All in Bible
Here’s what’s going on in America today: There’s a steaming pile of goopy food flying about in the next room, and too many of us are asking someone to please put up a curtain so we don’t have to see and smell that unpleasantness. We just can’t be bothered by other people’s problems right now; we’re too stressed out already.
In this momentous year of presidential politics, COVID-19 and racial reckoning, it’s time for Christians to reclaim a message that is biblical — whether it appears political or not. Politicians should not be the ones defining what is a biblical view, and neither should church members who just want to avoid being challenged in their biases.
Biblicism turns the Bible into a Magic 8 Ball. Remember those childhood semi-occultic toys – the black ball you shake up and ask a question and a block inside turns this way and that until an answer is revealed? Biblicists treat the Bible just like that; just keep turning the pages and you’ll find an answer to all life’s questions.
The joy we have found in welcoming into church life those who have been rejected and expelled and maligned by the church is beyond measure. Yes, we lost nearly 300 members because of our vote. But we also gained more than 350 new members because of our vote.
This is not a Republican-versus-Democrat problem in our churches – although some politicians are working overtime to make it that, and one interloper has taken the reins vigorously. This is a failure of all of us to espouse a consistent ethic, a consistent theology, a holistic view of the demands of Christian community.
When someone frequently has to tell you how they are ‘not a racist’ or ‘not a bigot’ or ‘not sexist,’ there’s a pretty good chance they actually are those things.
What congregants seem to mean when they ask pastors to “just preach the gospel” is to avoid the things that make them uncomfortable and cause them to leave worship with something less than a warm glow in their hearts. They want Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday sermons, not Ash Wednesday or Good Friday sermons.
For men and women who are secure in their sexual orientation or gender identity to definitively testify to God calling them to service just as they are — that’s a game changer. Especially when it’s not just one or two random people but instead a pattern among people who never knew each other before. Perhaps it’s time for us to connect the dots and try to puzzle out what God’s Spirit is painting among us.
It turns out that ABC has a sharper moral compass than the Evangelical church in America today. ABC took a stand against racist hate speech by cancelling the “Roseanne” show, which was making the network a ton of money. In contrast, Evangelical pastors and churches have bowed down to the most blatantly racist American president since Andrew Jackson and have refused to challenge him for fear of losing influence in Washington.
Our congregation went through 18 months of intense study, prayer and dialogue about LGBTQ inclusion, and we have the scars to show for it. And we would have had scars regardless of which way the decision went. But we are better for choosing the good over the easy.
