Elsewhere on the Beliefnet site Andrew Sullivan and Sam Harris are having a ‘blogalogue’. Honestly, I find Sam Harris’ blog entries pretty long and tired – the typical screed against faith…oh, it is irrational; oh, it doesn’t mesh with science; oh, religion is nothing more than man’s delusion wrapped up in God; oh, religion is the cause of mankind’s wars and such. I overstate – perhaps dramatically – but really, as Gertrude Stein once said of visiting Oakland, “there isn’t much there there.”
Then I went and read Andrew’s response to Sam and was blown away by his response and in particular by this paragraph:
I have met fundamentalists whose convictions are extreme but whose spiritual humility nonetheless leads them to great tolerance for dissent and doubt among others and great compassion for the needy. I have met those who are utterly uncompromising on the issue of sexual morality and yet have never shown me anything but interest, empathy and friendship. I have seen fundamentalists do amazing work for the poor and forgotten – driven entirely by their fundamentalist fervor. Try and think of how many souls and bodies the Salvation Army has saved, for example, how many sick people have been treated by doctors and volunteers motivated solely by religious conviction, how many homeless people have been taken in and loved by those seized by the fundamentalist delusion.
While I don’t always like Andrew’s use of the ‘fundamentalist’ term – his definition is broader than mine – read his words and see in them a description of the love Jesus said all those who follow him are to have one for another.
They move me nearly to tears because they are holy words full of humility and kindness and soul. How many of those who follow Jesus would look at Andrew and condemn him as a person because he is gay? How many might look upon the fact that he is HIV+ and think, secretly, that he probably deserves it?
The answer, unfortunately, is probably pretty high.
The challenge then for Jesus’ followers who believe that homosexuality is a sin is to love people who are gay as beautifully as Andrew describes. That, I think, is the kind of thing Jesus loves. It is, after all, the kind of love he demonstrated to a woman at a well, to a prostitute, to a corrupt tax collector and that he gives to someone as sinful as me.
posted January 22, 2007 at 5:20 pm
My goodness – we always need someone to stone it seems. James Alison – the theologian – has much to say about this. I would recommend him – on the other hand – if you are certain you are right – that there is no other way scripture can be read – that of course homosexuals should be stoned – then there’s no use reading Alison. Every generation needs to see the horror of their own hatreds and then perhaps they can change. The concentration camps of the 1940′s in Germany would have been just fine – got rid of Jews and homosexuals and the disabled and dwarfs and gypsies – all those people the Christian world had convinced themselves weren’t quite human. Seeing the results of such thinking changed us all. For awhile. The sense of vengeance and righteousness displayed by such “Christians” is the scandal of the church. It is the stumbling block to being Christ followers. I keep thinking – God is not violent – We Are.
posted January 22, 2007 at 5:45 pm
What bunk. Use of the term “fundamentalist” as an epithet.Every writer of the New Testament was a fundamentalist. Without exception.Sullivan is describing the common Christian and the common Christian attitude towards others, Christian or not. Love the sinner hate the sin, is Christian behavior. The works mentioned of by james includes that very thing. AND, it is not that Sullivan or anyone, “is” homosexual, what cannot ever be supported by Christians is Sullivan’s and the common leftist/gay activity of promoting and encouraging others to sin. I’ll applaud him there on (finally) understanding that aspect of Christian culture. People are going to sin. Every one of us. BUT, we must not support, promote and encourage others to sin. Christian moral lessons as presented in the New Testament, does not support the gay agenda of promoting homosexuality. That is a fundamental fact. That Sullivan has discovered the truth that fundamentalists actually, really, live their faith, is somewhat humorous. That is what fundamentailism is.His life was not lived in seeking out the truth of Christian “public” behavior. It was in other ventures. Christians do not need affirmation by Sullivan, anymore than they do from Harris. Though it is not all that bothersome to finally have one gay-promoting person that doesn’t shriek in accusation towards Christian behavior. We cannot join Sullivan and his gay community in that cause. It is fundamentally wrong to do so. We’re not bad people for holding to that truth. Maybe Jim Wallis and Mel White can learn something from Sullivan’s enlightenment. On Harris?Just pat him on the head and move on. Try not to laugh, but move on. What is it that the Bible calls a guy like him and his disbelief in God?
posted January 23, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Hey “Thinker” there were millions of Christians killed in the Nazi death camps.Now, today, the Gays and Lesbians are joined in unison with the anti-Christians in modern secular cirles calling for Christians to be herded and silenced within ONLY their little segmented religion-identifying world.Sound familiar?
posted January 23, 2007 at 4:15 pm
“Hey “Thinker” there were millions of Christians killed in the Nazi death camps.Now, today, the Gays and Lesbians are joined in unison with the anti-Christians in modern secular cirles calling for Christians to be herded and silenced within ONLY their little segmented religion-identifying world.Sound familiar?” If my history is correct, the vast majority of people killed in the concentration camps were jews and communists (atheists). As I understand it, “millions of christians” is a very high number. It might even be lower than one million, not that the number alone wouldn’t make it a tradgedy.In my experience, I haven’t met a single person of any pursuasion who wants to ‘herd’ christians into any seperate area. Also, assuming we are still a democracy and over 70% of all Americans call themselves christins, it would be very very hard to persecute christins.
posted January 23, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Matt, there were 11-million people estimated as dying in the Nazi death camps. The problem lies with how you are getting your history today. Through Progressive edicators.6-million Jews, 5-million Catholics . . . http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/How_many_people_died_in_the_Holocaust It took half a second to google. The rantings and social position of secularists and progressives mirror the beliefs of the Nazi’s when it comes to labeling people of “Biblical” faith.BTW, Nazi stands for National Socialists. The Liberal Democrats (Progressives, secularists) promote national socialsm as we write. And without doubt, look at Evangelical Christians the way their German counterparts looked at the Jews. I just heard that the APA thinks “conservatives” are mentally ill. Hmm, guess what’s coming next?
posted January 23, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Selective quite there. The full quote you would have used had you fully quoted it was:”Over 11 million – 6 million Jewish and over 5 million Catholic’s, gypsies, homosexuals, … ” Further down, it quotes:”Roughly 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust. Six million Jews and five million non-Jews (Slavs, Gypsies, Homosexuals, Political Enemies, Jehova’s Witnessesn, sympathetic citizens, etc). This figure includes the camps as well as the mass graves in the country sides, killings on the street, organized shootings (such as Babi Yar, etc.) and basically, any person singled out for their religion, plitical beliefs, or their sexual persuasion. ” The names of the Nazi Party was NSDAP or National Socialist Democratic Workers Party. It was two of those: National and a Party. Further, any student of the Nazi’s will tell you that you can sucessfully compare almost any group of people to the Nazi’s: the Nazi movement was so diverse is so many areas. The Franciscan and Jesuit educators who taught at my high school and university might take offense to being called progressive secularlists, but I wont bother to ask them.
posted October 11, 2007 at 7:46 pm
But I thought Al Gore invented the internet …