Moving Right Along...

The Christian Church is not bringing in very many new adherents. Most of the new membership in any given congregation consists of people from other churches. We're not bringing in new cards; we're merely shuffling the deck. The church has an embedded culture that it clings to tenaciously by embellishing it with rigid dogma. According to the recent Pew Survey, most religious people do not wish their religious traditions to remain dogmatic and doctrinaire. This is not necessarily bad news if you can see the opportunities this presents. One in particular that I can see is heightened by the fact that the Gay Pride Parade took place yesterday in Chicago.

Simply put, we must welcome gay and lesbian human beings into all aspects of the life of the church without holding the threat of hellfire over their heads. To me, this is not a liberal/conservative issue. This is an issue of common decency. Also, we should welcome them not in spite of the perceived threat they pose, but precisely because of the perceived threat they pose. That's exactly what Jesus did in principle. He shared life intimately with those who were perceived to be threatening according to the dictates of the religious establishment. He even said that the tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom of God ahead of the Pharisees. That would have been absolutely mind-blowing in a first century Jewish context.
But...but...BUT... (don't miss this)...

I do not believe that the church should form specialized church clubs for homosexuals. The church is to have no favorites and no darlings. Having such clubs would set a certain people apart from the rest of the body of Christ. This, to me, is more divisive than hammering gay people with poorly interpreted Scripture. Forming such groups and clubs would be like saying, "You can join the church if you keep your distance from the rest of us and stay in this nice little closet we've made for you." Christians of all orientations must learn to integrate with one another.

I also do not believe in this disastrous, integrity-sapping idea of "don't ask, don't tell". People should have the opportunity to be open about their sexual orientation without the threat of consequences, because, in the body of Christ there is no Jew or Greek, liberal or conservative, gay or straight. People should be able to be who they are without flaunting or calling attention to themselves.

I firmly believe that the church will take on a new vitality and vigor if it will welcome and integrate people of all walks of life and orientations. But we must do this as a whole and not piecemeal, as it's being done now.

And I could be wrong...