exclusion and belief

Recently, I was speaking with a friend who is a leader in an evangelical church, we'll call him Joe.  Anyway, Joe was talking about the strange place he inhabits as a leader in this particular community.  Here's a snippet of our dialog for your reflection:

Think about this for a moment.  If I were to reveal in the foyer that I believed that two women in a committed monogamous(sic!) relationship do not constitute a moral contradiction with the Bible and Evangelical Christian Faith, I would lose my job, faith community, and credentials as a leader. I would be blacklisted, "prayed for," and people would seek to bring me back into "the fold."

On the other hand, if I revealed that I believed that my child could, as a Bible believing Christian, go off to Afghanistan and kill Taleban soldiers, there would be a entirely different reaction.  People would say that on the matter of whether it is appropriate to use violence to solve conflicts there are a variety of Christian opinions.

He continues,

Look at the irony of this situation.  On the first issue, the Old Testament has some murky references, embedded in complex laws regarding religious purity, about lesbian behaviours.  Jesus is silent on the issue, only Paul makes a somewhat direct reference to the issue, but again, what exactly he said and how it is to be applied today is an open question.

But, on the issue of killing, consider this.  Even though the Old Testament contains stories of God sanctioning violence, we can't forget that one of the 10 Commandments is "you shall not kill."   Jesus says, "love your enemies," which presumably means that you can't shoot them.  The New Testament as a whole is clear about the immorality of the use of violence to solve conflict.

This issue reinforces for me the simple fact that evangelicals do not, as they presume, have the market cornered on appropriate morality and ethics.  Our ears are deaf to the voice of God and the path of Jesus (but I'm getting carried away!).

And here's where what he said was most personally challenging: 

What would it take to re-order our moral hierarchies such that central human issues, like those of the appropriate use of violence, be moved to the "top" (yes, I know this language is problematic) and issues such as whether women and men are allowed to live in committed same sex relationships be moved down a rung or two. 

I yearn to be a part of a community that can make this moral shift. But, alas, the context I inhabit simple will not allow me this freedom.  Even as I think these thoughts, I hear the crowds hungering for blood.

Comments

[ron cole]

David, man I can really realte to what ( Joe ) is saying. Finding my self in a very evangelical community, I'm confronted by this all the time.

This community has actually sent out mass e-mails on moral/political issues such as same sex marriage, and abortion...which political delegate should be supported and voted for. ( no this not the USA, right here in Victoria )

Issues such as social justice, the environment, the use of violence to bring democracy...are not even measured. I bring them up often...at least I'm am tolerated...or avoided.

The evangelical gospel is shrinking, and very myopic in its scope...it lacks the scandalous outrageous redemptive imagination of Jesus.