The Bible on LGBTQ+ Christians

We need to read Scripture with a discerning mind and a sensitive heart. That’s especially true when the Bible speaks about a controversial issue. We may feel we can read such texts at face value, but when we read them alongside others on the same subject, we are likely to find much more truth than is apparent in a once-over-lightly scan.

For example, the Bible says little about same-sex partnerships, and it’s tempting to read those texts literally; but if we place them in context, different insights emerge. The Human Rights Campaign, an interdenominational program to understand the diverse gender identities within the church, has sponsored a thorough reevaluation of key New Testament texts on this issue. They conclude that we will believe homosexuality is forbidden by God only as the result of “poor biblical scholarship and a cultural bias read into the Bible.”[1]

We are just at the beginning of biblical studies that set aside traditional taboos on unorthodox sexuality, so it is too early to know what these studies will reveal about the role of LGBTQ+ Christians in the life of the church. However, this promises to be one of the most fruitful areas of Scripture study for this century.

Click here to read the initial HRC report. I will share reports from other studies of Scriptures related to LGBTQ+ believers in upcoming posts.

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[1]Human Rights Campaign, “What Does the Bible Say about Homosexuality?” https://www.hrc.org/resources/what-does-the-bible-say-about-homosexuality, accessed August 11, 2023.

 

Why I Left the Church of God Ministry

I shared in a recent Facebook post that I have withdrawn my ministerial credentials with the Church of God. Several people have asked why I took this action.

I was ordained to ministry by the Church of God in 1980, so I’ve been engaged in ministry for over forty years. I served as an editor at Warner Press, pastor of a Church of God congregation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and interim pastor at Cedar Springs, Michigan. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am not an agitator or iconoclast.

I was glad to see CHOGAffirm’s “Statement of Conviction” because I have worshiped with LGBTQ people and been blessed by their ministry throughout the years. I have also studied Scriptures used to condemn them and found no reason to refuse fellowship with them. I signed the “Statement of Conviction” because I believe it expresses how the Church of God should welcome and affirm the discipleship of LGBTQ Christians.

Imagine my surprise when the Executive Director of Church of God Ministries streamed an hour-long address to the church, stating that all ordained ministers who signed the “Statement” had violated the national Credentials Manual and Code of Ethics and warned that “you could lose your credentials” for these offenses. My State Minister then circulated a lengthy email confirming that any Indiana minister who signed the “Statement of Conviction” had violated the state’s Code of Ethics. He said a member of its Credentials Committee would take appropriate action.

This sent me back to the national and state documents to see how I had violated those covenants. I found no evidence that I had. While I had agreed not to extend the privileges of membership to LGBTQ people (e.g., I would not solemnize same-sex marriages or permit LGBTQ people to teach their way of life in a congregation), I had not agreed to remain silent about the biblical soundness of these policies. In other words, I had not surrendered my obligation to study, meditate, and discuss what the Bible teaches in order to be a Church of God minister. Yet this is how my covenants were now being understood.

I have served two congregations as an interim pastor since my retirement from Warner Press, and I hope to continue serving in this way as long as my health permits. I need current ministry credentials to do this, so I contacted the Regional Minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) about applying for ministry standing in that denomination. He welcomed the inquiry. In fact, he said I was the fifth Church of God minister who had done so.

I contacted the Indiana Ministries office and requested a letter showing that I was a minister in good standing with the Church of God. The state minister and his staff graciously provided this. Now I’m on the track to ordination with the Disciples of Christ, which entails several courses of study and interviews over the coming year.

So much for the details of my story. I wish I could have remained with the Church of God, where Christ found me and called me to ministry, but that would have required me to keep silent about the fact that LGBTQ+ Christians are a vital part the church. I pray that the Church of God will soon have the moral courage to do this. Until then, I will work outside the Church of God movement to advance the cause of Christian unity.

 

Wesleyans and the LGBTQ Minority

Churches in the Wesleyan tradition have always stood up for persecuted minorities. The Free Methodist Church owed its identity and its name to combatting slavery. The Salvation Army and other Wesleyan groups encouraged women to preach. All Wesleyan groups called for social justice toward the poor instead of consigning them to debtors’ prison.

