Fearless Faith

Participation in the broader church’s judicatory is an eye opener for many people who are thrust into it for the first time. It is even crazy-making for those who have been immersed in it for some time, baptism by fire as it were. Divisions in the institutional church are at an all-time high as we deal with the daily challenges that COVID, politics, and social unrest have laid at our feet.

Particularly vexing in this day and age, however, is the increasing tendency of some churches to embrace a victim mentality, in part because it has been popularized in media at all levels. Thanks to the First Amendment, and the religious freedom clauses contained within, we are neither put upon nor persecuted as Christians in this country, although the claim has given some a cause to stable indignation as central to the their Christian experience.

Accompanying such resentment is the hurtful characterization of the rest of the world religions. It’s easy for us to claim victimhood because it provides a reason to dismiss so many other belief systems. We conveniently forget that the First Amendment protects all religion, something that has withstood the test of time. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…” What a marvelous balancing act and tension that creates. The government may neither promote religion nor pass laws restricting it, unless there are compelling neutral reasons for so doing. One does not have to wear a capital ‘C’ on their back in order to invest in the compassionate ministries of Jesus.

Why, then, do you suppose that churches get a free pass for discriminating against any group of people they choose to abhor? It used to be church goers who adorned themselves with Easter bonnets and neckties who were called out, or those who dressed up as Santa Claus for community events. It used to be pastors who sought to make a livable salary in the face of the pressures of free ministry, although most remained destitute preachers of the Word. It used to be (and remains in too many circumstances) women who dared preach or who sought to provide significant and valued theological leadership in the church.

It continues to be people of color finding their way in a White patriarchal world. It sadly persists if you are bi or gay or lesbian. And heaven forbid that we would invite foreigners to the table while acknowledging that our country was built off the backs of immigrants. And now the latest apex evil that the church has come to disdain and dismiss is transgenderism. There is a striking amount of ignorance and lack of understanding regarding human sexuality in and outside the church, and it’s not going away anytime soon. Do we engage or run?

We would rather dismiss as dangerous the hard the work of challenging scripture that is based on populist sentiment and careless and inconsistent literal renderings of the Word, while completely ignoring the contextual and cultural settings. For many, that is an acceptable and non-thinking easy way out trade-off, but the mystery and complexity of human sexuality does not go away simply through arbitrary dismissal.

“But the Bible says…!” becomes the rallying cry. However, in that very moment the scriptures are held aloft, interpretation begins. And when we have dismissed all who offend our so-called Christian sensibilities and compassions, and there is only God sitting across from us, what then shall we have to talk about?