Swallowing Camels
"You blind guides, who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel”Matt. 23:24
I am still perplexed why the evangelical church spends so much time and energy on the topic of homosexuality. Why are parts of the church so hung up on what two adults do in their bedroom?
I mean, no one is spying on them when they flip through their wives’ Victoria Secret Catalogue or when they are surfing the internet and “accidentally” discover nude bodies of the opposite sex lurking on their screen. Apparently something like 38% of the pastors surveyed indicated they have “used” internet porn in the past year.
Think about this, you’ve got 10 white evangelical pastors standing in a room in their surfers shirt drinking coffee and lying to each other about how many show up at their church each Sunday. Nearly four out of ten, according the survey have surfed porn in the past year.
It seems they are very focused on a gnat.
Depending on what research you read, a little over 2% of the population claims to be homosexual. I suspect that this does not account for those Christians who may be in the closet and not yet willing to be honest about who they are. You can’t say that you blame them, why would anyone be willing to face persecution and oppression by the parts of the Church over something a simple as sex? The only thing I can come up with is that it really isn’t about sex but more about being the person God created you to be.
Why does the parts of the Church, ignore the Camel in the living room?
Divorce and remarriage in the evangelical church is an epidemic. Nearly 53% of the people in the evangelical church are divorced and remarried (even after conversion), something that Jesus clearly spoke against. Their stats for divorce are greater than our culture!
Considering how divorce destroys the fabric of a family, it must be destroying the fabric of society and forever changing the lives of countless people- especially children who are deeply impacted by the loss at a much greater rate than 2% of the population who is having private sex. Of course this isn't an excuse to stay stuck in a bad marriage; espeically if you got married at an early age so that you could have sex due to the teaching of your church. So, f you are out their killing gnats becareful cause you will choke on this massive camel.
What about the 38% of those pastors hiding in their offices surfing the net? You know who you are.
The percent of adults age 20 years and over who are overweight or obese is 64% Considering that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, you’d think that these Christians would be on a rampage about diabetes and heart disease, but they are not. I wonder why?
I think you folks in the Church who are swatting the the gnats while swallowing camels need to give gays folks a break for a while. I mean solve the problem with divorce and remarriage, internet porn, and obesity in your church and stop bullying the gnats.
Once you get that solved we'll talk about world poverty, war, and AIDS.
Have a nice day.
17 Comments:
I have often wondered the same thing. I am not perfect and God keeps me humble by reminding me constantly, but neither are all of these people who "gay-bash". What is the point? How can you see with that 2x4 sticking out of your eye???
My sin may be more comfortable to me and to others, but it is no less sin. No worse, no better, just sin.
Frankly, as an Evangelical, I've heard far more sermons about the dangers of pornography and the degradation of marriage than I have about homosexuality. I do agree with you that obesity does not get much play time, but it also isn't as prevalent in Sciptures either.
I wonder where you are getting your information from about Evangelical churches. Certainly, there is more blogging discussion and media hype about homosexuality, but that makes sense to me. Very few people dispute that pornography is a bad thing, but there are some Christians who do not seem to have a problem with homosexuality. That is just the polemic nature of blogging, targeting in on controversy, but I don't think that you can extrapolate what you see here to the church as a whole.
Maybe your experience has been different from mine.
Thanks Daniel, you must be new here?
I was referring to the recent Brian McLaren and Marc Driscoll dialogue that is taking place on Leadership's (Christianity Today)site.
As far as my experience, I was simply referring R. Snider's book and Leadership Magazines stats, both evangelical.
There's a ggod chane there's thre or four folks siitning beside on Sunday mornings who are divorced... how many "out" gay folks are sitting beside you? Why do divored and remarried folks feel more comfortable than the gay folks? That was my point.
Thanks for your comments.
I've had this problem when it comes to the church for awhile. There are many people of the gay community who are missing out on church and who deny God because they are not being embraced by Christians. And yet, there are so many sins out there that are embraced and overlooked. I have a very dear gay friend who I will never invite to church with me because I of how the church is about gays.
"repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."
in all these discussions, even the ones I have had, the key word is our lack of teaching and preaching repentance.
we all have our little thing that gets us about what the church does or does not do.
some is it divirce and how they were treated, others is is alchohol, and here it is homosexuality.
all require repentance...not suggest repentance. require.
we must not dumb down the standards in which God requires fromall of us. perfection, holiness, that can only be brought about by repentance and forgiveness.
can't just take which part of scripture that makes us feel good, or leave out which does not line up with our desires.
Child of Faith, welcome to my blog. I think you made my point for me when you said you cannot or will notv take you gay friend to church because of how he/she will be treated. Thanks!
Jeff, thanks again for being here.I know that I sometime get on your nerves. :) Brother, I respect that!
