Two Baptists, Two Revelations

Once in an Elders meeting at a church of which I was the pastor we went through the usual sleep-inducing agenda, avoiding real spiritual matters, as usual, when at the end of the meeting one of the married couples in the group pulled out a flyer.  It promoted an event of some sort that was geared toward homophobes.

The saintly wife of the couple declared, "I don't know what to say to gay people."

The unspoken response in my head was, "How about extending a friendly hand and saying, 'Hello, my name is (Mrs. Ethno Centric).  Welcome to our church!'"  But, since I didn't think she could handle that, I did not say it aloud.

She and her husband went on to display the flyer and suggested we promote the event among our church membership.

No longer was silence an option for me.  I pointed out the rogues gallery of white males pictured on the flyer:  Newt Gingrich, Donald Wildmon, James Dobson, and others, and said something to the effect, "These guys are all homophobic, so what are they going to do?  Tell us how evil gay people are?"

"Well, I, uh..."

I continued.  "You know, these guys and much of the Religious Right basically are aligned with the Republican Party.  They spout views and opinions that are reflective of the party, which is predominantly anti-gay.  And there is nothing inherently Christian about them."

"I didn't know that," Mrs. Centric replied.

The other elders elected, as usual, not to share any thoughts, and the meeting soon came to a conclusion.  It wasn't too long afterwards that the Centrics withdrew from the church.  My being OK with that wasn't quite in line with The Purpose Of The Church (that is, "Get all the members you can so we can pay the bills and keep the doors open."), but then, there were numerous aspects of the church that I found it difficult to abide.

The Ethno Centrics, I later was told, began attending First Baptist Church.  I'm sure they were much more at ease there.

Anyway, this all came to mind when I read there was a recent Non-Meeting of the Minds between two prominent Baptists:  Jimmy Carter and Franklin Graham.

In an interview, Jimmy Carter concluded a few remarks by suggesting that Jesus would approve of gay marriage.  Franklin Graham, it turned out, begged to differ.  In fact, he went so far as to say that not only would there be no Holy Approval of such an abomination, but God wants to kill Gays.

Now, whatever one thinks of gay marriage (and I personally favor it), it seems to me that Graham went too far in his assertion.  To be clear, whether he intended it or not (you decide!), Graham was granting permission, even giving incentive, for violence against gay people.

Jesus, whom both of these Baptists likely would agree is the Son of God, spent an awful lot of time tending to those considered "unclean" according to the dictates of his own faith tradition:  the sick, women having their periods, women in general, adulterers, even dead people.  He is nowhere quoted in the Bible, nor do any of his reported actions suggest, that he was anti-gay.  In fact, it is entirely a non-issue.

Graham quoted some texts used to promote homophobia among "true believers," but his interpretation not only is questionable, but seems to me to contradict the nature of God that comes across as a general trend throughout the whole of scripture.  Plus, he appears to be silent on a lot of other "sins" that might cause some of his Republican buddies to sweat.

I can see how Graham's stated views would make him popular among a particular political base, and I can understand that his proclamations (not only anti-gay, but anti-liberal and anti-Democrat) would lead to a bump in donations to his "ministry."  But perhaps an intervention or even institutionalization would be more appropriate for someone so dedicated to hate and violence while claiming the name of Christ.

And really, one of the first things that popped into my head when I initially read about all of this was that the only people Jesus seemed to have serious disagreements with were officious, hypocritical, self-serving religious "leaders."

Although, he is not quoted as suggesting they should be put to death.