It’s not that I’m not disturbed by some things that I see going on in the world. I’m bothered. But more than that I’m bothered by the fact that I’m most bothered by the wrong things. This post is not meant to diminish the issues that people are working out, and this is not one of those – ‘let’s put our love before our theology’ posts, because I reject the idea that love and theology are mutually exclusive. This is about the simple fact that we can hold theological convictions and get on with living missionally at the same time.
1. It’s okay to talk about the possible pros and cons of World Vision changing it’s hiring policies concerning the LGBT community.
What’s better is to struggle and be moved to action with the thought of children across the world dying of starvation, and unsanitary conditions. It is more urgent to be caught up in the plight of kids who have little hope without a good education and the good news of Jesus. Concern for these matters are what Jesus says will be used separate the sheep from goats. (Matthew 25:31-46) Your stance in a culture war will not be brought in to consideration when sheep are separated from goats.
2. It’s fine to be concerned for a company like Hobby Lobby to operate on a pro-life ethic that it’s founders hold dear.
What’s better is to exercise a pro-life ethic in our day-to-day lives by supporting adoption, refusing to take part in or supporting violence, and to work to alleviate conditions that make abortion seem like the only option for so many people. The fact that so many of us who call ourselves Christ followers have been given so much power to enact change and yet do so little, that should be what haunts us most.
3. It’s permissible to talk about Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s comments about gay marriage and to show concern for what the future holds for Christian business owners who make public statements about their moral convictions.
What’s better is to show more concern for the LGBT community. To worry more that an entire contingency of people do not know Christians by their fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Almost none of these could, in general, describe the modern response of Christians to this community. What should bother us most, what should keep us up at night is knowing that there are people who don’t know that Christians love them unconditionally.
Right on. Good point about love and theology not being mutually exclusive. I think if your theology conflicts with love then, well, hmmmm…..good topic for another post.
But on this one, I think the common thread between these three issues is to always put people ahead of positions.
TuckerJacob Yes, if your theology conflicts with love then there’s a problem. It’s hard though because Christians often disagree on what love is and looks like, not to mention how the outside worlds definition differs.
What does it mean to you to put people ahead of positions? I’m just curious because I think sometimes people mean different things when they say that. Does love putting people ahead of positions mean betraying those positions? Also I’m assuming that by ‘positions’ we’re talking about a God given (or at least perceived God given) conviction. If that’s not what our ‘positions’ are, then they need to be held onto VERY loosely.
beardonabike I think you put it well at the end of your first point regarding the sheep and goats. To use the World Vision situation as a specific example, many people have withdrawn their support from children they sponsored due to WV’s decision. Those people are clearly putting their position on homosexuality ahead of people (the children) in need. They could say, “I disagree with the position WV has taken, but there’s a child in need that takes precedence.”
What the Westboro Baptist protesters do is an extreme case of putting positions ahead of people. There’s no reason to picket anybody’s funeral because you disagree with something about them. It may be unreasonable to think that they’ll ever change their position on whatever it is they’re against (which seems like everything), but it is reasonable to expect them to not to picket at funerals.
So I would say that it doesn’t require abandoning the position, but it does mean not letting your stances cause any sort of harm to the people involved.
It’s kind of like this – If I’m ever in a conversation with someone about these hot button issues, I don’t expect to persuade them do a complete 180 and I sure don’t expect that they’ll do that to me. But I do hope that we’ll be open-minded and open-handed enough that we’ll put our relationship ahead of our convictions.
What if when we talked about these issues we acted like we were talking to the child in Syria that’s being supported by our funds? Or the gay person that has a job at WV that supports his or her family which allows him or her to give back to others? How would we voice our perspective directly to them in the flesh?
I guess that’s what it means to me to put people ahead of positions.
Thanks for writing this, Shane. I’m making a note to mark Matthew
25:31-46 in my bible because it’s an incredible verse to reference when
similar controversies, like this one, separate us Christians.