Recently a young gay man has featured in the Fredericton news for claiming to have been dismissed from a church job because of his sexuality. It sure sounds like he was right, and beyond that, it sounds like why he was really let go has to do with fear of homosexuality.
It is hard to know, I think the journalists covering it are trying to be impartial, but to be fair, it is a heated issue, everyone is self-protective, and most issues in life are not black and white.
What I want to argue against is the whole “hate the sin, love the sinner” attitude that a lot of people seem to adopt as a strategy. As you might expect, I disagree with it.
First and foremost, If you are really arguing from a biblical perspective, or more importantly a literalist interpretation of believing the Bible is the absolute truth, where do you find it ever saying such a nonsensical statement.
The closest I can find would be in Matthew where Jesus is supposed to have told us to love our enemies… but it says nothing about sin, and it does not say our enemies are sinful… quite the opposite, it says they are fellow humans worthy of love.
Even if you take a proof text that includes most of the words of the phrase: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” which we find in Paul’s letter to the church of Rome (12:9) it is surely a stretch to say this has anything to do with other people’s actions.
Far to the opposite point of view, Jesus says quite explicitly to the gathered mob, “whichever of you is without sin, go ahead, cast the first stone and kill this woman” when an adulterer is confronted.
Have you ever tried to make a list of what is sinful according to the Bible? I guarantee you are included, no matter who you are. After all, it is sinful to eat lobster, and to wear cotton/rayon blends. It is sinful to charge interest on a loan and to turn your lights on during the Sabbath. The list goes on and on and in fact includes something for everyone.
The whole point of Jesus’ little diatribe was that he knew there was not one person who could cast the stone, nor could any of us. My point being, we are all sinners so that is a whole lot of hatred going on if we truly believe that all of this is a sin.
But more important is cultural context. Do you know why it is a sin to eat a lobster? Because the Israelites lived in the desert, that is the only reason. I once ordered a bowl of seafood chowder in the rain forest of Guatemala. I knew better, but I was tired of chicken and corn tortillas for every meal. I was sick for a week. If you have no refrigeration, and live in the hot, hot sun, stay away from seafood. In fact, to keep you alive, I am going to make that a religious rule, voila, it is a sin to eat lobster.
God, Moses, Jesus, none of them have anything against eating lobster, it was just a rule that made sense 4000 years ago.
Same as the whole Fish on Friday idea of the Catholic Church; it was a petition to the Pope by almost bankrupt fishermen that got that onto the religious books.
Sorry, I don’t mean to make anyone mad, but use common sense, when we decide that actions are sinful, we truly are picking and choosing what we dislike from the Bible. All of us do it, we focus on what we want and forget about the rest.
I wager that there is not a single thing that God actually finds sinful except not loving each other. In fact, when asked to boil it all down, Jesus said, love yourself, love God, love everyone else… do this and you are fine… and guess what… I can do that while being in love with a man, eating lobster, in my mixed fabric shirt.
