Calling Something Sinful is Not Hateful

I saw a video a while back of magician Penn Jillette describing an encounter he had with a Christian man after one of his Vegas shows. The man offered him some kind words and a small Gideon’s Bible. Jillette is an outspoken atheist, but whenever I’ve seen him engage with theists he has always been, in my opinion, fair and kind. How he reacted to this man’s gift was no different. He says in the video he has a lot of respect people who proselytize and then asks a convicting rhetorical question, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” See the video for the full story:

I was reminded of this video while thinking more about the Phil Robertson “anti-gay remarks” controversy that I recently wrote about. In that post I feel I didn’t make it clear enough that I agree with what Phil Robertson believes concerning the morality of homosexuality. I would not have said it the way he did, but I completely agree with him nonetheless.

The Bible is crystal clear about God’s design for human sexuality in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his mother and his father and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  Jesus Himself affirms this in Matthew 19:4-6 “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate.” There’s no need for me to cite Leviticus or any other passage because God Himself made it clear: sex is for marriage between one man and one woman. Any sexual act that is not within the context of marriage between one man and one woman is sinful.

A more in depth look into sexuality will require a future series of blog posts. For now, let me just say that I agree with what the Bible says, and what Christians for 2000 years have believed about marriage. I know that believing in this and saying it publicly will likely get me branded by some as a bigot, homophobe, or a hater-much like how Phil Robertson is being branded now- but I don’t believe this is fair.

Calling a sin a sin is not hateful. Christians declare that all people are sinners, not because we hate them, but because we love them. We don’t call people sinners to make them feel bad for the sake of feeling bad, but to demonstrate their need of the gospel. Everyone needs the gospel. Homosexuals, heterosexuals, atheists and Christians all need the gospel. Believing in the gospel is the only way to find peace with God and inherit eternal life. Believing in the gospel means you recognize that you need a savior, and the only way you can recognize that need is to realize that there is something you need to be saved from. To really understand the good news of the gospel you must be aware of the bad news of our natural, fallen state.

If you are a homosexual, let’s set that aside for the moment. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that homosexuality isn’t a sin. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever been envious of something someone else had? Have you ever been impatient? Have you ever become angry because something didn’t work out exactly the way you wanted it to? If you said ‘yes’ to any of these questions then you are a sinner and you need the gospel. Homosexuality is not the worst sin in the world and if you are a homosexual it’s not the only sin of which you are guilty. Your sin probably pales in comparison to mine. I am in no way superior to you or more righteous than you. I need to be saved from my sins just as much as you. Being homosexual doesn’t exempt you from the gospel because there is no sin that makes you unworthy of the gospel.

Christians believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24).  We believe that God “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5) We believe that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:12). We believe that in Christ everlasting life is possible, but to receive this free gift, one must have faith in and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. The only way you can repent of your sins is to realize that your sin is in fact, sin.

My hope and prayer for this post is that you would walk away with at least a little bit better understanding of where Christians are coming from when we call certain things sinful. I’ll ask Mr. Jillette’s question again, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” I believe that to properly share the gospel and tell you that everlasting life is possible requires me to tell you that we are all sinners. While it may be uncomfortable to label some things as sins, to not do so would be, in my opinion, very hateful.

Blessings

Duck Dynasty dust up

As I write this post, A&E, Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson are the top three trending topics on twitter. This is usually the case when the new season premiers, but that’s not the case tonight. Earlier today, GQ Magazine released an interview that Drew Magary did with the Duck Dynasty patriarch, Phil Robertson.  A few quotes from the interview concerning homosexuality has everyone’s kickers in a wad.

For those who haven’t read the quotes, or don’t know anything at all about the dust up, I’ll do my best to fairly put it all in context. Magary was talking with Robertson about his thoughts on Duck Dynasty’s popularity. Robertson said, “We’re Bible-thumpers who just happened to end up on television,” and that “…the Robertson family really believes strongly that if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.” Magary then explains that according to “Robertson’s worldview…he sees the popularity of Duck Dynasty as a small corrective to all that we have lost” due to the secularization of the United States. Robertson then goes on to say, “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong, sin becomes fine.” It is here that Magary asks, “What, in your mind, is sinful?” Robertson’s answer to this question is what has set off the social media firestorm.

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he then paraphrases 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the  adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the  greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the  kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.”

