A Matter of Conscience (An Open Letter to Evangelicals)

On May 23, 2012May 23, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized6 Comments

Thanks to a post I published over a month ago, I’ve managed to build some good will and credibility capital with my evangelical brothers and sisters, especially those in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Today, I want to “cash in” on some of that capital.

We’re all well aware of the renewed heat underlying the debate about same-sex marriage that expands far beyond the boundaries of our own denomination. In recent weeks, North Carolina passed Amendment One and President Obama publicly endorsed marriage equality.

Most of the evangelical Christians I know are intelligent, compassionate, and dedicated people who despise the use of verbal or physical violence against any group of people. I wish that more of them understood the nature of systemic violence that forms the backbone of oppression and heterosexism, but I’m willing to accept that most of them are not conscious homophobes or bigots.

Over the last 25 years or so, evangelicals have evolved in their understanding of and fight against HIV/AIDS. In the early 1980s, it was more common for well-known preachers to deem the virus a plague of God’s wrath against the LGBT community. Since then, the majority of mainstream evangelicals have come to realize that this is a global health issue. Evangelical churches like Central Presbyterian Church in Baltimore have started outreach programs like Hope Springs to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS in their own communities. Like President Obama’s views on marriage, it’s fair to say that the mainstream evangelical perspective on the HIV/AIDS crisis has “evolved”.

Today, I would encourage evangelicals toward a similar “evolution” in the fight against homophobia. I repeat that most evangelicals are not homophobes. The vast majority of the ones I know are sickened by stories of physical violence levied against people because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.

This country needs a widespread call from evangelical pulpits that takes a firm stance against homophobia as a sin against God. This is not to say that such churches should immediately alter their views on marriage or interpretations of scripture. Keep those as they are for now.

But evangelicals should take seriously the ends and means that they already espouse. Their endgame is to lead the whole world toward greater wholeness through a relationship with Christ. They passionately believe in preaching the Christian gospel in word and deed wherever they go. They affirm that friendship is the single best method of evangelism.

What would it do for their witness to Christ if there was a large movement of traditional and orthodox evangelicals who, while maintaining their views on marriage, called for an end to homophobia and violence? What would happen if they, as entire churches, consciously nurtured personal relationships with folks in the LGBT community? What kind of gospel credibility would be built if evangelical pastors made a sustained effort at condemning homophobia from their pulpits?

Let me offer you a picture of the other side. This is a sample of what folks in the LGBT community are hearing from evangelicals:

The first video is Rev. Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church, the second is Rev. Sean Harris of Berean Baptist Church.

Most evangelicals I know detest this kind of talk. They would agree that it does nothing but damage the entire church’s witness to Christ. However, the voices of these bigots are much louder than the voices of evangelicals I know. The message that folks in the LGBT community are hearing is not the one that says “Jesus loves you.” The voices being heard are the ones that say, “You’re disgusting. You’re an abomination. You don’t matter in this country. We wish you didn’t exist.”

It’s up to evangelical Christians to change all this, if they want to be effective witnesses for Christ. Even those evangelicals who limit their understanding of marriage to heterosexual couples need to stand up and add their voices to the fight against homophobia. Pastors, don’t keep silent out of fear of what your congregation will think. Your silence implies agreement with bigots and hate-mongers. What’s more important to you as evangelicals: not appearing “soft on homosexuality” to your congregants or effectively witnessing to the love of Jesus?

You don’t have to change your views on marriage or re-interpret your Bible, just be faithful to what you already believe the Bible is telling you.

Take a stand against violence and homophobia. Preach the gospel. Be the gospel.

Coexistence

On May 22, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Monday Funsies

On May 21, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Taking a break from heavy-handed controversy to post something light that we can all agree on…

Ten Things I Want to Tell Parents

On May 19, 2012May 19, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sorry to crowd the blogosphere this morning, but I came across this article and it was too good to pass by. This is for all religiously and/or spiritually inclined parents out there (of any ideological stripe). Solid, concise, and clear. Originally written by Rev. Rebecca Kirkpatrick.

Reblogged from Bread Not Stones:

When I started this blog about a year ago, I planned to focus on sharing my insights into how parents can and should provide religious nurture for their children. As I have reflected on this past year, I thought it would be helpful to briefly lay out in one post some of the most important things that I have learned as a pastor and a parent who works with families.

Almost all of what I have written relates to one of these ten things that I think parents should know. Once we delve into the details and particulars of different parts of scripture or faith, sometimes these essentials can get lost in the shuffle.

So below are the ten most important things that I want to tell parents (even parents in my own congregation) as they work to strengthen the spiritual lives of their children.

On May 19, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Attached is the text of the Phoenix Affirmations, a list of values and principles that emerged out of CrossWalk America, the grassroots organization whose creative work inspired a documentary called ‘The Asphalt Gospel’. Not intended to be a credo, it is nonetheless a helpful summary of the kinds of things that liberal Christians tend to believe in.

Countryside Church's Phoenix Affirmations Blog

Below is a list of the twelve Phoenix Affirmations. Developed originally in 2005-6 by pastors, laypeople, theologians and biblical scholars around the United States from every “mainline” theological tradition and several others, the Phoenix Affirmations are gradually becoming a theological backbone of the progressive Christian movement in the United States. They have also picked up a following in Europe, Australia, and Central America. As affirmations they are NOT meant to act as a creed. That is, the Phoenix Affirmations are NOT to be understood as a test by which people may be judged Christian or not-Christian. The Affirmations are simply meant to be a way by which certain Christians have choose to express their faith.

