One Christian’s Thought Going Into Pride Month
I sometimes wonder how much I want to contribute to the noise on social media. Today I’ll add a little more to that noise and stir the pot a bit. What follows is most definitely insufficient as as full explanation of where I stand, but I don’t want to write a book, I do want grace and love to be the defining pieces of the puzzle.
It’s Pride month and that often brings out the worst in the culture wars. Some groups of conservative Christians will point to Scripture to condemn not only homosexual activity, but the entire gay community. It seem that we all love to draw lines in the sand just on the other side of where our own lives fall. This allows us to declare ourselves to be righteous while others are unrighteous. This was one of the problems the theologians and religious gatekeepers had with Jesus, he kept hanging out and loving the wrong people, people on the other side of the line.
It is true that an English translation of the Bible says, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman” (Lev.18:22). It is also true that it says, “Do not have sexual relationships with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter” (Lev. 18:9) and “Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her” (Lev. 18:18) and “Do not have sexual relations with your neighbour’s wife” (Lev. 18:20).
When we read the Bible we find that Abraham married his sister (Gen. 20:12), Jacob married his wife’s sister (Gen. 29:28), and David has sexual relations with his neighbour’s wife, got her pregnant and then had him murdered (2 Sam. 11). So, if we reject homosexuality and those who practice it then we must also reject these biblical characters for their unfaithfulness. We should especially reject David as adultery made it into the Ten Commandments and the law called for adulterers to be stoned to death, yet somehow David avoided this consequence and, in spite of his adultery and harem, he would be considered a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22).
I’m not proposing a simple answer to the complex question of biblical sexual ethics. I will however suggest that if you’re on the conservative side you need to be able to explain why there’s no condemnation of Abraham, who also had a child outside of marriage with Hagar, his wife’s servant? How does Jacob not get condemned for marrying sisters, but then adding two their servants to his harem? Not only is he not condemned but he is given the name Israel and his children from four women become the twelve tribes. You also need to be able to explain how David could be a man after God’s own heart while having multiple wives, for which he was not condemned either?
The theologians and gatekeepers weren’t legally wrong when they brought the woman caught in adultery before Jesus and wanted to stone her to death. That was in line with the law. Jesus was the radical who loved her and deflected attention from her back to himself, finally disbursing the crowd with the words, “Whoever is without sin cast the first stone.” None of them was without sin, none of us are either.
Grace doesn’t throw stones, it welcomes all people where they are as they search for meaning and purpose in life.
When you find religious folks waiting to throw stones at others you’ll find Jesus on the other side, getting in the way, and the question of right or wrong is replaced by a genuine love to care for and protect the neighbour who bears the image of God.
If you want to tell me, as some conservatives like to, that Jesus also told the woman to go and sin no more, I’ll grant that. If you want to debate me on the morality of homosexuality as we understand it today, I’ll do so once you’ve helped disburse the crowd of stone throwers. In the meantime, it is the work of the Christ follower to do as Jesus did and work to deflect the attention of the condemning crowd and stand by those suffering de-humanising attacks by religious conservatives.
Join Jesus in drawing in the dirt on the other side of the line in the sand. That’s where you’ll find me.
