love

I’ll Be Homeless at 3pm Today

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I know, that’s a weird headline for a blog post. No, I’m not losing my house. No, I’m not being evicted. I’m not homeless (anymore) and don’t have any reason to think I will be in the foreseeable future.

Because I’m white. And middle class. And straight. And Christian. And American. And the list goes on…

Months ago, my teenaged daughter texted me from school (that’s pretty typical, actually) in a panic. A good friend had had enough, and was struggling with the fact that he’d just realized a few weeks before that he was gay. She was urging him to tell his parents, if only so that he didn’t have to hide who he was and live a lie.

She was texting me the play-by-play as she tried to convince him that being honest and true to himself was the best way. I followed up with supportive texts, confirming what she was telling him. As a parent, I would be devastated to learn that my child harbored a secret that she thought she couldn’t tell me.

As he contemplated texting his mom to tell her–please, let that sink in…he was afraid to even text her–he looked at her at one point and said, “I could be homeless at 3pm today.”

Choke on that for a minute. Think about your child really believing that you would kick him out, that you would tell a fifteen-year-old who isn’t even old enough to drive a car that you don’t want him to step foot in your house again. Your own flesh and blood, sent away from your presence.

Would God do that to you? Is there ANYTHING you could do that Our Father would not forgive? That he would cast you out and say, “Don’t show your face again?” Anything that would keep him from gathering you in his arms and sending his angels to lift you up?

No. And you’re a putrid excuse for a human being if you think that’s even possible.

I texted my daughter immediately: “He is NOT homeless! If they don’t want him, he is to come to our house and stay with us! But he is NOT left out in the cold!”

Some of us felt the ground quake beneath us this week, realizing that hatred won out over love and over Jesus Christ. Don’t let that be the end of the story. Show your love everywhere you go, be the force for change and for good, and for God’s sake, open your hearts and your homes to those who are terrified right now. Shower the world with the love that Christ gave us. The Holy Spirit is in us, and it’s not there without reason.

God Don’t Make Mistakes

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“God don’t make mistakes.”

If I have to hear that one more time from a backwoods hillbilly who’s suddenly become an authority on what God does and does not do, I’m going to need s lot of forgiveness in a hurry. 

Of course, when I hear these words, it’s from someone blasting Caitlyn Jenner for her not-recent decision. They’re making this pronouncement to indicate that God made the person we knew as Bruce, and Caitlyn had no right to interfere with that decision.

Let’s break it down. 

Once again, for the millionth time about the hundredth issue, your/my beliefs in God don’t dictate others’ choices. Whether it’s abortion of gay marriage or buying beer on Sundays, if we’re forcing others to conform to the standards of our beliefs simply because we hold those standards dear, we are NOT welcoming others to the Lord. We are putting the thou-shalt-nots ahead of God’s love. 

More importantly, we have a fundamental inability to mind our own business and shut our own mouths. If we have a religious problem with Caitlyn Jenner’s choice…who cares? Certainly not Ms. Jenner, who obviously did not ask our opinions or permission. All we’re doing by speaking out is letting others know how intolerant we are. 

Finally, God might not make mistakes but he does change his mind. Aside from the Biblical passages in which he literally changed his mind, we have everyday examples to follow. People who were at death’s door who make miraculous recoveries, people whose marriages are on the brink of collapse when one party makes a dramatic change and saves the relationship. Who’s to say that wasn’t a divine mind change? And who’s to say that God didn’t change his mind and finally put it on Caitlyn’s heart that it was finally time to let Bruce go?

There is so much good we can do as Christians when an event like this makes headlines, but only if our first priority is to demonstrate love and acceptance. If we’re waiting with baited breath to demonstrate hate in God’s name, we’ve failed our brother or sister and we’ve failed God. 

What Exactly Is A “Safe” Sin?

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I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I swear I’ve completely forgotten which dynamic speaker presented this concept in a speech. God knows who he is, and I’m grateful to him for coming up with this idea.

