I don’t know if you heard or not, but Chick-fil-A has been the center of a lot of controversy this past week.
It’s an endless cycle of intolerance that just won’t end. One person’s belief sparks another person’s intolerance, which causes the opposing side to fight back with even more intolerance. Fighting fire with fire is an understatement– this is like fighting fire with napalm.
Here’s what happened:
Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was being interviewed by a Christian news publication. In this interview the topic of marriage and the traditional family unit came up. Dan Cathy made a relatively conservative (compared to what others might have said) statement about his biblical stance on marriage and the family unit. Long story short, he affirmed his belief in marriage being strictly between a man and a woman.
He did not say his company had any sort of anti-gay policy. He didn’t elude to any negative sentiments about the homosexual community. He simply stated his biblical stance. He stayed true to what the Bible clearly states.
So those in the homosexual community decided to take this CEO’s personal beliefs and convictions as an assault on their lifestyle. As a result they decided to fight back with protests, condemnation, vandalism, and offensive demonstrations, because they don’t approve of his lifestyle choice– biblical Christianity.
So what does the other side do? They decide to fight back by crossing protest lines and “supporting the establishment” being attacked. They fight back– just like Jesus says not to. Even worse, some pastors bought hundreds of dollars worth of Chick-fil-A gift cards to hand out in order to rally people to fight back with them. I really hope they’re not using church funds to do this. Can that be considered good stewardship?
Needless to say, both sides acted and/or reacted with intolerance. An article on Examiner also pointed this out. The homosexual community fought beliefs with fire, and the zealous believers came back with napalm. And so the controversy erupted.
The real issue
Because this is such a heated issue for the homosexual community that anything remotely looking like opposition is considered direct assault. Any sort of disapproval is considered hate. So it plays out like this,
If you don’t approve of us, you hate us!
C’mon guys and gals– isn’t that a bit childish? Really? Because we don’t agree with your lifestyle, that means we hate you? Is that not a teenaged girl argument for why her dad won’t let her date the teenaged rebel boy who’s 4 years older than her, doesn’t comb his hair, and dropped out of school to spend more time listening to AC/DC and ride his rickety motorcycle? (*Breathe*… that was a long sentence.) Let’s be honest– you’re better than that.
I don’t agree with a lot of things the people I love do. Here’s a great example: bootleg DVDs. I don’t approve of them. They are stolen merchandise as far as I’m concerned, and buying them makes you a thief. I can’t support someone’s choice to steal. I can make a great case for this, but I’ll leave that for another day.
Just because I disagree with this choice, doesn’t mean I hate the people that make it. It just means I don’t approve of it, and won’t support their decision to do it. It conflicts with my own personal convictions. If they ask me for $5 to go get The Dark Knight Rises from the guy down the street, I’m not giving them a cent! I don’t love them any less. I don’t hope that some law passes so they will never be able to watch movies ever again. Not in the least bit! I want them to experience real, quality movies the way they were intended to be experienced, without short-changing themselves.
To say that non-support of a lifestyle choice is hate is a false argument– flat out nonsense. Don’t buy into it– you’re better than that.
To the Christians
It’s really easy to look at the Chick-fil-A protests and say “We need to go support Chick-fil-A! Let’s take everybody we know down there to walk through those protestors and show them we’re not backing down!” In case you didn’t notice– that mentality doesn’t bring people closer to Jesus. You’re not just fighting fire with fire, you’re fighting fire with napalm.
What if instead of fighting back, we took God at his word in Romans 12? What if instead of blatantly crossing the protest lines to spite opposition we listened to verse 14,
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Let me just finish by saying that I don’t think Dan Cathy did anything wrong. He stood by his convictions, and as an American businessman he has the right to live his life, express his views, and run his company the way he sees fit. Stating his beliefs was not intolerant– attacking him and his company for those beliefs is intolerant. Additionally, blatantly taking action opposing the protests with spite is equally intolerant.
Let me also say that both sides reacted poorly in this instance. If we ever hope to make any sort of progress in this arena, we must be better than this.
Intolerance cannot be defeated with more intolerance.
Okay, your turn– time to agree, add your perspective, or verbally crucify me! You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[Photo credit: absentmindedprof and thefleeg via Flickr]
I’m fully 4 u man. Completely agree 100%. Its sometimes really hard looking at ur fellow Christians and seeing them not loving other people and it makes me kinda annoyed because they ain’t showing what Jesus came to this world to do
Thanks Sam! Much appreciated!