The Affirmations are also designed to be flexible – not fixed in stone – and thus have a “version number” attached. Since 2006, the version as been 3.8. Below is the “summary version” of…

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A Moment of Grace

On May 18, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

What really happens in the worship experience? Regardless of one’s theological orientation – humanist, theist, Buddhist, pagan – there is often an unspoken encounter with an unseen order. For the theist, that order is the reality of God. For the Buddhist, it is an awareness of no separation between self and everything else. For the humanist, it may be acknowledging our individual roles in the larger body of humanity. For the pagan, it is the spiritual reality within the natural world. Wherever one places one’s faith, the deepest experience that happens in worship is often unseen. A worship leader can follow the prescribed steps in preparing for worship, and the result can still be uninspiring. The candles can be lit, the incense smoldering, the words written down carefully, the scripture thoughtfully exegeted – and there can still be no transformative moment in the service…

At a transformative moment, a constellation of tradition, relationships, meanings, hopes, and fears is present in the worshiping community. There is the covenant that each individual has committed to honor and engage as a member of the community. There also has to be something that none of the practices, preparations, and participation in covenantal community can create – and that is a moment of grace.

–Wayne Arnason & Kathleen Rolenz, Worship That Works, 139-140

The Right Hand of Fellowship

On May 17, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Another offering from The Christian Left group on Facebook:

Reverence for Reality

On May 16, 2012May 16, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

diversity — Photo by Kurt Löwenstein Educational Center International Team

I’ve often felt sorry for Abimelech. He strikes me as a stand-up guy who got the short end of the stick. We first meet him in the 20^th chapter of the book of Genesis. He’s named as the king of the Philistines who lives in Gerar. One day, a rather attractive woman moves to town, supposedly with her brother. She makes a splash on the social scene and turns the heads of some very well-placed individuals. Before long, she’s dating Abimelech himself, who is quite taken with her. Little does he know that she too is taken, but not in a good way. The woman’s “brother” turns out to be her husband who is using her as part of a con-game that they’ve been running in several different towns.

Abimelech, an apparently decent fellow who’s not into that sort of thing, demands an explanation. Abraham, the brother-husband, replies, “I did it because I thought, There is no fear of God at all in this place”.

No fear of God? That doesn’t seem to be the case. First of all, I should explain that I tend to cringe at the word fear being used in this sense. The actual Hebrew word means awe or reverence. We, on the other hand, tend to associate it with dread or terror. Abraham was insisting that he saw no reverence for the sacred in the house of Abimelech. Yet, Abimelech seems to be a rather spiritually sensitive person. One might even call him a mystic. He hears God speaking to him in dreams and responds without hesitation. If anything, Abimelech comes across as a much more spiritually centered person than Abraham the con-man.

Abraham saw no reverence for the divine in Abimelech. I propose a theory that it was actually Abraham’s own prejudice that prevented him from seeing the truth about the kind of person that Abimelech really was. Abraham was accustomed to seeing “foreigners” and “outsiders” in a certain way. Abraham thought that he, as the exalted ancestor of the chosen people, was the sole-possessor of “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” about God. As a result, he was blind to the reality of reverence in Abimelech’s life.

Don’t we do this all the time? We get used to seeing things in a certain way. We come up with interpretive schemas that we impose on reality in order to categorically organize our perceptions of the world. We want to know who is “in” and who is “out”, who is “saved” and who is “damned”, who are the “good guys” and who are the “bad guys”. This is a natural way of looking at things (especially for kids) but it causes problems for adults who know through experience that life is never that simple. If we stay committed to such binary thinking in the face of more nuanced evidence, prejudice closes our minds and hardens our hearts against reality and reverence. We fail to keep in step with what God is doing in the world and end up becoming the worst versions of ourselves.

Especially in this fast-paced and interconnected world of the 21^st century, it is incumbent upon us to remain open to the varieties of reverence we may encounter in those who are different from us. When I walk into a situation or relationship with the assumption that God is neither present nor active in another person’s life, I am more likely to misconstrue God’s presence and activity in my own life.

Through openness of heart and mind, let us maintain our reverence for what is sacred and celebrate together the incredible diversity we find in this universe.

Silence

On May 15, 2012 By J. Barrett LeeIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

“Be still and know that I am God.” -Psalm 46

“God was not in the fire, or in the earthquake, or in the wind, but in the still, small voice.” 1 Kings 19:12

To sit together in silence requires confronting the inner workings of our own minds. In silence, we see more clearly our thoughts and feelings, our hopes and losses. We can shut them out by compiling our to-do lists or fretting about the crying baby, but if we continue with the silence, we feel the tug of the spirit calling us to a larger life. For some, these feelings are strange and unsettling. There is nothing to do in that silence but “be.” There are no landmarks, no roadmaps, no GPS systems to guide us, save for the rhythm of our own heartbeat and the rise and fall of our own breath.

-Wayne Arnason & Kathleen Rolenz, Worship That Works, 110-111

Hopping Hadrian's Wall

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