But here’s a paradox: Today’s Wesleyan churches are reluctant to stand up for LGBTQ+ people, although this minority is a target of malicious verbal and physical violence. Why?

A pivot point of the controversy is how we interpret what Scripture says. Some Christians believe they cannot defend LGBTQ+ people because the Bible condemns them as sinners. Well-intentioned Christians made the same argument against black people (“the sons of Ham”), women (“the daughters of Eve”), and the poor (“sluggards”) because they thought the Bible condemned them. So how should we treat LGBTQ+ sinners now?

The late Rev. Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, had this perspective: “You don’t go to hell for being a homosexual,” he said. “Heterosexuality will not get you to heaven, either…

“What will send you to hell? Self-righteousness, thinking you can be your own savior and lord. What sends you to heaven is getting a personal connection to Christ because you realize you are a sinner and you need intervention from outside.”

Many Wesleyan churches—including the largest, the United Methodist Church—are fragmenting because they cannot agree on the role of LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church, so it’s time for a deep dive into what the Bible says on this issue. We find a constructive beginning in a white paper commissioned by the Human Rights Campaign. Titled, “What Does the Bible Say about Homosexuality?” it was written by Bible commentators from a variety of Christian traditions. You can read it HERE.

 

Woke to Injustice

Certain terms appear in public discourse without an accepted definition. This leads to confusion rather than clarity, and our meaning grows more opaque with every round of conversation.

Take the word woke for example. The 2016 Oxford English Dictionary defined it as “originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice.”

Ironically, perceptive persons avoid using woke terminology because they fear that genuine victims of injustice will be offended by them. Without words that clearly describe such practices, there is no conversation about them.  

How can we reopen the channels of communication about racism, economic prejudice, and ethnic bias?

One way is to coin new words to take the place of prejudiced vocabulary. That’s not likely to work because different people will conceive of different meanings for the alternate language.

Another solution is to charge ahead, use the painful language, and assume that victims of injustice will steel themselves to the pain. That approach speaks volumes about our insensitivity, and it’s not calculated to cool heated tempers.

A third solution is to talk about the harm caused by biased terminology before we attempt to use it. Disarm the participants in our conversation. Emphasize that we want to understand and heal the wounds injustice inflicted in the past. Apologize for the pain, even if we did not inflict the pain ourselves.

Yet another solution is to avoid talking about the topic in question. Avoid talking about racism, economic exploitation, and ethnic bigotry. This is the least constructive solution. It implies the problem did not exist simply because it’s difficult to discuss.

Language is a powerful tool. When we realize our everyday language has been weaponized, we are woke to an acute problem. Then change becomes possible.

 

Of Bumper Stickers and Identity

When President Jimmy Carter entered home hospice care this week, I reviewed two documentary films about his life. Although I had been an ardent Carter supporter for years, I lost awareness of his efforts as age restricted his activities. These films refreshed my memory and gave me new insight into his work with the Carter Center over the past forty years.

This was especially true of “Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains,”[1] which documents  the hostile reaction to Carter’s book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.[2] Kenneth Stein and other foreign-policy experts denounced President Carter because this book criticized Israel’s decision to stake out territory on the Golan Heights. Stein said, “You cannot unpack it in such a way that one side is just seen to be responsible. History always tells us that truth is some place in between.”[3]

The fracas over Palestine illustrates our American tendency to sever ties with any political leader who says or does something with which we disagree. This makes our political alliances tenuous and our loyalties short-lived. Perhaps no one suffered more from this aversion than President Carter.

I remember my pastor’s consternation when I arrived at church with a Carter bumper sticker on my car. He and I both supported Jimmy Carter’s peace-making efforts, but my pastor felt that a bumper sticker implied that I endorsed everything Carter did. I said that wasn’t so. Carter surely would make some decisions that I didn’t support and make mistakes that I wouldn’t defend. He was a fallible human being and so was I, but that didn’t mean I should avoid association with him. My bumper sticker called attention to Jimmy Carter as a candidate worthy of support, but I reserved the right to criticize him and even work to defeat his policies that I didn’t support.

