Faithful Democrats
In Christ, there is a new creation. Through the eyes of that new creation, we can see the words of scripture very differently.
One of the main fronts in the culture war is the acceptance
of gay and lesbian persons.
What I find tragic in the way this plays out is the way that
the false witness of conservative Christians conflates homosexuality with
promiscuity, or other forms of sexual immorality.
I have spent years worshipping alongside churches full of
faithful gay and lesbian married couples who, to tell the truth, are sexually
very boring people. The media seems to
ignore these persons, and I think frankly that they want to be ignored. They want simply to live their lives and
love the partner they have chosen for the rest of their lives.
Though on the surface, the struggle seems to be about the
acceptance or condemnation of a group of people whose inclination for
relationship and love is different than the majority, there is actually a
deeper conversation going on, a conversation that takes place not at the
fringes of the faith, in the realm of behaviors and morality, but at the
center, with the basic questions of who Jesus is, and how we read our
scriptures.
The fundamentalist, who sees scripture as conceived in the
mind of God as an instruction book for life, sees some prohibitions and
condemnations of same-sex activity in the bible, and this closes the
question. Those who affirm gay and
lesbian relationships and marriages and support them obviously are not paying
attention to the bible, in this view.
But another kind of Christian sees the bible as a record of
humanity’s encounter with God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and hears God’s “living
word” coming through the experiences and words of our ancestors in the faith,
in spite of the limitations of time, place, and culture.
St. Paul in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians,
the 3rd chapter, noted the difference between believers in the old
relationship to God carved in stone tablets, and believers in the new
relationship, written on human hearts.
He was talking about the change that had come with the resurrection of
Jesus. He noted that a “veil” was on
the hearts of believers in the old law, keeping them from seeing clearly. This veil also keeps them from seeing the
glory of God reflected in the faces of fellow believers.
I have seen time and time again that it is the experience of
knowing and loving a gay or lesbian person, and seeing their faith, seeing the
glory of God reflected in their faces and their relationships, that changes the
minds of people. Whether it is a family
member or a close friend, the witness of their lives lifts a veil from your
eyes, and you no longer see person with the label “gay,” but you see someone
who has been baptized into Christ and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Other words from scripture are opened to
you:
Where before you were concerned that God created humanity
male and female, and that this was the only model for human relationship-
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one
from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point
of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is
a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has
given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:16-18)
Where the distinctions between male and female seemed
God-ordained and absolute-
“There is no longer
Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and
female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3.28)
And when you wonder if it is the right of the Christian to
be condemning gay and lesbian people- (This one was read at my brother-in-law’s
wedding)
“Who will bring any
charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is
Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.” (Romans 8:33-34)
And so the growing number of Christians who affirm and
support gay and lesbian relationships hold scripture very close to our
hearts. It is the Christ we meet in
scripture who overcomes our confusion, anxiety, and prejudice and frees us to
reconcile with neighbors who are different from us.
I have no illusions about changing minds with this column,
because this is the question that polarizes the church more than any
other. Rather, it is the Holy Spirit
given in baptism and found in the lives of gay and lesbian believers who is our
only real hope for overcoming the divide.
Which has more weight, the six verses in the bible that explicitly
condemn same-sex sexual activity, or the overwhelming witness of the loving,
reconciling God found throughout the Bible?
Which creation do we live in, the old or the new? If Christ has claimed a gay or lesbian
person and lives in them, isn’t getting married just obeying the sixth
commandment? In the end, the way we
treat our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ will demonstrate what
kind of Christians we are.
Erik Thorson is pastor
of Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Billings Montana
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