This speaker was outlining a serious problem within the Christian church, one that spans across all denominations, and that’s an idea he called “safe sins.” It helps explain why Christians get absolutely up in arms about certain social issues while absolutely ignoring our own sins. Here’s what he meant:

1. Abortion – it’s 99% safe to safe that I’m never, ever going to have an abortion. At this point in my life, if I ended up pregnant it would actually be kind of funny. My husband and I have teenaged kids, and while I would have loved to have had a bigger family, we decided not to have more after our youngest was diagnosed with severe autism. But if I were to find out tomorrow that I was pregnant, it would be strange but it would also make for a good story about a “late in life” baby to keep us young.

And that’s why it’s completely safe for me to condemn abortion. I’m never going to do it, so it doesn’t feel wrong to speak out against this kind of evil. I will never be guilty of speaking out, then sneaking off and committing this sin myself.

2. Homosexuality – this is the one that everybody rails against, and even though it’s funny to say, “Methinks he doth protest too much,” I’m sorry, but–come on, people–Michele Bachmann’s husband is absolutely 100% gay, despite their pray-the-gay-away therapy business. But if you’re certain you’re a heterosexual, again, you’re never going to find yourself accidentally giving in to temptation and accidentally having gay sex. It’s “safe” to speak out against homosexuality and gay marriage since you’re never going to be a hypocrite here.

3. Internet Pornography – Again, this is somehow a big topic for Christians who want to point to the depravity of our society. Most adults I know don’t even know how to find online porn, but they know it’s out there. Again, if you don’t own an internet-connected computer and you don’t know which websites supply pornography, it’s pretty safe to scream from the rooftops about it.

But you know which sins people don’t like to talk about? Running red lights. Cheating on your taxes. Lying. Raising your voice at your kids when you lose your temper. Watching ungodly television shows. NOT tithing. NOT spending as much time in prayer and study as you should. NOT fasting. Gluttony.

Where are the Christians speaking out against gluttony? Interestingly, many of the individuals who point fingers about other sins are guilty of gluttony themselves, and even more interesting is the fact that gluttony is one of those few sins that you wear on the outside, everywhere you go. Your weight is right there for us all to see, but where are the preachers and politicians fighting the sin of gluttony? Even funnier is the fact that if a politician was to introduce a bill that limits your calorie intake, he’d be called a control freak libtard who’s trying to take away Americans’ rights.

You have the right to eat yourself into a heart attack, but a woman you don’t know who lives in a state you’ve never been to isn’t allowed to have an abortion? Why is that?

We have to stop allowing this concept of “safe” sins and instead pray for guidance in overcoming all sins. There is no such thing as a sin that none of us will ever commit, because all sins are the same in the eyes of God. Whether it’s abortion, adultery, pornography, homosexuality, or just driving over the speed limit, it’s sinful to God. We’re all the same, and no single person is “safe” without the love and acceptance of Christ.

Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner

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I just had an interesting conversation with a fellow Christian, although I hesitate to say “fellow” here because we don’t see eye to eye at all. As with nearly every conversation I have with another Christian, it wasn’t long before this one ended up circling around to homosexuality. Why that is, I couldn’t tell you. It’s like we have this hangup about gay people that is so overpowering that it blocks out every single issue we could be talking about.

Anyway, as many Christians tend to do, this individual summed up his stance on the existence of gay people by saying (rather magnanimously), “It’s like God said: hate the sin but love the sinner.”

WHOA. Stop right there. You’re wrong.

I don’t remember God telling me to hate the sin. What verse is that, exactly? And is that King James edition, or NIV? I do remember God saying a lot about not judging, though, about planks and specks in people’s eyes, about prodigal sons and sinful kings and loving my neighbor as myself and a host of other things that I’m supposed to worry about long before I ever get around to hating what activities people engage in when I’m not looking.

God never told me personally to hate anything. More important, he did tell me not to hate. And therefore, I refuse to.

Is not hating someone’s sin the same thing as condoning it? Of course not. It is entirely the same thing, though, as saying, “God didn’t put me in charge of you. He’s got this. He does not need my input on this situation. Amen.”

When Christians finally understand that the rest of the world thinks we’re assholes for that very statement about hating sin, then we can finally start to move in the right direction towards being good ambassadors for the Lord. Until then, it’s just another pretty way of saying, “I hate something about you, and God said I could.” We’re wrong, of course, but that’s what we’re saying.