Westboro Baptist Church Hellraises at Elizabeth Taylor's Funeral

As everybody has heard by now, Elizabeth Taylor passed away last week. Immediately following the news of her passing, Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson and legal advisor Margie Phelps began tweeting that the church would be protesting the funeral, as they have done not only to funerals of war heroes but also to other celebrities. According to the Huffington Post one of the things Margie tweeted was, “No RIP Elizabeth Taylor who spent her life in adultery and enabling proud fags. They cuss her in hell today.” Apparently Margie did not feel it was appropriate for Elizabeth Taylor to support AIDs research and stand up support of the gay population. I wish I could say this is simply a marginal group with too much time on their hands. Unfortunately, this is far from the case, as most mainstream Christians, although not so blatantly slanderous, think and act in ways that show they stand alongside the Westboro Baptist Church, if not physically, in the spirit.

I have begun frequenting ChristianForums recently and have found my worst fears realized: many of the posters at the site write things that, when reading between the lines, sound similar to the espousings of the Wesboro group. As a matter of fact, one poster has proved my thesis by pointing to Jesus’ judgmental and critical interactions with the religious leaders in the Bible as justification for his judgment and criticism towards homosexuals and those who have had abortions. No matter how much I explained the category mistake he was making, he could not see the error. Jesus criticized and condemned the religious leaders because they were in a position to know that the Torah (the Jewish Scriptures which was the sacred text at the time) was meant to promote “justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23), and yet they used it to oppress people and condemn them. One of Jesus’ harshest criticisms of the religious leaders was that they “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 23:13). His criticisms were against the religious leaders and no one else. His criticism was not against those perceived as sinners, his criticism was against those perceived as “righteous” because of their poor treatment of those perceived as sinners. So to use Jesus’ interactions with the religious leaders to justify our interactions with those perceived as sinners is a total category mistake.

What groups like the Westboro Baptist Church are doing is acting like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day by locking people out of the kingdom of heaven by condemning them for their homosexuality, for having had abortions, for saying they do not believe in a hell, and so on. Christians are too busy criticizing that we do not even realize we are doing the exact same thing the religious leaders were doing that Jesus criticized them for: “[crossing] sea and land to make a single convert…[looking] righteous to others, but inside are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness…[tying] up heavy burdens, hard to bear…but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them…” (Matthew 23). This chapter in Matthew is a good read because it gives us an accurate picture of why Jesus criticized the religious leaders: it was because they continually condemned others, acting perfect themselves, and excluded people from the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew 12:7, Jesus responds to the religious leaders’ criticism of him and his disciples for breaking the Sabbath by saying, “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless,” quoting Hosea 6:6 (some versions say ‘compassion’ as opposed to ‘mercy’). Jesus came to bring mercy, where everyone else wanted to bring condemnation. As Christians, we strive to have compassion for people, being empathetic to their situation, and showing them the love and acceptance that the world so often hesitates to give. Jesus’ revolutionary message was that forgiveness is here, and the restoration to wholeness can once again be achieved through him. Let us strive more to bring the love of Jesus to people through a more caring, more compassionate attitude.
Blessings,
-Brandon

A Call to Christian Leaders

I have spent much of this afternoon reading through various blog posts about the recent gay suicides that just occurred. There is much consensus that church leaders need to do something to help stop the hurtful bullying that is directed toward homosexuals. Some of the blogs (e.g. Religious Gays tell Teens, "It Gets Better") explain how some church leaders are doing their part in speaking words of encouragement to the gay community. I have discussed in many of my past blogs how Christians are at least partly (I would say much) to blame for the anti-gay attitude that is prominent in the world today. This has much to do with explicit anti-gay treatment of church leaders (which I define loosely enough to include anyone who represents the Church and knows better than to act in such judgmental ways). One of my readers explained to me how 2 of her women co-workers consistently tell a lesbian coworker that she is going to hell. One of the things I am going to continue to explore in this blog and am writing about in my book is where this behavior and attitude came from. What is important for this post is that the only people Jesus ever said were going to go to hell were the religious leaders of his day who were treating people the way those 2 women are treating their lesbian co-worker. The religious leaders of Jesus' day were constantly going around and judging people for their sinful behavior. Jesus purposed to put to a stop to that, saying things like, "do not judge lest you want to be judged," "do not attempt to take the splinter out of your brother's eye before you have first taken the log out of your own eye," and why he told the parable of the good Samaritan. The parable was intended to show that we are to love all people, regardless of whether we agree with their beliefs (The Jews and the Samaritans were notorious enemies because of opposing religious beliefs). Jesus was saying that it does not matter if the person laying on the ground is someone whom you disagree with; you pick him up, you place him on your horse, and you get him help, meeting his need. In this parable, Jesus is speaking to a crowd of Jews who hate Samaritans. By making the hated Samaritan the hero of the story, Jesus is saying that the Samaritan is more worthy of the love of God than the priest and the Levite in the story. Place today's Church leaders in the story as the Levite and the priest and place a gay man in the story as the Samaritan, and we can understand the story as it relates to us today. (Who says the bible is not relevant anymore). Dr. Janet Edwards talks about the Good Samaritan parable in her blog Gay Teen Suicides: People of Faith, Step up for our Youth. In it she rightly calls many of today's church leaders the priest and Levite from the parable that step around and avoid the man laying on the road. And I think this is the other problem.