Disagree – sorry… I do not see supporting Chick-fil-A and its principles as “fighting” anything. It’s standing up for what’s right and supporting a company who was brave enough to not follow the masses, which is exceedingly rare these days. I can hardly condemn OUR pastor for this type of support either – I think what he did, buying gift cards, was a wonderful gesture and I’m proud of him for being so pro-active.
In not fighting fire with fire, we are also not instructed to just lie down and let them run all over us. We are to stand mightily together for what we believe and why we believe it, and still love the opposition through that. It is refreshing that there are still people who will stand up for what the Bible stands for and give an example of that to today’s children – that we don’t just automatically buy into what the world is constantly trying to pressure us to do. That would be a true sell-out, so we stand firm together in our faith and our morals, and still pray hard for the people that see us as haters for doing so.
“In not fighting fire with fire, we are also not instructed to just lie down and let them run all over us.”
actually we are instructed to do just that. “If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.” Luke 6:29
#justsaying #readyourbible
You’re free to disagree, I knew some would. My opinion is not the ultimate authority. All I’m trying to do is stay as close as I can to the ultimate authority, God’s word. And when trying to reach people for Jesus, one of the first things you will learn when studying to become a missionary is that what you think you’re communicating doesn’t matter. You may be trying to convey one message, but if you don’t understand the culture you’re trying to reach, you may be communicating the exact opposite. While I have no doubt that most people on Chick-fil-a day had good intentions, it was not interpreted that way by the opposing side. Like the article that Ray Z references below, it created an “Us vs. Them” situation.
While I have no issues with the pastor you’re speaking of, I’m more concerned with what OUR savior has to say on such issues. If you can find me a reference to where Jesus says something that would be contrary to Mat. 5:44, Luke 6:27, Luke 6:35, Rom. 12:14 or other such verses, please let me know– and I mean that in all sincerity.
I’ve been out of the country for the past week and a half and out of the loop on this whole Chick-fil-A thing, so my thoughts may not be valid. But your title doesn’t seem to match up with what I’ve read so far. Chick-fil-A’s Cathy was just making a statement. The statement was taken out of control by those who disagreed with the statement, and then “Christians” re-ignited the endless cycle of intolerance. It’s a hard line to follow. I want to support an organization that supports family values, but I don’t want to do this just to spit in the face of those who disagree with those values. Did Chick-fil-A really do anything wrong here? Or is it the public who has caused this mess? Am I missing something here? Where did Chick-fil-A go wrong?
Jon – I don’t think Dustin said that Chick-fil-A did anything wrong. In fact, he clearly said “He did not say his company had any sort of anti-gay policy. He didn’t elude to any negative sentiments about the homosexual community. He simply stated his biblical stance. He stayed true to what the Bible clearly states.” What was wrong was Christians’ responses to the picketing and boycotting by the homosexual community and their supporters. Essentially, they fought back.
Dustin, I really appreciated this post. People at my church in Michigan were trying to figure out a way to support Chick-fil-A financially, even though we have none of their restaurants open in Michigan. I would’ve loved to see some of those people, instead, for ONCE open their arms to the LBGT community and show them that we aren’t all intolerant, homophobic hate-slingers. No one is won for Christ by pushing back.
B-rad… you are not far off, but I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the protesters from the left used Dan Cathy’s comments to highlight the fact that CFA donates a ton of money to pro-family groups (aka “hate groups”) including Exodus, a ministry designed to help those who want to get out of a homosexual lifestyle… Supporting this ministry is akin to intolerance and bigotry… It is a plausible and effective use of misinformation by the left to fire up the their troops and their willing accomplices in the media… However, it backfired on them August 1 and 3… I do think that this is not a battle we can win, except for God… I believe that at the end of the day, we wish to see people converted to Christ, not to Chick-fil-a… (Here is another article worth consuming: http://www.dennyburk.com/is-chick-fil-a-day-a-bold-mistake/ … I stole a quote from here too…) Ray
No Brad, he didn’t say this in the actual post, but the tile clearly implies that Chick-fil-A is at fault – that they re-ignited this whole thing. I agree for the most part with what Dustin wrote, I just think the title puts Chick-fil-A at fault when I don’t think they did anything wrong.
My closing statement from above– 3rd paragraph from the end of the post:
Jon, ultimately no, Chick-fil-a did nothing wrong. Neither did their COO. In fact, the company has been pretty amazing through this whole thing.