My pastor was not convinced. He felt that a Carter bumper sticker compromised my identity as a Christian. We eventually stopped arguing about it and the bumper sticker became part of my personal history. So will President Carter. I stand by my imperfect choices.

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[1] “Jimmy Carter: Man from Plains” (Armian Pictures: 2008),

[2]  Jimmy Carter, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (New York: Simon and Shuster, 2007).

[3] Steve Innskeep, “A Key Critic’s Problem with Jimmy Carter’s Book,” Morning Edition, NPR, January 26, 2007, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7022490.

 

What Mean These Stones?

I’m reading A Pilgrimage to Eternity, by Pulitzer winner Thomas Egan, which journals his summer walk on the medieval pilgrims’ path from Canterbury to Rome. He encounters many relics of dying Christianity in western Europe, especially England and France. He spots them easily, having abandoned his own Catholic faith.

He tells stories of genuine Christian heroism associated with these sites, such as Joan of Arc’s militant courage and the massacre of a congregation of French Huegenots at a church in Wassy. On rare occasion, he still finds a vibrant congregation that bucks the trend of decline; but nearly all church buildings on the pilgrim way are boarded up or serve as forlorn museums for passing tourists.

Egan’s narrative illustrates why so many of the faithful fled the religious wars of Europe to seek freedom in North America. By the same token, it serves as a warning of what may happen to American Christianity as rabid partisans try to hijack it for their own purposes.

Ironically, spiritual renewal in Europe tended to occur in times of war, especially wars of religious fanaticism. One would hope that is not the future of Christian faith in America, but peace and prosperity have proven to be thorny ground wherever our pioneers planted seeds of the Kingdom.

 

Don’t Just Worry about the World

There’s a high level of anxiety in the United States about global issues including wars of aggression, terrorism, poverty, racism, global warming, etc. And there’s a lot of hand-wringing about what any of us can do about these problems, regardless of our beliefs.

The good news is that many organizations can help us gather information about what’s going on and leverage our efforts to make constructive change. Here are just a few:

Citizen Connect is a non-partisan network of about 500 citizen groups that advise Congress about public policy. Go to their website, “Election 2022: What Every Citizen Can Do,” and find the groups that focus on issues you care about.

If you think Congress doesn’t do enough about foreign problems, go to the website for the House Foreign Affairs Committee to track bills currently being considered. On the date of this writing (October 2), 214 of these bills were in motion. The site gives you full details about each bill so you can pray intelligently about them—then write, call, or email your representative about what you believe they should do.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is a non-partisan organization that sponsors online and face-to-face events where citizens can learn about a wide range of foreign policy issues and talk with each other about how to work for change.

The Miller Center of the University of Virginia is an unparalleled source of information about current foreign policy issues. Each month, the Center sponsors a series of online webinars for their students and the public, featuring well-known public figures.

 

Frontier Amish Romance–Not A Fad

Janette Oke began the trend of frontier Amish romance novels with Love Comes Softly, published by Bethany House in 1979. It was followed by When Calls the Heart in 1983, which launched this genre into the bestseller stratosphere. Set in Alberta, Canada in the late nineteenth century, When Calls the Heart proved to be so popular that Mrs. Oke followed it with several more novels that became the Canadian West series. These soon inspired a Hallmark Channel TV series now in its tenth season.

The intersection of hardscrabble pioneer life and strict Amish marriage customs piques the curiosity of contemporary readers. One reviewer says these books are “what I call ‘gentle’ books, with no real tragedy, sex, or blood and guts, but with enough suspense to keep me wondering what the next chapter will bring.”

Mrs. Oke’s success have prompted many other authors to try their hand at this genre. Beverly Lewis, Tracy Peterson, and others have succeeded with books in this category. Having endured for more than forty years, the frontier Amish romance novel can no longer be called a fad.