The first problem is Church leaders speaking out explicitly against homosexuals. The second problem is that the Church leaders who are for showing love and compassion to the glbt (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) community are complicit because they avoid the issue and remain silent. They do not speak out against the gay lifestyle, but they do nothing to speak out against the anti-gay rhetoric of the church. Many Church leaders choose to remain silent because they do not want to offend anyone in their church. But by remaining silent, they are offending the glbt community and remain accomplices in the offenses of the Church leaders who speak out loudly against the gay population. Whenever I see a situation in which people are afraid to speak out against an issue, I think how between President Andrew Jackson and President Abraham Lincoln, there was not a single two term president. Andrew Jackson served from 1829 to 1837 and there were eight single term presidents until Lincoln was elected in 1860 and elected again for a second term in 1860. The reason no president won a second term between these two presidents was because not one of them had the courage to stand up against slavery. It was not until Abraham Lincoln came onto the scene that someone spoke out boldly against slavery. We need church leaders to be bold today and to stand up with a loud voice and decry the bullying that is being directed at the gay community. We need church leaders today who have the character and integrity to stand up for what is right and preach the gospel of love for our neighbor that Jesus preached, which means preaching love to all people, regardless of beliefs, background or sexual orientation. Church leaders need to do what Rabbi Jason Miller writes about in his blog and Preach Tolerance, Compassion Toward LGBT Community.

Here is my call to Church leaders around the country; I'm asking you to do 3 things. Stand up as representatives of the church and apologize on behalf of the Church for failing the gay community and being complicit in the bullying of the GBLT community that led to the suicides a month ago and to countless other suicides. Bishop Gene Robinson, in his blog How Religion is Killing our Most Vulnerable Youth, says in an extremely powerful way, These bullying behaviors would not exist without the undergirding and the patina of respect provided by religious fervor against LGBT people. It's time for "tolerant" religious people to acknowledge the straight line between the official anti-gay theologies of their denominations and the deaths of these young people. Secondly, reach out to the gay community and invite them into your churches, allowing them to be a part of your church community; giving them an environment of love and care that will foster much needed healing in their lives. Finally, as much as you can, educate the your churches and the public about the fact that Jesus never preached a message of hate or intolerance towards sinner, but that he never showed anything less than the greatest love for all people, regardless of whether they followed the letter of the law or not. As a matter of fact, the people Jesus showed the most love towards were the greatest sinners in the community. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, those considered the most unholy by the religious leaders. So as one Church leader to others, I am calling to you, come forward and do these three things. It will make for a more Christ-centered nation.
God bless,
Brandon

For further resources, go to the following blog which I was not able to cite in the post: Christians and Bullying: Standing with Gays and Lesbians and The Christian Call to Civility.

Interacting with Contemporary Church Leaders

I have another chapter finished. I guess I should say, "I have a another first draft finished." I have already done 3 drafts on two other chapters and a second draft on a third. It may be awhile before these chapters are technically "finished," as the editing process can take a very long time. After all, the book needs to look good for a publisher to want it. So I will go through the proper steps. But I feel good about finishing this draft, mainly because when I began the chapter (as with every chapter) it does not look like it will be finished for quite some time. It can feel like it will take months or years. It always comes as a bit of surprise to me when I finish a chapter, like I was not expecting to finish it. But this is the process of writing.

Now, about interacting with contemporary religious leaders, we need to remember that unlike Jesus' time, the church today allows for a wider circle of leaders. Anyone placed in a position where there are leading at least one person, acting as a representative of the body of Christ, is considered to be a leader. In most cases this means they receive the proper training and education to lead in the role they are given. And most of the leaders in the church I think are doing a fair job and do not behave in an unbiblical way. But many leaders in the church today, have entered into behavior that reflects that of the religious leader of Jesus' day. Being in a position to know they place impossible burdens on people, asking the gay man to change his ways before allowing him into the body of Christ, or asking an elderly woman with little money to provide an offering that she cannot afford, or excluding a woman from the group because she has had an abortion (something she cannot undo now). The Church leaders manipulate scripture to bring judgment on people, as I discussed in the post below. Others exclude people, rather than include them in their small group, bible study, prayer group, etc. because they have a purple mohawk, or are living with their boyfriend, etc. But remember, Jesus ate with prostitutes and tax collectors, he had adulterers as disciples, because his mission was to include, not exclude. So many of these people in church leadership positions, act counter to the biblical message with regard to people they see as "sinners." So, using Jesus as our guide, how do we interact with these leaders today.

