Homosexuality & the Church

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth." John 16: 12, 13.

When Anglican bishop, Gene Robinson boldly quoted those words of Jesus on national television, he was trying to open up a dialog with Christians who disparage having a gay bishop in the Anglican church.
     He actually did more than that. He was holding up a mirror to a hardened mindset that occurs when religious people think they have all the answers and deny possibilities of compassion.
     Jesus was not specific about what truths he was referring to when he said those words. And that's just the point. He left us with a caution that we need to take seriously. He presented us not only with matters of faith, but with doubt-the kind of doubt that opens our minds to our own prejudices.
     We know that the heart of his good news was compassion and mercy. He associated with people who were considered unclean by the day's standards. He told us not to judge, or we would be judged as well. These are very serious words, warning us of the dangers of our own capacity for dealing and accepting others.
We scarcely need to remind people of how the bible was once used to justify racial discrimination, and before that even slavery. We occasionally hear speakers who emotionally point to the threats of communism, socialism, feminism and the homosexual agenda as a sort of mantra to stimulate the crowd.
     While we cannot know for certain what Jesus was referring to in the above qoute, we can assume it was something people would find difficult to accept. It would take the Spirit of Truth to guide us further. We need to ask ourselves, what is it that the church finds difficult to accept today? The question seems pretty clear, as the Anglican church struggles to the point of nearly tearing itself apart over the issue of a gay bishop. We see similar problems elsewhere with accepting women into the clergy.
     There are Old Testament quotes that condemn a man who "lies with a man as one lies with a woman." There are people who use these quotes to condemn the entire gay community. This gives rise to two important questions that an honest Christians have to face in order to dismiss the charge of hypocrisy.
     The first: Why are these Old Testament quotes more important than others that the church simply ignores?
     The bible is filled with Old Testament rules and regulations that never get attention. The prohibition against tattoos for instance (Lev. 19: 28). Cursing one's parents invokes the death penalty (Lev. 20: 9). Having sex with a woman during menstruation (Lev. 18). The Sabbath Year, which declares that cropland receives a year of rest after six years of use (Lev. 26: 1-7). What about the Year of Jubilee, every fifty years, when all property should be returned to its original owner (Lev. 25: 8-23). Deuteronomy 14: 8 tells us that we cannot eat the meat or touch that carcass of a pig. How is it that this dietary law of God changed in the New Testament? At the end of every seven years, we are required to cancel debts (Deut. 15:1). We are not allowed to wear clothes made of wool and linen at the same time (Deut. 22: 12). If a man has been recently married, he is not to be sent to war or have any other duty laid upon him for a full year (Deut. 24: 5).
     The list of unobserved Old Testament laws ignored by mainstream and fundamentalist Christianity goes on and on. But homosexuality remains a serious topic, denying a segment of the American population their right to the pursuit of happiness. Good, honest Christians need to question this.
     The second: How is it that the church fails to recognize that all things changed with the new covenant of Christ? The heart of his teaching is a more simple, direct relationship with God based on love, mercy, compassion and not judging other people. Yet when it comes to expressing love, compassion and nonjudgmental attitude toward the gay community, some good Christians scour the Old Testament for what condemnations they can find.
     All things change in Christ. Some things, as Bishop Robinson remind us, will be difficult to bear. The quote suggests controversy that prejudices will find difficult to overcome. In the light of not knowing for sure, we are best admonished to take care and not rush to judgment. Just as Jesus was inclusive, we should be also. And while preachers often quote how Jesus chased the money-changers from the temple, we should note that he was attacking the sin of greed, which he often spoke against, and most preachers ignore. When he called the Sadducees of his time a "brood of vipers," it was not their sexuality he condemned, or their race, or their poverty or even their sinfulness. He attacked their lust for religious power, and for trying to be seen as righteous when in truth they were not.
     There are soul-searching questions that need to be asked to keep the faith pure. And perhaps that's where Christianity must begin, in examining ourselves-who we are and what we really believe in. For even if we think that the end of time is near, we are told in the gospels to keep tending to the servants of God with all our strength, for we never know when the end will be, and when the master comes he should find us busy taking care of his servants.

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