This past week has been an interesting one for Dordt College. On Thursday the campus was visited by the group Soulforce as a part of their Equality Ride. Soulforce is a group that promotes issues of justice and equality on behalf of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and trans-gender people. While I believe the group has Christian roots (I think it was founded by Mel White), technically I do not believe they claim to be a Christian organization. The Equality ride is a bus tour that visits Christian college campuses in order to challenge what are believed to be unjust policies toward GLBT individuals. But the main focus of thier campaign is to dialouge with Christians about the issue of homoseuxality.
The issue of homosexuality is both controversial and complicated. There are so many factors that influence how people percieve the issue. This visit forced the Dordt community to move the issue from the abstract to the concrete. It's one thing to talk about it in the context of a classroom, constructing "homosexuals" into some type of artifical abstraction. But to come face to face with a real person, to talk to them, and interact with them, changes things. A friend and I were able to talk with a couple of members of the Soulforce team in a local coffee shop the Friday after they visited. It was a good conversation. We disagreed about some things...but I think we found some very important common ground.
The gospel of Luke does not allow us to turn a blind eye to the plight of the homosexual community. Throughout Luke's gospel, Jesus redraws the social boundaries and structures as he ministers to those who have been excluded. Luke's birth account establishes Jesus' place amongst the excluded - he is the ultimate outcast, forced to be born amongst the stink of livestock, because there was "no room in the inn". In Luke 4, Jesus defines his own ministry in the context of Jubilee. He has come to set the captives free - to proclaim the Year of the Lord's favor...to break down the barriers that keep people on the outside, and bring them home. Read through the gospel and you see Jesus touches the lepers, he eats with sinners and tax collectors, he allows women to sit at his feet and learn (the Mary and Martha story); everywhere he goes he challenges the status quo and aligns himself with the oppressed. He proclaims a new order - a new Kingdom - the Kingdom of God, and throws the doors of His royal banquet wide open so all may come and eat at the table.
Regardless of how we view homsexuality Luke's gospel does not allow us to shut the door on our homosexual brothers and sisters. We don't have to agree with them...but we had better be ready to love them. We had better be ready to stand alongside of them and advocate for them in the face of oppression and exlcusion. We had better be ready to proclaim the good news of the gospel - that the grace of God does not depend upon our sexual orientation. The grace of God in Jesus Christ comes to all of us - broken and inwardly turned - in order to make us new creations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
It sounds like you have reached the conclusion that we should advocate Gay "rights"? Opression and exclusion from what? I believe that we are absolutely called to love and respect non-christian homosexuals around us inviting them into the love and Grace of God. However God says that you will know his believers by their fruit. We absolutely need to love and stand by any non-practicing homosexuals struggling within their orientation within our christian ranks. However as with any sin we are called to confront believers living in sin, alone, in a pair, with the elders (Matt 8?) if they do not respond to this we are to exclude them from our ranks for they have embraced sin and the fruits of their lives our not showing salvation. The riders themselves said "are we then speaking truth or are we the false prophets" I would answer you are absolutely false prophets. Contorting and omitting scriptures while using key texts and themes to back your point.. there is a little truth in every lie. However i would say that we are not called to make life easier for homosexuals, it is a cut and dry sin same as murder and lust, anyone who is not struggling with these and has been approached by believers appropriately should be treated in the same way as a false prophet. We do not change laws to make it so people who were "born" with the desire to murder can go about it freely. in the same way we as a church cannot advocate Gay "rights". We should advocate human rights, all gay people deserve food and water same as anyone else, however they also deserve the same treatment as anyone who claims to be christian but does not follow the word of God, at least struggling with areas of known sin
Post a Comment