Project Angel Tree is a Good Thing. Or it would be a Good Thing if the people running it would just get out of the way.
The program, part of Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship, collects and distributes Christmas presents for the children of prisoners. This is heartwarming and noncontroversial. It’s also a fine example of Matthew 25-style Christianity in action: “I was in prison and you came to visit me.” What’s not to like?
Well, it turns out there’s a problem. The folks at Prison Fellowship want to help these little kids at Christmas, but not quite as much as they want to spread the Gay-Hatin’ Gospel.
Trent W. alerted me to this story via e-mail. It seems the Friends Congregational Church of College Station, Texas, is no longer allowed to collect Christmas presents for the children of prisoners. The United Church of Christ congregation had been supporting Angel Tree for 10 years before they were told this fall that their help was no longer wanted.
Initially Friends Congregational was told that this was because they were in conflict with Prison Fellowship’s “Statement of Faith.” Had that been true, it would have been strange enough. After all, you’re not required to swear the Marine Corps Oath before your donation will be accepted by Toys for Tots. But it turns out that wasn’t the real problem.
The real problem, as this letter from the church to Prison Fellowship (.pdf) explains, was that Friends Congregational doesn’t hate gay people enough:
The [Prison Fellowship] representative, however, informed [Pastor Dan De Leon] that according to our church’s Web site, we are an Open & Affirming congregation. Friends Congregational Church has publicly upheld this stance since 1996 as a clear, unapologetic means of extending an extravagant welcome* to all in our community, regardless of social status, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation. The representative went on to say that the Board viewed homosexuality as deviancy from Scripture, and this position, when held up to our Open & Affirming identity, excluded us from the Angel Tree Ministry. Although one might read between the lines of the letter we received to come to this conclusion, this detail by which Friends has been excluded is not found in the assertion that we must be Trinitarian and uphold the Bible in all matters of faith and life; nor is this wording clearly offered anywhere in the Prison Fellowship’s Statement of Faith.
The letter recommends that Prison Fellowship should state more clearly “the criteria by which it claims that churches and millions of their faithful congregants are to be excluded from assisting the imprisoned and their children, who, consequently, will not receive joy and love in the form of gifts at Christmas.” Ouch. The problem, of course, is that Prison Fellowship thought they had stated this criteria clearly with that bit about “upholding the Bible in all matters of faith and life.” They assumed that “uphold the Bible” means the same thing as “excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians.” That is, after all, the “most common perception” of American Christianity.
The letter goes on to pose three questions for the straight and extremely narrow ministry:
1) To the child whose parent is in prison, does it matter who is providing him or her with gifts at Christmas?
2) Is God displeased that a gay man or woman goes Christmas shopping for a child orphaned by society, or is God overjoyed that a child such as this is receiving love mirrored after God’s love: expecting nothing in return?
3) Finally, at the end of the day, does it really help or does it hinder the mission of Angel Tree Ministry to disqualify churches like ours on the basis of an anonymous giver being, as you suggest, deviant from Scripture? If you feel that it helps, then we are sad to say that you have your work cut out for you, because all of us sinners who breathe God’s good air deviate from Scripture every day. This includes everyone from our congregation to the well-intentioned members of the Prison Fellowship Board.
I’ve got nothing to add to that except perhaps this: Don’t mess with those UCC folks. They seem all meek and mild, but get between them and the people they’re trying to help and they’ll dope-slap you upside your self-righteous head.
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* “Extravagant welcome.” I like that. When I use that, a lot, in the future, you’ll know that this is where I got it from.
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