As for the post, while I agree with you to a point, there was a deeper motive to “chick-fil-a appreciation day” then “the homosexual community is being intolerant and unreasonable so we’re going to do something to make them mad!” It spawned in response to multiple mayors and other high political officials saying they would actively work to shut down and keep out chick-fil-a stores out of their respective cities and states. This, ultimately, was the genesis of the August 1st chick-fil-a day.
And while it doesn’t ultimately show love to those who were angry in a way that would sedate their anger, it does show love to the church and it’s members who were being attacked. And as Christians, we are called to love and support the church as well as the world outside.
There is always a line of course, and if nothing else this has turned into an issue that revealed some things:
1) Christians in America have persecution coming (though it may not be physical beatings or murderer, we are being singled out and punished for our beliefs).
2) The gospel is still the only way to change people. The reasoned response against the chick-fil-a protests only created a change in their arguments.
3) I have not heard or read of a single instance where a chick-fil-a supporter or employee did something negative towards the homosexual community besides show up. This is huge and needs to be meditated on by those who would call the support day unloving.
4) There are deeper reasons that ignited the boycott and the support. We need to consider both the agenda of the boycotters and the emotional boil of the supporters. Both are further along than we could have imagined.
God Bless
Great thoughts here Alex! That is probably the one thing that made me reconsider how I felt about Chick-fil-A day. Ultimately, I concluded that the government officials would run into a dead end anyways. People would write in, make phone calls, send emails, and let’s not forget God is in charge. I don’t think they would have found any legitimate reasons to follow through. So that’s why I ultimately thought the demonstration was unnecessary. But what do I know– I hate politics!
Thanks for taking the time to respond to all these comments. It says a lot about you, friend!
As someone who is both gay and black it’s hard for me to read this idea that Christians, who actually seem to be controlling our country, are being persecuted. I urge you to consider that wording when using it in the future.
In the gay community we deal with everything from physical and emotional abuse to being ostracized from friends and family. As a black man some cruel and sometimes scary things have been done and said to me, though thankfully that has slowed in recent years. Suicide rates in the gay community are high.
I am not trying to argue with you about whether you’re being persecuted, or whether that persecution is coming, but I do want you to understand that by describing your situation like that you’re going to provoke immediate ire in minority communities where there is real, physical, painful persecution.
Regarding the title– Because of Dan Cathy’s statements (which I find nothing wrong with, as noted at the end of the blog post), the controversy was re-ignited. It had lost some steam for a while as other world issues rightfully trumped it, but after his statement went public, the uproar started. So to restate what I may not have fully communicated in the blog post– his belief sparked a dis-proportioned response, which sparked another response from the other side. Does that make more sense Jon?
Dustin, I think you did a great job at addressing this expanding issue objectively. I agree with all of your points (including the bootleg DVD’s). I am sorry to see professed followers of Jesus reacting in kind rather than responding in love. Thank you for stepping out and crying foul!
Thank you Chris! I really appreciate your encouragement!
Good post. Pretty much agree with everything you said.
There are several points I did want to mention for discussion:
- Chic-fil-a does contribute to organizations who are against gay marriage. There is nothing wrong with this. And it certainly has been blown out of proportion by calling them “hate groups”. If a homosexual person does not wish to support these organizations via spending money at Chic-fil-a, I completely understand. But to accuse others of being bigots for simply going to Chic-fil-a in light of these contributions, that is ridiculous. Simple as that. You can’t label a person based on the fact they wanted a decent chicken sandwich for lunch.
- A Christian would know that the Bible also says to “love the sinner”, “love thy neighbor”, and also that it is not our place to judge ANYONE. I think this goes well with your points on not “fighting back” against the protesters. Everyone just needs to calm down and stop letting their emotions get in the way of their humanity. Everyone has convictions. You would be hard-pressed to find two people who share the exact same beliefs on everything there is to have an opinion about. In my humble opinion, I think this particular conviction is used for such extreme judgement purely because of one’s own insecurities with them-self. We fear what we do not understand. Or, we fear to understand that which we don’t wish to understand. Anger and hate is front. It is a defense. We should be understanding and aware of this, else we do more harm than good.
That’s just my two cents.
Great points Adam! And you’re absolutely right about the word “bigot” being tossed around. It reminds me of Vizinni from The Princess Bride. lol!
