Inherited

The fear that was in you... is now in me.

Marriage Equality and Hypocrisy

Facebook is filling up with red = signs and now the red crosses are beginning to make their appearance. Lines are being drawn. Many will choose their side while some of us get stuck in the crossfire.

Outside the Supreme Court a fight breaks out. Conservative Christians protest against gays and fists are beginning to be exchanged.

Most of the folks in my circle are of course pushing to keep gay union/marriage illegal. i do not "support" (encourage) same sex marriage, yet i also do not support pushing my faith convictions on others. As i see it, a secular government really has no good reason to discriminate. On the other hand, the Church does.

i believe my brothers and sisters in the faith are wrong to push their faith convictions onto secular societies in issues of personal morality. We can certainly explain where we stand, but using secular governments to enforce our personal faith based morality codes is not how we're called to "witness".

As the Church we ought to maintain the right not to officiate same-sex marriages. If you don't believe in it, then join a congregation that does not practice it.

If others want to support and practice it, then that is their decision. Just the same as if someone wants to practice another religion, or no religion at all, which is also their decision. Some may even embrace Christ and feel all monogamous marriages are acceptable. Many Christians believe and practice many different things that i personally hold a different conviction on, including involvement in war, ecological issues, marketing practices and other political issues.

What i find most ironic concerning this particular issue is our lack of consistency. Conservative Christians take a strong stance on this because they do not believe God permits this kind of marriage. Yet you don't see us taking a strong stance on divorce and remarriage, though this is clearly prohibited in the New Testament. Nearly all of us pastors have 'remarried' couples who have had multiple previous marriages. Usually we don't know all the details for why those marriages split. No matter, the New Testament doesn't permit remarriage for any reason except the death of a spouse. It allows divorce in cases of marital infidelity, but not remarriage. Yet our pews are filled with believers who have been divorced and remarried and while we all agree divorce is bad, we aren't really protesting it. Instead, we even gladly invite these remarried couples to lead in our congregations. At least i know i do.

If the real issue is fidelity to God's revealed will for marriage, then why aren't we pushing for laws prohibiting both divorce and remarriage?

If that's not the real issue, then what are we doing and why?

Dogmatic

When people feel threatened and anxious they become more rigid, and when in doubt they tend to become dogmatic; and then they lose their own vitality. They use the remnants of traditional values to build a protective encasement and then shrink behind it; or they make an outright panicky retreat into the past.

Feel a Change a Comin'

"i don't want to be a prophetic voice any longer. i just want to live in peace."

 

We're Gonna Die...

Watch live streaming video from joespub at livestream.com

This looks like an interesting documentary. i don't know anything more about it, so i guess we'll have to wait for Fall to get the rest...

Not Enough!

i'm listening to a podcast of Walter Brueggemann speaking at Eastern Mennonite University. Speaking about Pharaoh's dream concerning the seven fat cows eaten up by the seven sleek cows, he says, "It's always the people who have the most who also have the most anxiety about not having enough."

This is a comical irony. Of course, the reality of it isn't so funny. This anxiety can lead to all sorts of relational hardship, between spouses and between nations. A man is willing to fight more fiercely for what he thinks is his, and is afraid of losing, than he is for what he doesn't have.

How many marriages and nations have found  themselves at war simply due to the anxiety of what might be lost? Isn't this what 'preemptive' strikes are all about?

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matt 6:34