The enduring popularity of this genre proves that readers like wholesome storytelling. The consistently high ratings of TV series based on Amish romances prove this is not simply a print phenomenon, either. In a time of deadly pandemic and ruthless political division, stories of innocent love and community solidarity are certainly welcome.

 

Good Friday Billboard

Geist Christian Church
Indianapolis, IN
Good Friday 2013

Billboards are a powerful form of communication. As we drive along a highway, we fix our attention on the road ahead…on the traffic…on the speedometer…on the rear-view mirror…on our child in the back seat…on the GPS device…So many things demand our attention that it’s a wonder we notice billboards at all―yet we do, even if subliminally. These brief, graphic messages hang high beside busy thoroughfares to answer life’s essential questions. We absorb their messages as we speed to our destination, and when that child asks for a restroom stop, we can confidently say, “There’s a MacDonald’s at the next exit.” Billboards have done their job; they’ve given us the answers we need.

However, some of the most effective billboards give us no answers at all; they simply raise questions and pique our curiosity about something that’s about to be revealed. You’ve seen a vast expanse of white with 2 or 3 words like…

COMING SOON…

DON’T MISS IT…

WATCH THIS SPACE.

Indeed we do. Every time we pass that way, we glance over to the billboard to see what it’s talking about. Sooner or later, the board announces a grand opening or some “new and improved” product that we simply must try. Billboard advertisers have proven this formula again and again: Make your message brief, make it dramatic, and hoist it high above the traffic. People will notice what you’re saying.

The ancient Romans knew this principle long before billboards were invented. When tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims poured into Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, Roman military authorities wanted to remind them that law and order would be strictly enforced. So they selected a few of their most notorious criminals, nailed them to rough-hewn wooden timbers, and hung them beside the busiest road leading into the city — the road from Emmaus. These felons writhed in agony for hours, perhaps days, while the holy-day travelers hurried past. The message of this display was obvious.

I imagine a Jewish mother reaching down to grasp a child huddling behind her robe. She lifts him to her hip and says, “Look at that. Remember that, son. That’s what happens to bad people.”

But there was a mixed message in the Romans’ display on this particular Passover, because one of the men hanging beside the road was not a notorious criminal. Many pilgrims would have recognized him as Jesus of Nazareth, a rabbi who had traveled about the countryside, preaching the good news of God’s Kingdom, healing people, and casting out evil spirits. He’d upset other Jewish religious leaders by exposing their hypocrisy for what it really was. The Roman military attaché felt that was no serious crime, yet there Jesus was, hanging on a Roman cross between two common thieves. What could a Jewish mother say about this?  “Remember, that sort of thing happens to good people”?

Well, yes. That sort of thing happens far more often than we’d like to admit. Honest people are executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Generous people are swindled and left homeless in the street.  Loyal people are betrayed by their closest friends. It happens every day.

Why does God allow it? Theologians call this the question of theodicy: Why does a good, loving, all-powerful God allow horrible things to happen to good people? This afternoon, Jesus puts an even sharper point on the question:  Why does God allow such things to happen to his own Son?

“My God, my God,” Jesus cries from the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” Why have you allowed me to fall into the hands of my enemies—not once, but twice–at Gethsemane and in Pontius Pilate’s court? Why have you allowed me to be flogged and tortured within an inch of my life? Why have you allowed Roman executioners to make a public example of me, nailing me to this beam and literally hanging me out to dry? Why, God, why?

His question hangs in the air beneath a glowering sky, but there is no answer. No divine voice speaks from the ink black clouds. No angel appears to say, “Fear not.”  Good Friday is a day of heart-rending questions, but few answers.

We see other layers of meaning in Jesus’ death on the cross, and Holy Week invites us to reflect on them; but let us to use the crucifixion as a lens to bring Jesus’ question into focus. To do that, we need to trace the question back to its source. You see, it didn’t originate with Jesus; it’s actually the first verse of Psalm 22. Here’s what the writer of that song said, several hundred years before Good Friday:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
   Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
   And by night, but find no rest (vss. 1-2).

The Psalmist reminds God that he delivered his ancestors when they fell into trouble. By remembering them, he bolsters his own courage and clings to the hope that God will deliver him.