Agree with parts of it but strongly disagree that Christians supporting the 8/1 day of support was like “fighting fire with napalm” and especially the comments against our pastor for giving out gift cards. IF there were incidences of hate for gays by Christians on this day…negative hate-filled posters, humiliation, agression, bullying… I would agree with you, but there was only love, patience in staying in line, and support for Chick-fil-a. They bought a sandwich!! One of the biggest points you are missing is that mayors in different cities were trying to block Chick-fil-a from doing business in their cities because of that statement for biblical marriage. That’s incredible! For the Christian community to stand by and be mute on this issue would be inexcusable. I also feel it is inexcusable for us to be silent when someone bullies or physically and emotionaly injures a gay person. We need to be more vocal in these cases. One lesbian woman had the word dyke carved in her abdomen; too many kids are committing suicide… there are way too many stories of abuse and even murder. These are incidences where the Christian community is horrified, but silent. We haven’t figured out HOW to show love for them without indicating we approve of the behavior. We need to work on that and come up with some good ideas so that they feel welcome in our churches while God works on their heart. I don’t know the answer. I WISH I knew the answer. It troubles me greatly that our country is so torn apart with misunderstanding and hate and ill will towards each other. When our pastor gave out gift cards, yes, he was making a statement that he supported Chick-fil-a and was willing to put his money behind this cause. But he was also trying to find a way to participate since he is allergic to chicken! He wasn’t encouraging anyone to do anything hateful… just buying them a sandwich because he couldn’t eat it. You are assuming that when we as the church stand behind biblical marriage it encourages people to do hateful things against gays. I don’t think that is true, but it is something all pastors and Christians need to be careful of. btw… next thing people will be fighting for is polygamy and the way is already being paved by the reality show “Sister Wives.” Want to marry your dog? Just wait a few years…
Thank you so much for your feedback Nancy! I hear you about the bullying and hate crimes. They break my heart. We need to be more prayerful and active in fighting against these atrocities.
The government issue I addressed in my response to Alex above. And for your pastor’s choice, he wasn’t the only pastor who decided to do that. And many were not in support of the choice. I mentioned it to Karla above, but I think it’s important enough to repeat (see the original comment too):
It doesn’t really matter what our intentions are if we’re communicating to a culture that interprets our actions differently than we envision them. Paul talks about this, and I think the Perspectives class at your church covers it extensively (although I could be confusing it with one of Eternity Bible College’s classes…) I hope that makes sense– it’s a tough concept to communicate, but necessary to understand.
I appreciate you taking the time to think about this topic and use the Bible to quell the issue. Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much Emilie!
Hi Dustin,
I think what you’ve described is pretty much on the mark. We have two groups, both feel persecuted, and both are hyper-vigilant about anything that directly impacts them. What I will say is that the perception that Dan Cathy simply supports biblical marriage is a bit misleading. Dan Cathy supports groups (with his money – totally fine) that want to criminalize gays. The issue is far broader than just gay marriage although the main-stream media seems to want to boil it down to just that one issue. Whether Dan supports marriage as one man/one woman or not is not really the concern expressed by the LGBT community. Rather, it’s a recognition that Dan supports groups that, for instance, want to make it legal to fire people because they’re gay. And no – Chick-Fil-A does not have those policies, although there are places where they CAN do it (apparently Louisiana has laws allowing for it). In my mind, that’s the main concern that has been expressed by those I know in the community. Awareness that he’s doing it means that people can now choose to spend their money there or not.
That both sides are completely jumping overboard – dead-on.
Thanks for your thoughts Bill! Since we’ve pretty much talked in extent about this on Google+, I’ll just say this–
I love your word choice– “hyper-vigilant about anything that directly effects them.”
There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the homosexual “point of view” in your article, one that I think is shared by other Christians and conservatives as well. It’s this concept:
If you don’t approve of us, you hate us!
You absolutely need to adjust your way of thinking on this point, in my opinion, if we can ever find middle ground. Just understand this one point: as a gay man I DO NOT ask you to accept me at all. I don’t need your acceptance.
I try my best never to interfere in your way of life. Though I am not Christian or religious in any way I think our freedom of religion is one of our greatest strengths, and I think you should be free to follow that way of life if you so choose.
Christians, on the other hand, assist in putting in place and supporting legislation and rules that directly affect my life. I am unable to live within a committed relationship and have the same expectations as you do, within a straight couple, because you have determined that YOUR religious beliefs should decide how EVERYONE lives.
