Christians Seeing Red: An Evangelical Perspective

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 39 ChristiansSeeingRed: AnEvangelicalPerspective by Jay Bakker T omanyinmyfaith,I’mawalkingcontradiction. I’m a Southern-bred evangelical Christian pastor anda“gayally”(asstraightadvocatesforthegaycommunity are so awkwardly called). I believe what the Bible says. I believe that Jesus died on the cross. I believeheroseinthreedays .Ibelievethatindoingsoheforgave usoursins.AnditispreciselybecauseofthesebeliefsthatI amcompelledtostandupformygaybrothersandsisters inChrist. In condemning homosexuality, evangelicals hide behind the defense that they’re just “keeping it real.” It’s not theirfaultthattheycomeofflikecallousjerks.Theydidn’t make up the rules. It’s God’s Law, His will. “Look it up,” theysay.“It’srightthereintheBible.Righttherein blackandwhite…” My response: we need to look to the Red. You know how, in many Bibles, Jesus’s words are printed in red type so that they can be more easily distinguished from the rest? Well, when we’re confronted with an issue as bitter and divisive as this—an issue that is literally tearing Christian families, congregations , and entire denominations in two—we’ve got to look to Jesus for answers. We’ve got to look beyond the black and white. We’ve got to look to the Red. A friend of mine has a T-shirt that frames the issue nicely. The front of the T-shirt reads: “What did Jesus say about homosexuality? Answer on back.” But when you turn around, the backisblank. That’s right: Jesus cared so much about homosexuality that he mentioned it exactly zero times. He thought it so central to his message of love, so fundamental to his mission of redeeming the world,thathenevertouchedontheissueinthecourseofhisentire public ministry. Yet, somehow, this single issue (and our response toit)hascometodefineChristianityinmanypeople’sminds. ForconservativeChristians,homosexualityhasbecomearallying cry and recruitment tool. It’s something to get the troops fired up about. For non-Christians, it is an equally blunt instrument: a single-issue indictment of the Church, one that makes a mockery ofallthatChristiantalkoflove,forgiveness,andunderstanding. What I love about the “answer on back” T-shirt is that it forces ustoconfrontourmisunderstandingofscriptureandgrapplewith the sources of our ideas. Before seeing the back, people’s minds scrawl all sorts of ungracious messages with their mental Sharpie pens (Sinner … Abomination … Unnatural). Then you see the bafflement on their faces when they’re confronted with the fact that their savior didn’t care enough about homosexualitytoevenmentionit. Confusion quickly turns to anger. People think they’ve been tricked. And in a way they’re right—they’ve been tricked into compromising their faith and God’s Graceforalie. Yes, there are a handful of scriptures, littered throughout the Bible, that seem to condemn homosexuality (note: properly understoodandreadincontext,eventhese don’t stand up). But Jesus didn’t utter any of them, and they don’t hold a candle to the infernoofGraceandlovethatburnsthrough thebetterpartoftheBible(boththeHebrew BibleandtheNewTestament). Looking to the Red can help us get past this identity crisis in the Christian Church. Just as former generations had to overcome their supposedly “God-endorsed” racist and sexist attitudes, so we have to overcome our narrow-mindedness on this issue in order to experience (and share) the full potential of God’slove. When we make people feel unwelcome in our faith community because of who they are and how they love, we miss the true meaning of Christianity. We get lost in the black andwhite.WeplacefalselimitsonGod’sbigheartednesswhenwe organize rallies against gay civil and religious rights. We violate God’s Grace and the principle of unconditional acceptance when we persist in the ill-founded idea that gays could—or should— denytheirorientationinordertobelongtoourchurches. When we deny Grace for others in these ways, we deny Christ and his sacrifice. And when we take the Christ out of Christianity we’releftwithareligionthatisn’tworthyofthename.■ Jay Bakker (yes, that Bakker, as in the son of televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye) is the pastor of Revolution Church NYC, a ministry run out of a bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. You can find him online at www.RevolutionNYC.com. ALEX CHAVES ...