Speaking My Mind

In 2004 respected Sociologist and Evangelical, Tony Campolo, published a book called "Speaking My Mind." Some people might think that all Christians ever do is speak their minds, even when no one's really asking them; but the truth is that there are Christians in churches all over the country who are thinking things that they are too afraid to say out loud. They're afraid because they know that verbalizing their thoughts will inevitably lead to most of the other Christians around them questioning the validity of their faith and even the certainty of their eternal salvation. So rather than risking the stares and pity of their fellow church goers, they usually keep their thoughts to themselves. I have been among the ranks of the silenced in the past, but lately I've felt new courage to speak my mind. Maybe because I've started running into others who are also taking the risk of giving their thoughts voice and that helps me speak too.

One of the things those silent Christians are thinking a lot about is also one of the chapter topic's in Tony Campolo's book. "Are Evangelicals Handling the Gay Issue All Wrong?" In light of a recent message on this topic given at my church and the multitude of conversations about it that I have wandered into since, I thought I'd share a few of Compollo's thoughts and a few of my own. (It makes me feel a little safer to share knowing that Tony Compollo is wrestling with this too.)

A few quotes from Campolo:

"We must not allow ourselves to think that those who differ with us on the matter of homosexuality are less Christian or even less committed to Scripture than we are."

"We must avoid talking, as many preachers do, about THE homosexual lifestyle. In reality, there are as many homosexual lifestyles as there are heterosexual lifestyles. For instance, some adopt promiscuous lifestyles and some choose to have monogamous, committed relationships."

"It is my own belief that change is possible, but not likely. Because I believe in a God who works miracles, I cannot discount the possibility of change...on the other hand, of the hundreds of deeply religious gay males I interviewed while on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, I found that all of them had desperately sought change at one time or another and sadly all of them had met with only frustration and disillusionment."

"Believing that God created them for rejection, many homosexual people reject the God who they believe has rejected them. The despair that such a theology can create has driven some gays to suicide."

"The reason most evangelicals want to believe that homosexuals can change is because they are usually convinced that to have a homosexual orientation is to be perverted. They contend that homosexual orientation is contrary to God's intentions in creation."

"It is uncomfortable to note that although Jesus was silent about homosexuality, He did specifically condemn the remarriage of divorced people unless adultery was the cause of the divorce. Nevertheless, most contemporary Christians accept the remarriage of divorced persons regardless of the basis of their divorce. Gays often ask why evangelicals seem willing to accept...a sexual relationship that Jesus specifically condemned as adultery, then come down so hard on a sexual relationship that Jesus never mentioned."

My own personal questions:

1. What criteria can we use when deciding which passages of Scripture we will interpret using the historical and cultural context as a moderator (i.e. women being silent in church, and covering their heads, the command for slaves to obey their masters, the purity laws that tell us what is forbidden to eat and wear.) and which scriptures we will take at face value (i.e. that all homosexual relationships are sin, even though there is a historical and cultural context for the kind of relationships Paul was talking about.)

2. If the most compelling argument against homosexuality is that it is outside of God's plan for creation and that is the foundational reason for why it is sinful, then where does that leave disabled persons who don't have some of the "natural" functions of their bodies as God intended, or barren women who can never have children, or people who never marry and thus never fulfill the picture given to us in the Genesis or story, or those unfortunate souls born with both types of genitals? Are those people also unacceptable by God and the Church?

3. Since we are Christ-followers, are not the words of Jesus the highest authority? So if he never talked about this issue, then why are we so focused on it? We are perfectly comfortable parting with Paul and the purity code on other matters, so how did we decide that this one is more important when Jesus never mentioned it?

Sometimes I wonder what things will be like 50 or 100 years from now. Will people be looking back on this issue and viewing the Church as the same slow adapter it was with civil rights for women and blacks. That's just not the legacy that I want my generation of Christ-followers to leave. Women and black people as full participating citizens and Church leaders was once a scandalous idea too. And Jesus was always scandalizing people. So how do we know that this isn't just one more scandal of radical inclusion and love that Jesus intended his followers to be part of. If it is, I don't want to be left standing on the sidelines with the Pharisees. I long to have the courage to follow Jesus fully, even if it means risking rejection from Church people. I long for the courage not to be silent. I guess it's a lot easier on a blog than in person. But maybe this is a step.