Yet you are holy,
    enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted;
    they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
   In you they trusted and were not put to shame (vss. 3-5).

Still, God is silent, so the Psalmist renews his cry…

Do not be far from me, for trouble is near
and there is no one to help (v. 11).

After several agonizing stanzas, verses 23 and 24 declare that God remains faithful to us, even in the darkest hours of suffering:

You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;

He did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him (vss. 23-24).

God is silent, yet the Psalmist believes God hears his cry. God does not intervene, yet he believes God is aware of what is happening. God has not vindicated him, yet by virtue of his people’s history the Psalmist believes God will vindicate him. So suffering will not be the last word of his story. The Psalm that Jesus recalls on Calvary brings this focus to the question, Why does God let horrible things happen to his people? Although we have no final answer on Good Friday, the Roman billboard beside Emmaus Road tells us it’s…

COMING SOON…

DON’T MISS IT…

WATCH THIS SPACE.

 

Health Care vs. Sick Care

Dr. Tom Ansel, former director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said in a recent interview on the PBS News Hour (3/15/22) that our national health care system has become a sick care system—i.e., it addresses the needs of people who are sick with the goal of alleviating the symptoms of their sickness. It is not designed to help people conceive of what a healthy life would look like or how to obtain and maintain such a life for themselves.

Health journalist Max Lugavere again referred to “sick care” on the PBS News Hour two days later, during its “Brief but Spectacular” segment. “Preventative medicine is everything,” he said. “By the time you show up to your doctor’s office, what you’re looking for in most cases is sick care, not health care.”

The demand for sick care is rising. Physicians and counselors report a sharp increase in mental health problems over the past three years, resulting from the stresses of the Covid-19 pandemic, strident political divisions, refugee crises, etc. Even if we are not aware of these stresses, they affect us subconsciously. They manifest themselves not only in physical illness, but in depression, violence, and suicide.

To escape this vicious cycle, we need to shift our attention to true health care. We need to focus on growth and wellness. We soon learn that sustainable health is a holistic pursuit in which spiritual, emotional, and physical fitness are equally important. Here are some examples of modest, incremental, yet practical ways we can begin to move toward holistic health care:

Shut off the news stream. The Internet and cable TV offer us a wide variety of streaming news services. Most of them repeat bulletins of current crisis situations around the globe, sandwiched with expert interviews that explore these problems in depth. These subliminal messages of crisis throughout the day raise our level of anxiety without moving us toward any solutions. Restrict your news intake to one half=hour program each day and shut off streams that threaten to flood you with trouble.

Turn on music that is mellow, hopeful, and energetic. The same technology that brings us streams of crisis headlines can be used to access music of any genre. Use it to build a background of music that heals and fortifies you for the day’s tasks. This will require a bit of experimentation. Try various kinds of music, such as instrumental jazz, classical symphonies, or popular tunes from a period of your life that was happy and expansive. Let that music become the theme for what you do today.

Get out of the house. Isolation mandates of the pandemic have made it easy to work at home, shop at home, and otherwise avoid contact with anyone who might infect us. However, we are social beings. Personal contact is a vital aspect of a healthy life. So consciously do things that will put you face-to-face with other human beings outside the privacy of your home. Pick up your groceries instead of having them delivered. Meet a co-worker for coffee to discuss a current project. Take the recommended health precautions (masks wearing, social distancing, etc.), but don’t let them cut you off from your personal contacts.

Start a routine of exercise—both physical and spiritual. Unused abilities soon atrophy and die, so engage in strength-building exercises. Even a modest program of chair exercises can help to maintain your muscle tone. Ten minutes of mindful meditation when you rise in the morning or lie down to sleep won’t impinge on your day’s schedule but will help you stay centered on the real priorities of your life. Mealtime prayers remind you of God’s presence and provision throughout the day. When you feel discouraged by your weakness, remember that strength comes with exercise.

In these and countless other ways, you can create a pattern of genuine health care for yourself. Begin it today. (My wife adds this postscript: Every once in awhile, eat a slice of bacon.)