In the article Robertson is also quoted as saying, “It seems like, to me, a vagina—as a man—would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me. I’m just thinking: There’s more there! She’s got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I’m saying? But hey, sin: It’s not logical, my man. It’s just not logical.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, A&E, the network that airs Duck Dynasty, released a statement saying, “His personal views in no way reflect those of A+E Networks, who have always been strong supporters and champions of the LGBT community. The network has placed Phil under hiatus from filming indefinitely.” The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD), applauded A&E’s decision to put Robertson under hiatus. GLADD spokesperson Wilson Cruz said, “By taking quick action and removing Robertson from future filming, A&E has sent a strong message that discrimination is neither a Christian nor an American value.” An article from the GLADD website adds that Robertson’s statements are, “far outside of the mainstream understanding of LGBT people.”

Entertainment Weekly shared a statement from Robertson in reaction to the controversy:  “I myself am a product of the 60s; I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.” The EW article goes on to say that, “Robertson’s statement isn’t very contrite and seems to contradict his previous statements.”

Immediately folks via twitter came out to either drum up support for Robertson or to rail against him. Many were upset that he compared homosexuality to bestiality and many were outraged by his use of crude language concerning vaginas and anuses. Many conservatives bemoaned the loss of freedom of speech for Christians and many liberals lauded A&E for standing up against “homophobia.” A lot of Christians screamed “persecution!” and a lot of non-Christians used the opportunity to criticize all Christians as backward thinking bigots. I think all sides are wrong and this whole culture war brouhaha is ridiculous.

I do like it that Phil Robertson has a passion for sharing the gospel with as many people as possible and that he is using his TV platform to do just that. But he has got to realize that with bigger platforms come bigger responsibilities. You have to be careful about what you say and where you say it because things can be taken out of context or twisted to make you look like a fool. Doing an interview with GQ was a stupid move. I can’t believe his PR people didn’t try to stop him from doing this interview. They should be fired.

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, I implore you to be careful about who you get behind. A lot of what Phil Robertson said in this interview was ridiculous and ultimately unhelpful for the cause of the gospel. His thoughts on the pre-civil rights era Louisiana, which are surprisingly being ignored in most media reports, are completely ignorant. His conflating of homosexuality with bestiality is careless. His paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 was fairly accurate, but you shouldn’t throw out difficult Bible verses unless you can intelligently discuss them. Phil Robertson is not Jesus. He is our brother in Christ, but he isn’t a preacher and he isn’t a scholar, he should stick to sharing the gospel and stay away from hot button issues like homosexuality. It would be advisable for all Christians to stay away from hot button issues unless you can talk about them intelligently.

I would also warn my fellow Christians to be careful about throwing around the word “persecution.” A rereading of The Boy Who Cried Wolf would be apropos. Yes, Jesus warned us about persecution that would come from following Him. However, I think Jesus was talking more about being killed, tortured or imprisoned rather than simply being made fun of in a culture war. There are Christians in the Middle East today who are actually getting killed or jailed for their beliefs. The culture in the US may be shifting against traditional Christian values, but we do not yet have to suffer for our beliefs. Calling yourself a Christian in the US is still relatively easy.

For my conservative friends who claim to be supporters of the constitution, you need to take the time to actually learn what the first amendment protects. I agree it was a bad judgment call for A&E to suspend Phil Robertson, but they didn’t trample his right to free speech. A&E employs Robertson and they are free to suspend him if they don’t like what he says in public. The first amendment protects us from the federal government punishing us for expressing opinions. If it could be proven that President Obama ordered the FBI to arrest Phil Robertson for speaking about his beliefs, that would be a violation of his first amendment rights. We should avoid imbecilic statements like those that came from Sarah Palin concerning this fracas: “Free speech is an endangered species. Those “intolerants” hatin’ and taking on the Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing his personal opinion are taking on all of us.”

For my liberal and LGBT friends I ask that you would please stop claiming to be the beacons of tolerance and please stop self-righteously sticking your nose up at those who disagree with you. Whenever anyone deviates from or disagrees with your worldview even slightly you start to throw out the standard pejoratives: “racist, sexist, bigot and homophobe.” All those pejoratives do is silence debate. Instead of trying to silence people you disagree with, or celebrating when people you disagree with are silenced, please try to engage in civil debate with them. There are a lot of people on TV I disagree with and there are a lot of shows I don’t like, but I would never advocate silencing or banning anyone.

In conclusion, these media driven “culture wars” are hurting and dividing us in terrible ways. People from both sides of the divide are guilty of talking past each other instead of to each other. If we all took more time to actually learn what other people think and believe we would be better off as a society.

Blessings