One thing to understand is that, even though Jesus is our guide, he is God and so he does hold a special authority that we do not have. It is because of Jesus' authority that he could speak to the religious leaders so harshly and heap judgment upon them. We read in Mark 1:22 that the people Jesus was teaching in the synagogue "were astounded at [Jesus'] teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Now remember, the Scribes were the authority on Scripture when Jesus was around. But Jesus' authority was so great, that he made the Scribes look like they had no authority at all. It was because of Jesus' status as God that he could speak so harshly to them. And yet, biblically speaking, when we are confronted with a church leader who is in the wrong, we are given a duty to respond to them.

As Jesus spoke to them boldly, we are to be bold; the difference is that we are required to be respectful. The biblical precedent for this is Romans 13, among other passages, which teach us to be respectful to all authority. They are in a leadership role, and because of this our respect is due. The problem in the past is that we have given too much respect to the leaders in our church, placing them on a pedestal above us. We have forgotten that there is really no difference between the pastor and us, or other church leaders and us. We respect them and make them inerrant, trusting everything they say because of their position. But there is no difference between church leaders and us. Respect is due to them because of their leadership role, but they are not to be seen as omniscient and perfect. It is because of this that people are so often shocked when a pastor does fail in some way. The higher up on a pedestal you place a church leader, the harder they will fall when they sin. But we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, even church leaders. Leora is right, in a comment below, to point this out and say that grace is due even to church leaders. That is why the principle I discuss below is important in confronting church leaders who have acted like Pharisees.

First I want to direct the reader to Acts 4:1-22 and Acts 5:17-42. This is a great example of how the disciples responded to the wrongs of the Church leaders. In both cases Peter and John were brought before the religious counsel because they were teaching that Jesus was the promised Messiah. In each case Peter showed nothing but respect and stated only the facts concerning what they had experienced as Jesus' disciples. In Acts 5 when Peter is told to stop teaching about Jesus, he responds by respecting their authority when he says, "we will let you judge whether we are right or wrong," and then he proceeds to answer boldly and directly by saying, "we know what we saw with Jesus and we cannot in good conscious stop teaching about him." They were direct, they were bold in answering them, but they remained respectful of who they were speaking to.

The principle to follow in speaking to today's religious leaders is an old one but a good one, it comes from Matthew 18:15-20 which reads:

[15] “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. [16] But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. [17] If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. [18] Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. [19] Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. [20] For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”

This is a simple 4 step process. First you go directly to the leader, alone, to address the wrong with him or her. This prevents embarrassment, It avoids the sense that the leader is being ganged up on. It is the gentlest way of handling the situation. If he or she listens and apologizes to the person wronged, and corrects the situation, great. If not, you go to step two and bring one or two people with you to corroborate the fact that you are not simply advocating your opinion that they really are in the wrong. If this doesn't work, you get the church involved. This might bring about a little more embarrassment, but it still allows for the reconciling of this person and allows him or her to maintain their leadership role. If the person is still stubborn and refuses to accept correction, the person must be dismissed from their position for the health of the people of the church. This is the best way to approach a leader who has taken the wrong path, allowing for respect, but facilitating boldness and directness. Below is an excerpt from my latest chapter where I give an example of how this might look in practice.

"As a quick example, imagine a member of your small group admits to being gay. Upon hearing this the leader of the small group exclaims, “in order to remain in our group, in the church, and in God’s good graces, you need to renounce being gay, ask God and the church members for forgiveness, and refrain from engaging in homosexual behavior from this point on!” Besides not following the Matthew 18 principle, this leader has greatly embarrassed this man who, in spite of his fear, just confessed in front of everyone that he is gay. He got exactly the reaction he was afraid of receiving, judgment and condemnation. In order to correct this wrong, you first go talk to the man who has just confessed to being gay, and show him God’s grace through acceptance and love, and you tell him not to worry about what the leader has just said, that the Bible promises that those who accept Jesus as their savior are put right in God’s eyes. You then approach the leader, after you have brought comfort to the injured man, and in private you tell him that whether homosexuality is a sin or not, that is no way to talk to a fellow believer of Christ, and that Jesus would not have responded to a confession like that in the way he had. You tell the leader that we are all sinners and need God’s love and acceptance to help us overcome sin in our lives and that if homosexuality is a sin, it is unreasonable to ask this man to quit it before he is allowed back into the body of believers. If he listens and apologizes to the hurt man, then your job has been accomplished. If not, you follow the chain of command as it is presented in Matthew 18, eventually dismissing the leader if it is necessary."

God Bless
-Brandon