I read a friends blog(http://thebrownletter.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/do-we-all-have-to-be-heterosexual/ – comment-334) that had so many questions about the faith in light of homosexuality. I must say it was rather quit the brain tease. It was a combination of questions, opinions and quotations. I have written a two part series to respond to all these. I will elucidation on as much as was written in this blog and in the comments that soon followed. So brace yourselves, it is going to be one long read.
The letter that was quoted there in was what got my attention first. So i will attend to it in this first part.. Sarah McEwan had some robust opinions about the Christian faith. She specified it to the evangelicals but if we read it careful, the undercurrent is much slyer than meets the eye. So that you may get the full picture, here is the extract of the letter.
Dear …
If you and your fellow Evangelical Christians really want to be “part of the solution” to stop anti-gay bullying, you’ll stop teaching your children that being gay is sinful.
You can argue all you want that the solution is Christian compassion despite a belief that being gay is sinful, but as long as you believe and preach and teach that gay kids are inherently abominable to God, you’re always going to be part of the problem.
And no, the philosophical contortions in which many Christians like to engage, claiming God only hates homosexuality but doesn’t hate homosexual people, does not absolve you of your responsibility. Treating people as though their humanity is somehow separate from their intrinsic characteristics is not merely absurd bullshit; when you seek to wrench apart the components of people’s whole selves and throw away pieces of their identities, it’s just eliminationist rhetoric dressed up in its Sunday best.
This reflexive insistence that anti-gay Christians can’t just toss away their institutional homophobia because it’s in the Bible is contemptible nonsense. There are all kinds of things in the Bible that modern evangelicals don’t teach their children, and for less reason than because to continue to believe it has demonstrably deadly consequences.
Listen, I’m not telling you what you should or shouldn’t believe. I’m just telling you that it’s disingenuous to pretend that your anti-gay beliefs themselves don’t have cultural consequences.
Any well-known and widely-discussed and deeply-held belief of millions of people in a democratic nation is going to have cultural consequences. Especially when that belief marginalizes millions of other people.
If you really and genuinely and authentically want to be part of the solution, you’ll take a good, long, hard look at the particular bit of dishonesty that is telling yourselves the belief itself is okay to have. Because there is nothing—and I mean nothing—that is helpful about telling “straight evangelical students that following your faith means treating your neighbors well. That means all of them – even the gay ones.”
Even the gay ones. That shit, right there, suggests to the very students you want to dissuade from bullying that their gay peers are less than, which is the precise attitude that leads to bullying in the first place.
You can’t hope to be part of the solution when your beliefs are exactly the problem.
You want to help? Stop marginalizing queers.
It’s that simple. Anything else is an empty gesture, designed to make you feel good—not designed to help gay kids.
Ref. Sarah McEwan
So I wrote a response to rebut some of the heinous accusations and invalidate some of the misgivings and misconception about the faith. Consider this an informed opinion at worst.
Dear Sarah,
You say,
“part of the solution” to stop anti-gay bullying, you’ll stop teaching your children that being gay is sinful.”
First of all, your approach presupposes that you are right about the gays and that a faith (you clearly know very little of) is going to change the teachings central to its theology simply because they need to change a facet of their belief to accommodate and tolerate an act they consider odious. Here are some facts;
- Sin is the primary reason the theology of Christianity exists. There would be no need for Jesus to pay the debt of sin if there was no sin in the first place.
- You assume that by telling the Christians to stop teaching children that being gay is sinful, it will take away the marginalization of gays. They are so out there even without the help of the church. There is so much moreto deal with like, culture, status, tradition, that in and of themselves would wage war and have done so.
- Not teaching the children that being gay is not sinful is not going to take away its sinfulness. Not according to the Church precepts. What you are asking them to do is to look the other way when it comes to Homosexuality. Everything else can be condemned but not that. Why? Because it marginalizes them? Well then, lets not marginalize the petty thieves, the cheats, the liars …
you say,
“, but as long as you believe and preach and teach that gay kids are inherently abominable to God, you’re always going to be part of the problem.”
The theology of Christianity is that humanity is inherently sinful “NOT JUST THE GAYS”. For the gays, it is a public manifestation of sin while everyone else is hiding their hideous nature in the closet. We are intrinsically flawed and damaged from within. As such we need a savior. A savior who not only redeems humanity from the hell he created on his own,[ eg Nuclear war, perversions, serial killing, pollution, homosexuality -all posing a threat to the human existence as we know it], but also restore us to eternal/abundant life. A life with purpose and meaning; A savior that will not only save but restore the order of perfection in the human condition.
So it is inaccurate to assume that the problem is “calling it SIN” as the Christian sees it. No my friend. It is much bigger than that. The problem is the Human heart. The sick and twisted human heart, Christian or not, is the single greatest weapon of mass destruction of the marginalized homosexual and others like him. This is why the Christians rely on a power greater than their own. Because the Christian is aware of his weakness, he depends on a grander celestial being that would deal with the heart of the problem- the human heart. So no, the church should never and will never stop calling out SIN as it is. It is a belief well entitled. If one cant take it, they can always leave. They always have.
You say,
“absurd bullshit; when you seek to wrench apart the components of people’s whole selves and throw away pieces of their identities, it’s just eliminationist rhetoric dressed up in its Sunday best.”
You make the assumption that just because its intrinsically characteristic of human nature, it is therefor ok. Not so!!. If that were the case, the prisons would be vacant on grounds that every criminal would argue the same. Its who he is. Telling the Christian to stop telling people that what he believes is sin actually is sin is the same as telling the state to stop calling people that do wrong criminals. Because it marginalizes them! Hog wash I say! If you are going to use this standard to critique the Christians, id suggest you do the same everywhere else. See how that works out for you.
If there is an intrinsic characteristic in any one that is imperiling his wellbeing and forward movement, then I’d suffice it to say it can and Must change! The Christians have a solution. Jesus. If you cant deal with that, find something. But know that it can change.
You say,
“If you really and genuinely and authentically want to be part of the solution, you’ll take a good, long, hard look at the particular bit of dishonesty that is telling yourselves the belief itself is okay to have. Because there is nothing—and I mean nothing—that is helpful about telling “straight evangelical students that following your faith means treating your neighbors well. That means all of them – even the gay ones.”
Please make a distinction between the belief and the believers’ interpretation of it all. The interpretation is biased by cultural and traditional disposition, which is affected by pure human interactions and emotions. These have absolutely very little to do with the belief and its theology there in.
Being an anti-gay bully /homo phobic is not a result of Christianity. It’s a result of a screwed up misconception and perception of the faith, by both believers and non-believers. It is a human problem. A result of the human heart!
Lets get the facts right before expressing misinformed notions through unintelligent bunterand prideful ignorance about the subject of faith… Whatever faith/religion it may be.
It would be inane to continue a debate with someone with such a mindset, let alone trying to come to a solution.
Toward a solution, you say,
You want to help? Stop marginalizing queers.
Again, Not the solution. If you want to stop marginalizing, quit bickering and pointing crooked moral fingers at each other and come together to pursue a common goal without removing from society the beauty of faith, and hope.
We can pursue peace and harmony in society without taking away from it the richness of diversity. Its what makes it beautiful to be human!
Instead of seeing differences, we need to come to a point where we see variety. As such, when the Christian holds a certain opinion, he is not pulled down for it and if the “gay” does his thing, he is not considered less than human.
Right there, I have provided a possible solution to the problem without planting the blame on either side. Without so much as being condescending to the faiths or condemning a person’s sexual orientation, I have come to a place where both sides can agree to disagree and let faith or nature take its course.
Yours truly,
the challenger.
Eloquent Silences 