foreigners God called us to be good to. We demand an end to support for the poor God called us to help. We respond with vengeance against those who do wrong, demanding justice rather than mercy and forgiveness. We seek to kill criminals and the broken, deny medical care to those without the means to pay for it, and cast aside the children who suffer through no fault of their own. In the next breath, we condemn abortion and call ourselves justified. Does no one see the double standard? Well, yes, the world sees it and turns away from God.

We pick and choose which of the Bible verses we will hold dear. We condemn homosexuality and throw out a verse to prove our point. We “forget” that God also condemns divorce unless it involves adultery or violence. We judge what was never our place to judge because it makes us uncomfortable. We don’t like different so we shove it aside rather than love where God has called us to love.

We cling to our possessions like they actually define us, forgetting they are gifts from God and not some “right” we have earned. We wallow in ourselves rather than reach out to the least, the broken, the widows and orphans in our midst. We choose who is “worthy” and ignore our own ignorance with a smile and a check to those we choose to care about.

And, yet, we don’t see the double standards in our own behavior. We don’t live with kindness and compassion in our hearts but rather with condescending judgment and hatred. We use God’s holy name to justify ourselves when He has no part in our ugliness. We push people away when God tells us to draw them near.

There is no politician that is either all good or all bad, just as there is no person who is all good or all bad. The same standards apply to everyone, whether we acknowledge that fact or not. Every time we cast a stone, we are holding ourselves up to a standard we’ve already failed to achieve. God judges evenly. Does that make you uncomfortable? It should.

April 19, 2016

Stop Pointing Fingers

"If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." -- Mark 3:25

For those who haven’t noticed, we’re having a fairly heated presidential race in this country. It’s particularly interesting to see Republicans -- typically the “Christian” party -- struggle. They may be about to have a candidate that doesn’t meet their standards. Oops!

It’s funny how that happens. When they were so busy fighting, with a gazillion candidates vying to be the one, another man stepped to the front of the line. By the time they realized it, well, it might be too late.

It’s what happens when a house is so focused on defeating itself that it’s not paying attention. Like us. Christians.

We’re good at fighting amongst ourselves. One of our biggest battles: Do you sprinkle or dunk when you baptize? Like it really matters. Because it doesn’t. What matters is the heart. Is your heart focused on Jesus or on rules?

Other issues -- serious issues -- divide us. Abortion. The death penalty. Homosexuality. All controversial issues. And when we are fighting over these issues we forget that we are to love one another. When we are disagreeing, we forget that we are all sinners and should love the person regardless of the sin.

It’s amazing that others -- those who aren’t Christians even though they may check that box -- can say what we don’t believe in. But they can’t always say what we do believe in. Sad that we are known for hate and polarization rather than for love and compassion.

We forget that as we are shaking our judgmental fingers at the unemployed, that it could be us one day. We assume laziness without ever knowing the story. Another judgment we aren’t qualified to make.

We’d send all the immigrants back. Did they break the law? Some did. Was that right? Absolutely not. Were our ancestors once immigrants? Unless you are full-blood American Indian, yes. Where is our compassion? It sure isn’t evident, even though the Bible tells us to remember that we once were strangers in a strange land.

As Christians, we are to be Jesus to a hurting world. We’re not. We are hard-nosed hypocrites so caught up in our own opinions that we can’t offer the love and compassion Jesus freely offers us. Then we wonder why our nation has fallen away from what we claim are our core values.

Yes, we need to pray for our nation. And we need to stop pointing fingers and change ourselves to be more like Jesus, trusting Him to take care of the rest.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Our Actions Should Reflect God’s Love

“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him -- you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” -- Acts 7:51-53

Stephen spoke truth but it wasn’t the truth that the religious leaders of his day wanted to hear. So they stoned him to death. We know this story well. We remember that Saul, whom we know mostly as Paul, was there that day.

What we don’t think about, what we don’t consider, is that we could possibly be those religious leaders. We get so caught up in being right, in telling everyone exactly what the Bible says and means, that we lose sight of the love and compassion that marked Jesus’ ministry. We forget that maybe, just maybe, we don’t know as much as we think we do.

We’ve been inundated lately with news reports about a fast-food franchise owner and his religious views. Political views, too, I guess. Because he opposes homosexuals and favors a family unit of one man, one woman, and children. That is his right.

Gay rights activists threatened to boycott and out came the Christian supporters. They chose a day and turned out in force to support the restaurants. How nice. But I wonder if anyone, on either side, stopped to think about Jesus.

Because this isn’t about Jesus. It isn’t. Jesus is about love and this is about hate. Jesus is about compassion and this is about rejection. Jesus welcomed the outcasts and the sinners. These people are condemning and judging the very people that Jesus loves.

It all comes back to the Old Testament. I’ve read what it says. I know the words, just as I know what it says about food and slaves and stoning adulterers. What I don’t understand is why we, today’s Christians, are so quick to pick and choose which words we’ll apply today and which we’ll excuse as not being relevant in today’s world.

I don’t have any answers when it comes to what God thinks about homosexuality. But I do know that God loves all His children. Every single one of them. And He expects us to love them too. I also know that, contrary to what many would prefer to believe, homosexuality isn’t a “choice” for most. It is simply who they are as people that God fearfully and wonderfully made.

I’m a huge advocate of the First Amendment. I strongly support anyone’s right to express his/her views on any subject. But hatred has no place in God’s house. Before we rush out to support an issue, we should consider how Jesus would react -- then act in love, not hate.