This is the problem. I don’t care if you accept me, I don’t care if you like me. I would never ask to marry another man in your church, because it’s something you don’t believe in and that’s your right. I just ask to be left alone, and to be allowed to live my life without the restrictions that YOU place on YOUR life due to your belief structure.
There’s this idea that we’re trying to “force” our way of life onto the heterosexual community somehow, and I just don’t get it. I don’t mean in the scope of this article, just in general. We just want to live and let live.
Kevin, I wish I knew more people like you. Whether you know it or not, your response has blessed me. As much as I don’t like generalizations, I had to paint the picture as it was being portrayed by the media. My goal was to show how ridiculous the extremists on these issues are on both sides. You are surely a refreshing exception, and I wish more folks had your understanding.
Thank you for adding to the conversation!
No problem Dustin. I wish there was more honest communication like this, but the problem is that it’s really hard for one side to NOT end up offended. Even your article – which is well written and fair – was upsetting to me when I first read it, and I had to let myself relax a bit before I came back and posted a comment.
I also don’t blame you for writing it that way, you’re by no means the first to do so. Hopefully some people will read my comment and understand the point I’m trying to get across.
I see a LOT of misconceptions among Christians about gay people, what we do and what we “want” in a political discourse, and we can never actually meet in the middle if we can’t at least get those misconceptions out of the way so we understand each other.
I also wish more “non-extreme” Christians could have their voices heard, or spoke up. If you pay attention to the media your religion seems to be hijacked by extremists, and since they yell the loudest they create the atmosphere that we have to deal with.
For example, in the past handful of months I’ve heard that as a gay man I should be beaten and locked up and left somewhere to die. Most recently someone came out and said that the children of gay parents should be kidnapped and taken to “safety.” These are comments from American religious leaders in their communities! They come out and make these horrific statements then turn around and claim persecution. It’s insanity.
I truly don’t believe that the average Christian agrees with these views (at least I hope they don’t!), but because those of you who are NOT extreme don’t speak up this violent rhetoric essentially defines the public image of your belief structure.
This is largely affected by the media as well, I think. They choose to report on the extremes, because that gets the ratings. I don’t know how to fix it, but if I were a Christian I’d be pretty upset about it.
I’m fairly disappointed by this post, I usually like your stuff more. It doesn’t seem well thought out at all. And you took such an unbelievably narrow perspective of the situation, it seems like you missed the forest for the tree in your way. I know you are not afraid to proclaim your beliefs, Dustin, but this one seemed a little meek.
1. It doesn’t matter what we as Christians do, there are many who are going to twist that to make us look like hateful people. And its not just because we call homosexuality a sin. It’s because we speak about sin, period. I am finding more and more people that get not just offended, but hostile, if I even use the word sin. The very word, the very idea, is repugnant to more and more people. They will call us intolerant just for using the word sin, no matter who we are talking to. So it didn’t matter what Christians did or didn’t do on August 1st for dinner, many, especially the media would still call us anti whatever, blah blah, and going to Chickfila did not help or hurt that. The bible convicts people of their sin and they hate that and they hate God, and they hate anyone who reminds them of it.
2. I didn’t know a thing about this whole situation until Huckabee called for the Appreciation Day. I saw a headline about the Appreciation Day, and not knowing the current situation at all, I said that’s awesome, we SHOULD have an appreciation day for Chickfila. I mean, other than Chickfila and maybe Hobby Lobby, how many national companies stand by Christian principles? I can’t name one that isn’t actually a Christian book store chain. Only then did I start reading about the current situation, AFTER I had already decided I would go to Appreciation Day. So from my perspective, this wasn’t a counter protest or response to the boycott at all. I realize for many it probably was, but I actually don’t know anyone who was even aware of anything UNTIL Huckabee called for the appreciation day. Most people didn’t know anything until around that point. I, and I think most people, weren’t fighting anything or anyone on August 1st. I really believe most people were there just to support Chickfila for standing firm in thier beliefs. In fact, I think the turnout would have been, maybe not record breaking, but still exceptional if he had called for this WITHOUT the surrounding controversy. And the controversy only brought out the numbers because it spread the word faster than it would have if Huckabee had just done it randomly. Its not my fault how the media portrayed it or how the LGBT community twisted it.
