Yesterdays Food For The Journey

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FOOD FOR THE JOURNEY

I’ve heard from some clergy people that pastors should not let people in their congregations know their opinions about certain hot-button issues so as not to influence (positively or otherwise) the opinions of their congregants. Then I’ve heard others say they share their opinions about all kinds of stuff rather freely – must be those younger people that blog and tweet and all that, the ones that are used to sharing thoughts and opinions easily and openly. Some say the clergy should stay out of the messy world of politics and stick with “the Gospel”. Others say what Jesus said was very political – that it was all about politics!

Lately I’ve seen and heard so much about one general theme: Homosexuality in the political forum (granting equal rights to gay couple, etc – in the case of states and the district) and in the church world as well (I’m sure you’ve all heard about the ELCA officially opening the door to ordaining gay candidates in committed relationships. You’ve heard church people talk about this, you’ve seen the talking heads on TV and heard them on the radio. There’s a portion of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that is seriously considering leaving the church to… well, I don’t know. The Episcopal church is feeling the split already-they’ve just ordained their second openly gay bishop). Uganda has just passed a law (if I understand things rightly) that makes homosexual acts punishable by rather severe prison time. This was done ostensibly to protect the culture and people of Uganda from cultural melt-down.

People’s reactions to all this range from the negative [allowing all this would destroy the institution of marriage, it would force congregations to accept a gay clergy person (actually not true), it’s against the bible, it’s against God’s natural laws, it’s immoral] to the positive [finally we’re recognizing people’s civil rights]. I recognize it’s a visceral issue, one that people “feel” more than “think”. If you think it’s wrong, it’s probably not because you heard someone spell out a well-reasoned opinion why granting homosexual couples “married” rights, or why opening the door to gay clergy in committed relationships, would be a bad thing. It’s probably because of what you believe… deep down. If you think it’s wrong, it’s probably not so much because you think the bible says it… but because it’s just not the natural way of things!


I’m hearing things among my clergy peers, hurtful and painful things, I’m seeing things like the Uganda law, and reactions to the ELCA or the Episcopal church or the recent DC Council decision to allow gay unions and I have to react against it! I’m not gay, I don’t get it. But I think, and feel, if people of the same sex want to bring their relationships into some sort of “official” status… why can’t we let them? As far as destroying the institution of marriage… we heterosexuals already have a 50% failure rate for marriages in any given year. I think a 50% in anything is pretty bad – it would be an “F” in school! But here we have people who want to “make it legit”. I assume they want to be married because they plan to be in it for the long haul. I don’t care for people jumping from bed to bed… gay or straight.


Again, I’m not gay, but I just don’t think it’s right to prevent people who have committed them selves to each other (in the only ways they are able at this point – by standing before themselves and God and saying so), who have not only shared the blessings, but the trials of a committed relationship, who have learned to bear each other’s burdens (as any long-term married couple learns to do), and then prevent them from being with their partners when the other is in the hospital! It’s not only irresponsible of us, it’s a moral travesty for us to prevent committed gay couples from being able to share rights – simple rights we married couples take for granted – that married couples share! We’re not talking about giving people the right to jump from bed to bed… the people who want to do that probably aren’t looking for a way to make their relationships (or lack of them) legally binding!



“But the bible says…” Don’t use the bible to your own ends! I can’t remember hearing anyone who is opposed to gay unions/marriage also say they’re opposed to divorce on biblical grounds. Jesus says nothing about homosexuality, but does say divorce is a sin! And anyone who divorces a person and marries another commits adultery! But that seems to be not only tolerated, but accepted, as a cultural matter of course.

Now, it wasn’t that long ago that church leaders actually did react to divorce. Years ago, when I was in college, I worked with a young lady whose father left the family; her, her sister and their mother, for another woman. They were church-attending Lutherans, but when the father filed for divorce, the church leaders asked her mother to stop teaching Sunday School because they felt it was immoral for a divorced woman to teach their children. She told me her mother left that church and never went to church again!

So, is divorce, by definition wrong? Well, sometimes some marriages should end! For some it can be literally life-saving! But often it’s sad when a marriage ends, almost like the death of a person we love. But just because some abuse the right to divorce, should we stop allowing it? Now of course, enlightened by time and culture, we’d think that response to her mother was without compassion or Gospel Grace! We have learned to live with divorce as a part of life. I don’t want to equate gay unions with something as destructive as divorce, but I bring this up as a way to show that we, culturally, don’t “react” to divorce as we once did.

It was the same way with the idea of ordaining women back in the day. Boy did people react to that! It’s wrong! It’s against the bible! It’s against the natural order! And today… nary a peep. Well, occasionally a peep… but we don’t take those peeps very seriously! Why not? Because we just don’t think a persons genitalia should be one of the criteria for whether they might make a good pastor or not! Are we wrong for ordaining women? Do we “buy” that it’s against God’s law any more? That argument has lost its moral standing! That dog don’t hunt!


Back in 2000, my wife and I were in Ghana, West Africa, ostensibly to just be tourists. That trip was very powerful for many reasons – not the least of which being it was on that trip we met a little girl who would later be our daughter. We were able to visit a “Slave Castle”, the Elmina Slave Castle. It was more what we might consider a fort from our 19th century Western US rather than the European style castles. It had about three main floors around the edge of a court yard. Almost the whole first floor around this big courtyard, were cages – literal cages – where they would house the people they’d collected from d the surrounding countryside. In the center of this open courtyard, in full view of the people in the cages, was a church.

While I was looking at the church, right there in between all the pain and destruction of broken lives, I wondered how they could have totally missed the picture so badly. How could they have worshipped their Jesus, yet have no notion that what they were doing was so immoral? I can say that after 300 years of hindsight. I wonder what they will say about us three hundred years from now? How could they have missed the picture so badly? Would they be talking about us not allowing people, all people, the simple rights afforded all legally recognized couples? Would they be talking about us treating gay people as equal people… in church, in life?

It’s not about doing them a favor. It really is a matter of rights… a matter of equality… a matter of justice! But that’s just my opinion.


Peace,

Pr. Chad K.