When people talk about radical homosexuals, they mean me. When they talk about left-wing, socialist feminists, that would be me. And when they talk about Christian voters, that's me, too.
So I'm driving along yesterday with my friend and colleague Paul: he's a gay left-winger, too, and a priest at the church where I'm the director of pastoral care. We're on our way to a funeral; Paul's wearing his collar and I'm in a nice black pastor-lady suit, and we're talking about the elections.
Both of us--full disclosure, we're big Obama supporters--are filled with dread. "It's just August, and already I'm struggling with how to preach in the election season," I say. Most of our members would describe themselves as liberal, but there's a sizeable contingent of Republicans, and more diversity of political views than many churches have. "Really," I say, "all I want to tell them is to turn off the damn television."
Paul laughs. He used to be a priest in Texas, and his husband works in politics, so he knows a lot about the weird things that can happen when religion and politics mix. "Well, you can always remind folks of their civic duty," he says. "Vote, register others to vote..."
I interrupt him. I get Christian activism: my grandmother and her minister husband integrated their Baltimore church in the 1930s, and participated in the great uprising of the church during the civil rights era; my other grandmother, a missionary, was arrested in her eighties for blockading a nuclear weapons facility. ("I'll go quietly, officer," she told the burly cop who hauled her away.) And my own city's filled with churches who mobilize their members to act for justice. "What I can't stand," I say, "is the way we use our political opinions to feel like we're better than everyone else. I wish our congregation would read the Bible during the election season as much as they look at TV."
It's not that I think faith exists apart from what Christians like to call "the world." Just like Jesus, we're all born smack in the middle of the flesh and blood of a politicized world, and I believe we're called to engage with it. I'm not asking Christians to retreat from activism.
But I know that we're shaped by what we pay attention to. And that, like a tree planted by a stream, we flourish when we steep ourselves daily in the often uncomfortable waters of Scripture--the Word which demands that we see ourselves as fundamentally the same as God's other messed-up children; that we humble ourselves and admit what we don't know; that we pray not just for our side but for our enemies. We flourish when we drag ourselves to church and sit next to people whose politics we don't agree with; when we listen openly to the prayers of their hearts, when we offer them the kiss of peace even when we can't stand them.
On the other hand, if we avoid real conversation with other human beings in favor of being planted by the shallow stream of TV news, or the treacherous stream of attack ads, or the noisy stream of angry blogs, our souls are in danger. Our attention to all the disembodied trivia and rage and slander that pours forth in an election year can be poisonous. It makes us passive: we don't necessarily do anything in response to the media onslaught; instead we only reinforce our own opinions. A politics -like a theology--that's only about opinions and doctrine, not action, makes us self-righteous. And then we're only able to pray, like the Pharisee, "Thank God I'm not like other people."
"Preach it," says Paul.
So Paul and I agree on a plan for our church, a way for us to involve our members as Christians this election season. Here it is, our radical gay agenda: Read the Bible and pray for your enemies.
Spread the word.
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
One of the hardest things for me, and for many Christians I know, is Jesus' disturbing command to pray for your enemies. Not to pray that they become different, or start doing what you want them to do. Not to pray that they will be proved wrong. Just to pray for them.
rib1961, the verse you gave me was obviously written in modern language, which means one of many, many translations. However to you it proves your point. Originally the word "homosexual" wasn't in the vernacular. So you answered my question, which doesn't change my mind about accepting homosexuality in people. The Bible(written by human beings) is used to say a lot of things are "bad" and to be accepted by a divine being, one must do as it says. Of course the Bible also said slavery was fine, and that beating your kid is fine too (spare the rod and spoil the child) and war is justified if you want land and my favorite...all of us are sinners! (unless of course you get saved by some invisible being).
What a great book to run your life by! I found that all to be a bit over the top.
So my rule of life is" First do no harm" It works every time.
Politicians need to keep their religion out of my face...I really don't care if they are Christian, Atheist, Muslim, Pagan, Jewish or whatever. That needs to be separate from running the country. We have seen what the results of the Conservative person who claims to be a "Christian" has done to this country. It's time to get away from this type of government. Of course it might have been better if "W" had some intelligence too. (and wasn't a puppet of his best buds).
If I believed in "prayer" as a Christian does...I'd pray this country would forget what religion a candidate is and vote for what that person will do for the country...not whether he/she hits church every Sunday, or Friday or Saturday or whatever day it might be.
rib1961:
You say "all I've done is explain my adherence to traditional Christian teachings," but that's not really true, is it. You continue to move past the issue at hand, accusing me of at the very least not being a very good Christian and at the very worst not being a Christian at all. So how am I not supposed to take that personally?
It's also quite ironic that the very method you cite for proper use of scripture is blatantly contradicted in the way you have conducted yourself in this interchange. You focus on passages in scripture that defend your intolerance, and you ignore all those passages from the supposed word of our lord himself that command us to be loving, to not judge, etc. etc., and yet you proclaim that it's "unchristian" people (like me, I guess) who are the ones who "pick and choose" scripture to live by. And there's a word for that - it's called hypocrisy.
I'll say it again - right wing fundamentalists have ruined our country and are ruining Christianity in America. Jesus was a liberal, and taught tolerance, peace and unity. You'd do good to actually read those parts of the gospels that you so obviously wish weren't there.
"It's also quite ironic that the very method you cite for proper use of scripture is blatantly contradicted in the way you have conducted yourself in this interchange. You focus on passages in scripture that defend your intolerance, and you ignore all those passages from the supposed word of our lord himself that command us to be loving, to not judge, etc. etc., and yet you proclaim that it's "unchristian" people (like me, I guess) who are the ones who "pick and choose" scripture to live by. And there's a word for that - it's called hypocrisy."
It depends upon what you mean by tolerance, I suppose. What the Bible declares is sin is sin. If tolerance means that I am supposed to call sin righteousness, then I am not very tolerant, I suppose. However, if tolerance means to love everyone in spite of their sin, to pray for them and do everything in my power to help them overcome their sin, then I am very tolerant.
And when you speak of not judging, make sure you have that in context. If we are never to judge between sin and righteousness, between right and wrong, then why do we need a Savior? If all actions and behavior are equally moral and righteous, regardless of what the Word of God says, then Christianity itself is a lie and we are deceiving ourselves.
Wonderful blog Sara - you have such a beautiful writing style.
It is true that we are all shaped by what we pay attention to... but this is so easy to forget. We forget that hate creates hate (not love) and fear creates fear (not love) and that sensationalism leads us away from the path we claim to be on (regardless of which side of the political fence we happen to stand on) So I appreciate being reminded to turn off the tv and focus on what I claim to be as opposed to getting caught up in the fear cycle again.
I applaud your fearlessness to face Christ's words to 'pray for our enemies' - not *fix* or change, but simply pray.
Namaste.
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.