My concern is that not every one who is a Christian understands or inteprets scripture the same. Sincere, reasonable, passionate faithful minds disagree.
I like what you said about not taking parts of the Bible that you like and leaving out the others. You helped make my point, that part that says love one another,especially those of the household of faith gets left out WAY TOO OFTEN when it comes to our treatment of our gay brothers and sisters in Christ.
The way the church, epscially the "conservative" arm of the church has treated gay folks is tragic.
What I find really sad, and it must break the heart of Christ, is that it is disguised as love, when its core is fear and hate.
And its done in the One's name who understands what is what like to be hated by those who claim they are doing the right thing in God's eyes.
"For what you do to the least of these you do it to me." Every form of hatred and rejection in the church agaisnt a gay person is an act of hatered and rejection of CHrist. And until the church can love gay folks , it cannot love Christ. Because if we say we love God and hate our fellow human, we are a liar and the truth is not in us.
Peace.
I have long wondered why homosexuality is the sin du jour, and everything else seems to fall to the side. What also bugs me about the situation is how so many "leaders" use FEAR to motivate people...making it sound like gays are trying to take over the world, or that the hidden agenda behind a movie like "Broke Back Mountain" is to make us all gay. And that wonderful catch phrase about how "homosexuality is a threat to our family values"...while I do think it's a sin, I agree with you, Rick - how does what people are doing in the privacy of their home affect how I am raising my family? And kudos for bringing up the divorce issue...I think that divorce has BY FAR been more of a threat to family values than homosexuality ever will be.
Thanks for another good one. :)
I appreciate these challenging topics you raise on your blog, rick.
Many evangelicals do take the stance that homosexual relations are sinful, and when these beliefs are challenged they will respond, but when it comes to the daily life of the church, I have not seen much rhetoric about homosexuality. In fact, most pastors won't touch it with a ten-foot pole during a worship service, because they don't want controversy to distract from the gospel.
I think it is an important question to ask if we are elevating one sin above all others, and that is certainly a danger, but let's have a realistic picture about how conservative Christians really do live their daily lives.
Here is an interesting quote from Slate.com last week about the Book of Daniel show:
"Hollywood executives seem convinced that dinnertime at any religious home sounds like the 1992 Republican convention, with everyone screaming about gays and sex and other culture war issues."
URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2134932/?nav=tap3
One way to test this: ask a conservative Christian friend if they think that we ought to love gay folks. They will say "yes." We may fail more often than we would like, but we do want to try.
I'll get back to you as soon as I get this telephone pole out of my eyesocket.
i love the way you think.
"One way to test this: ask a conservative Christian friend if they think that we ought to love gay folks. They will say 'yes'."
Daniel - I do this, but what so often disappoints me is that the same people who talk about gays like they're the enemy and they're trying to take over the world will answer that question with a "yes." It's like they know the rhetoric...they know the "right" answer, but their actions, words and attitude don't usually reflect it.
Also, I *do* find this to be the overall attitude of evangelicals. Maybe preachers don't touch it with a 10-foot pole, but most of the people in those congregations are allll over it.
Hey Rick. Found you.
Just wanted to say that I loved this post and will add you to my blogroll of places to stop on the web for insightful analysis. :)
Julie
I'm sorry, Deanne, if you've gotten this impression of conservative Christians. I must admit that I have met people like you mention, but what I'm resisting is the urge to paint us all with this brush - which I see happening a lot as well.
I think this is a revealing question: Is it possible to believe that gays and lesbians are living a sinful lifestyle and still treat them with love and respect? Some progressives would answer the question with "no," reasoning that the mere belief itself marginalizes this community and makes them feel unwanted. Sometimes I think this is what people mean by Christian "bigotry" and "intolerance," and regardless of how hard we try to love them anyway, knowing that we are all sinners in need of grace, we are portrayed as hurting them.
I agree that there is real hatred in the Christian community, but next time you hear someone mentioning homosexuality, try to discern whether this is a sincere statement about beliefs or if this is a targeted act of hatred. They are not always the same thing. That is why I suggest asking more questions to probe deeper into what Christians are really saying.
Hey Rick, thank you for the comment on my blog. I wrote back to you there if you want to see my response. You Rock.
I will read your post here later...
Layyyyyyyyyyyyla
The thing that struck me most was the divorce issue. I live in an deeply Evanglical area of the nation, and the non divorced and remarried Christians I work with are a tiny minority. In fact it is almost the NORM to be divorced and remarried. The annoying thing is, they stand there and complain about gays while on married to their third wife! Just amazing.
For those interested in what it means to be gay and Christian, I encourage you to visit Two World Collision. I'll be having the host of the blog on my Godscrum podcast this coming week. Peace.
I know lots of folks who are gay and Christian. It's actually not that big a deal in parts of the church...
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