{"id":13392,"date":"2014-12-15T10:59:44","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=13392"},"modified":"2014-12-15T10:59:44","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T15:59:44","slug":"duggars-christian-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/12\/duggars-christian-values\/","title":{"rendered":"The Duggar Family’s Not So Christian Values"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Jim_Bob_&_Michelle_Duggar\"(Credit: Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I confess: I\u2019ve seen more than a few episodes of (<\/span>Fill In The Blank With The Appropriate Number)<\/span> Kids & Counting<\/em> and I actually enjoyed them if for no other reason than I was fascinated to see\u00a0how in the world you make a household that size run efficiently or even run at all.<\/p>\n

Whether they were dealing with 14 kids or 19, the Duggars have always struck me as genuine people who aren\u2019t interested in pretending to be something they\u2019re not, even when the cameras are running. And despite their quirky brand of Christian fundamentalism, they seem like nice people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to criticize people that nice.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s just as hard to ignore the actions of people who do egregious things to their neighbors, no matter how nice they may seem on TV.<\/p>\n

Back in June, the Fayetteville, Arkansas city council passed an ordinance<\/a> that provided \u201canti-discrimination protections for members of the LGBT community in regards to housing, public accommodations and employment. The language of the proposed ordinance aim[ed] to \u2018protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to be free from discrimination based on real or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, familial status, marital status, socioeconomic background, religion, sexual orientation, disability and veteran status.'\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a big deal for an area of the country that is often caricatured\u00a0as full of nothing but backwards rednecks who hate anyone\u00a0who isn\u2019t a straight, white, English-speaking Protestant Christian. As a fellow Southerner (in exile), I was happy to see my former neighbors across the Mississippi River pass the ordinance, no matter how overdue it might have been.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the passage of the ordinance sparked outrage among many conservative folks in the area and the call immediately went out<\/a> for a vote\u00a0to repeal the ordinance.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, like many of their neighbors, the Duggars got caught up in the political fervor and forgot that conservative American values are not always Christian values and, in fact, sometimes conservative American values\u00a0stand in stark opposition to the way of Jesus.<\/p>\n

But the Duggars weren\u2019t just misled spectators standing on the sidelines of the repeal effort. According to county\u00a0finance and expenditure reports, the Duggars spent upwards of $10,000<\/a> to help finance the campaigns of political candidates working to repeal the Fayetteville non-discrimination ordinance. Additionally, Michelle Duggar recorded a robocall<\/a> intended to scare voters into thinking that the passage of the non-discrimination ordinance would result in men legally watching women shower and child predators having unfettered access to assault children.<\/p>\n

As they so often do, the money and the fearmongering worked.<\/p>\n

Last week, the non-discrimination ordinance was overturned<\/a> by voters, many of whom, like the Duggars, cast their ballot in the name of Jesus.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: there is absolutely and unequivocally nothing Christian about fighting for<\/em> discrimination. In fact, there\u00a0are few things, maybe no thing that is more antithetical to the life and ministry of Jesus than discrimination.<\/p>\n

Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus continually and intentionally going out of his way to embrace those who had been marginalized and cast out for their \u201csin,\u201d while crying \u201cwoe\u201d to those who continued in sanctified discrimination.<\/p>\n

You see, it doesn\u2019t matter what\u00a0the Duggars think their Christian position should be\u00a0on homosexuality\u00a0or the \u201clegitimacy\u201d of the transgender community. Even if you\u00a0think homosexuality is a sin (which they do) and you don\u2019t think that being a transgender person is \u201clegitimate\u201d (which they don\u2019t), that conviction changes absolutely nothing about Christ\u2019s call to love and serve our neighbors \u2013 no matter how \u201csinful\u201d we\u00a0may think they are.<\/p>\n

When folks like the Duggars fight for discrimination, when they fight for the ability to deny people access to the employment and housing we all need to survive, they fight against the least of these.<\/p>\n

They fight against Jesus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whether or not\u00a0LGBT folks in Fayetteville can theoretically find jobs or housing elsewhere is irrelevant. In a community where they are very much the least of these, the gospel makes it clear<\/a> that denying anyone\u00a0access to the basics of life in any way is no different than denying life\u00a0to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Which is why no matter how nice the Duggars or anyone else might be, any claim we\u00a0stake to making Christian values a core component of our\u00a0lives is\u00a0instantly discredited the moment we\u00a0start fight\u00a0for discrimination because discrimination has no place in the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

So, while the freedom to discriminate may be an important\u00a0value for the Duggars\u00a0that stems from\u00a0a deep religious conviction.<\/p>\n

Whatever that religion is, it\u2019s not Christianity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Credit: Wikipedia) I confess: I\u2019ve seen more than a few episodes of (Fill In The Blank With The Appropriate Number) Kids & Counting and I actually enjoyed them if for no other reason than I was fascinated to see\u00a0how in the world you make a household that size run efficiently or even run at all. 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