3. I was in line on August 1st. I also visited, read and replied to tons of postings on G+ and elsewhere that week. And every single person had a slightly different reason for going or not going that day. There was no coherent message that day at all, on either side. Even if the media portrayed it otherwise (“Christians hold antigay protest!” “Gays picket for tolerance!” whatever). Some went to support traditional marriage. Some went to support free speech (even some gays!). Some went cause they like chicken (and don’t give a crap about politics). Some went to support a fellow Christian. Some went to get a cup of water and berate the (unfathomably patient and polite) drive thru employee. And yes, if you interviewed enough people eventually you’d find someone who went there because they hate gays or Christians, but that’s just statistics. If you talk to enough people eventually you’ll find one. But I know one thing, and others here have already said it. I haven’t heard one story about a Christian doing anything that day but standing in line and eating chicken. Everyone was polite, the conversation was lite, no one in my store said even a word about gays, it wasn’t even a topic of conversation. And I’m fairly certain from reports that every single Chickfila that had protesters out front offered food, drinks and water to the protesters.
4. Christians have become complacent and afraid. We are afraid to express our beliefs at work or in public for fear of being called intolerant or bigoted, for fear of litigation and boycotts and losing our jobs. I fear the message of Christ is slowly being drowned in a sea of silence. Except for a vocal few like Westboro, who make us all look like complete jerks. There’s no way I know of to stop people like Westboro, but I think if we tried, we could yell louder. In fact, the only time Jesus ever protested was AT the temple. When he saw the greed of those in the temple, he freakin tore the place up. Why aren’t more Christians holding the line against Westboro when they come around? On the opposite side, we need to SUPPORT Christians who don’t compromise the bible! Dan Cathy could easily have shut his mouth, or issued a retraction, just so as not to offend anyone and keep the money rolling. He knows its a risk, as head of a large company that relies on customers, to stand firm on biblical principle. And face it, he can only do that because its still a private company. If the company was public with stockholders? He’d be fired, straight up. Which is what most Christians, who are not in such a secure position as him, would be afraid of. It’s not about standing up to gays or anyone else. It’s about standing firm, and publicly declaring Christ and biblical truth, even in the face of certain persecution. THAT is what I support, because if I abandon my brother in Christ at the firing line, what does that say about Christians? Its not a good witness if we leave our own brother hanging out to dry.
5. I said this on your G+ but I am going to keep repeating it until I die. The government should not be involved in marriage in any way, shape or form, aside from perhaps mediating divorce terms. You don’t actually need a marriage certificate for divorce in many places, as you can get a dissolution of cohabitation without one, therefore there is no reasoning for the governement to issue any licenses. I am personally and religiously offended that the government thinks it has any right to say whether anyone gets married, asking me to get a licence to hold a religious ceremony, and asking my master of ceremonies to get “licensed” as a pastor approved to perform such religious duty is a violation of the separation of church and state. This is where I may disagree with Cathy, in that I would not support any group seeking legislation unless that legislation was getting government out of marriage entirely. I would never vote for gay marriage, but I would never vote against it either. It not my place or the place of Christians in general. The government should have no say in peoples personal relationships, romances, or sex lives. If nothing else, it sets a bad precident of government involvement which could easily come around to bite Christians in the butt later. And you’ll never win someone to Christ by trying to legislate their morals.
There are so many great comments here! I’m a NYC native, went to elementary school in the West Village, so I’ve been around gay people since I was very young. Before I even get into that aspect of the situation, let me say this: The public image of Christianity in this country is absolutely atrocious. Those who have a public platform (politicians, televangelists, etc.) and identify as believers have done incredible damage to how the church is perceived with their words and actions.
When I regularly attended church, I got in trouble for being too honest by saying, “which half of the Bible are you reading? Because you couldn’t be reading all of it.” What I mean by that is that people were only dealing with portions of the gospel that suited their agenda and comfort level. Which I know is human nature, but we’re supposed to be better than that as believers. This is the same issue I’m seeing with the public faces of Christianity in America.
I won’t say much more than that so as not to offend anyone. But to close, I’ll say that I’m firmly of the belief that politics and Christianity don’t mix. They are insoluble, of diametrically opposed natures. For anyone who disagrees, please read the gospels and look at the thoughts and actions of Pontius Pilate (a politician) and Jesus. Thank you for considering my point of view and God bless EVERYONE who has and will comment here or read the article.
Thanks for adding to the conversation Joaquin! Love your name btw!
I forgot something. As a believer, I support the Biblical definition of marriage. But as an earlier commenter stated, I would neither vote for gay marriage or vote against it. I’m absolutely of the belief that everyone is worthy of dignity and respect, because we are all God’s handiwork. Love and compassion impact people much more beneficially than angry debate.
So true!