Disappointed.
It gets me every time. Every time I read an article from a Christian organization or hear a quotation from a Christian that simply does not present the full story, I’m disappointed. Disappointed because I hold my Christian faith in such high esteem, my respective for God, my love for others, my commitment to the Truth, whatever that may be. I am at once surprised and saddened.
The Point, a blog which I read daily–sometimes in agreement, sometimes with disagreement–recently linked to a CitizenLink article about a new survey released by the Barna Group. Blogger Anne Morse quotes the CitizenLink article, “While six in 10 young Americans said the homosexual lifestyle is a problem facing America, just 1 percent said they pray for those who identify as homosexual.”
I was unable to find these statistics in the original language of the results and haven’t seen them anywhere so I can only hope the CitizenLink isn’t grossly misconstruing the findings. But I can offer some other findings: “91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers” describe present-day Christianity as “anti-homosexual” and that “Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians.” The Ventura County Star also notes that “a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 60 percent of Americans ages 17 to 29 support same-sex marriage.”
It seems to me that there is more to “the story” than simply Christians need to pray for gay people. The problems is not that Christians aren’t praying enough… a more pressing issue is that the majority of young people are opposed to the churches anti-gay teaching. It’s not that Christians aren’t doing enough, it’s that what they are doing is completely misguided.
I wish that CitizenLink would tackle the meat of these concerns instead of just urging Christians to pray and love. Both of those things are certainly important, but certainly not enough.
Another sigh.
Randy Thomas also links to a CitizenLink article about a recent Love Won Conference. The article is a collection of casual thoughts relating to a conversation the author had with a protester outside of the conference (a mother holding a sign saying “I love my lesbian daughter). He [the author of the article] breaks apart their conversation:
Her daughter’s relationship doesn’t hurt anyone: Well, research makes it clear that being involved in a lesbian relationship increases the risk for smoking, substance abuse, depression and suicide. So it may very well wind up hurting her daughter, and frankly, that pain would impact mom as well.
Does research show that being in a lesbian relationship causes those things or is there a correlation? That’s a big distinction. And if it’s just a correlation, what is the cause? That should be an even bigger question for Christians.
And make no mistake, the ultimate goal of gay activism is to force churches — including Trader’s Point Christian Church — to either preach a gay Gospel or else remain totally silent on the issue. Failure to do so would lead to severe penalties, up to and including jail time for preachers.
Without citing a single source the author (and managing editor) presumes to speak for all gay activists. Well this Equality Rider does not want to force any church to do anything. And I certainly don’t want to lock up preachers! I think that anti-gay doctrine and rhetoric is counter to the message of Christ and counter to God’s will but I think that the fruits of that theology speak for themselves. Christians and non-Christians alike will see–are seeing this–and turning away all on their own.
He concludes with “She was there because she unconditionally loves her daughter. At its heart, that’s something to honor, although we certainly disagree on how best to express that. There is a time for debate. A time to speak our position clearly. A time to say, “This far and no further.” But I am convinced there also is a time to intently and simply listen. So we know who these folks are on the side of the road. So we know what they’re thinking. So we know what brought them to that moment” and for that I am grateful. Grateful for a moment but saddened to remember that before the conversation even started he decided he would never change his mind.
For all the talking about, I’m disappointed to read so many assumptions and see so little searching.
So much for 1 Thessalonian 5:21
About the Author: Brian
3 Responses to “Disappointed.”
Thanks for linking to me but I want to make it clear that “I” do not break apart the conversation between Stuart and the mother. You simply used the pronoun “He” so people might confuse that with me.
By Randy on Nov 7, 2007
My apologies, I will edit my post to make it clear.
By Brian on Nov 7, 2007