Uganda's Anti-gay legislation give license to mob executions of "homosexuals"
Is your church a "SAFE PLACE TO HATE"?
Today, many of you, well, some of you will be visiting your house of worship tomorrow and an event this week leads me to raise the question of whether or not you will be visiting a sanctuary of love or a safe-haven for hate.
A few days ago, a controversy blew up in the media over Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty offering his views about homosexuality. “Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong. Sin becomes fine," Robertson told GQ's Drew Magary about immorality. “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 ... 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.”
Because of the uproar over Robertson comparing homosexuality to bestiality and the resulting suspension from A&E, I thought I should look into it. Prior, "Duck Dynasty" had not even been on my radar of things to pay attention to. After researching his exact statement, I simply rolled my eyes and said under my breath, "How typical." and moved on to turn my attention to more interesting things. Not to judge or stereotype or condescend on anyone, though, what do we have we here? We have a 67 year old rustic from Louisiana. I'm sure as a human being, he has goodness in his heart...I hope. But consider the era, location, and demographics of this man's formative years and how it has shaped the ideas and attitudes of this man. Given these factors, he is quite typical of the "Southern Redneck". They are not known for their education, their intellect or being enlightened about anything outside of those who are just like themselves. They are often isolated away from the rest of contemporary society, which is why they appear strange and alien to us and us to them. They are like living time capsules of what we used to be, while the rest of society has gone on to evolve. This is the very reason why they are viewed with great interest as a Pop novelty. They are a freak-show to amuse and be mocked by contemporary society.
Given this, I can not be offended by his remarks. Not only that, he is doing his best to quote from memory, the poorly translated King James version of The Holy Bible, a fourth generation translation from its original Aramaic texts. (Generations of oral histories>>>Aramaic text>>>Greek>>>Latin>>>Olde English) If you have ever played the game of telephone with your friends as a kid and laughed at how poorly a message was relayed from person-to-person by even the most honest and well-intentioned players, then you can understand how errors in translation could have appeared in what Western Society have come to worship as "The Inerrant WORD OF GOD" The written text is as follows, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God." 1st Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV) written by Paul. The most recent distortion of the text occurred in 1946, when the Revised Standard Version (RSV) was released. In it, the text "effeminate" was paraphrased as "homosexual" a word that had only entered the English language just 20 years prior. To go back even further, the word "effeminate" is a misnomer of the original Greek word, "Malikois" which closest meaning is the vague term of "soft". From there, we can guess until the cows come home about what Paul meant by "soft". However the (KJV) translators took it to mean "effeminate" in the partriarchal attitudes of the 17th century which held anything relating to women being thought of as soft or weak. We see later, those who wanted to update the King James Version took "effeminate" to mean "homosexual", and this is the doctrine Robertson has been raised with. Because of his debased intellect, I wouldn't expect him to do any research to understand anything further beyond what his Pastor has preached from the pulpit, because conservative Christianity has put "THE FEAR OF GOD" in its followers from questioning what is written. How dangerous this ideology now becomes? Had Paul any clue that over the millenias what we would do with his letters, turning them into "The WORD OF GOD" he may have thought much better about what he was writing.
So when given the opportunity to voice his opinions he holds valid, he is publicly "crucified" if we must liken him to the martyr that was Jesus. We are shocked by his words, and he is shocked by our reaction to his words. There is indeed a deep disconnect here. However, if we demoralize him, we are no better than he is in his understanding, which is probably not much more than a field mouse. I would rather we take the spot off this poor man, who is a victim of his surroundings, and use this as a teachable moment, because there are many, and I mean many who are just like him sitting in our churches, perhaps next to you this Sunday morning. I would rather have a discussion about the repucussions this ideology is causing in today's society. Is it causing people to be more loving toward one another? If it is not, it can not be GOSPEL. Au Contrare, it has the Church pitted in a passionate fight with itself over our relationships with our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender family members, fellow parishoners and members of our community. As more stand in their truth, it is becoming increasingly uncomfortable to subscribe to these attitudes in good conscience, yet many dare not call the Bible a lie. The spirit of Christianity is coming into direct conflict with what has been taken as the literal foundations of Christian doctrine, "the letter of the law". The last time this happened, Jesus was here with us to correct that which many had held as the letter of the, law had been misread and misunderstood or held in woefully shallow understanding. What is the law, anyway? Some will point to Leviticus. Some will point to the Ten Commandments. Others will point to Micah 6. Some will quote Matthew 25:31-46. Even Jesus asked Joseph or Arimethea this very question, "what is the law?" When he was criticised for healing on the Sabbath which was unlawful according to Leviticus.
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” -Mark 12:28-34
So there it is, to Love GOD and Love others as yourself. The ten comandments can be split into these two comandments. Comandments 1-4 are about loving GOD. Comandments 5-10 are about loving others as ourselves, for if we did, we could never violate comandments 5-10.
I will simplify this even further to its most common denominator, LOVE. The Law is Love. Whenever we make it about anything other than that, Know for a fact that we have lost our way and are missing the forest for the trees. In Matthew 25:31-46, souls passed into the Kingdom of GOD on Judgement Day, not because of their righteous actions. They had know idea that they had been serving Jesus anyway, they were only doing what LOVE leads you to do when it is in your heart. It is LOVE that SAVED them, not any creeds about love or calling on the name of Jesus or (Yeshua Ben Yosef, if you happen to know who that is.) Helping and comforting others was in their very nature. They could not help but do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with GOD. Do we need a written law to compel mothers to nurture and protect their children? The love in their hearts takes care of that responsibility. So must it be with each of us. But what happens when love is absent? We judge each other, we attack each other, we disrespect one other, we diminish one another, we dismiss each other's humanity and lineage to GOD and we kill one another. Hell is then the result of this, for what we do to others, we do to ourselves. That is the universal Law of Reciprocity. Many call it Karma. For indeed we are ONE, from the same source and will return to that same source. While we are here, we depend on the same resources. And if we are ONE, then collectively, we are GOD. For GOD is ONE and indivisible, (WHOLE)ly Holy. So you can not then say that you love GOD, but then hate your brother. And by hate, I mean hate him with your actions and with your words and with your attitudes toward him if they are not loving, kind, uplifting and appreciative....hallelujah! The absence of LOVE is then the most grievous sin, because if we have not love, we have not GOD! For GOD is LOVE. Without it, we are dead men and dead women walking. That is what we are called to do. If you ever wanted to know what your calling is, I have just told you, and HE will equip you to fulfill it with every provision if you but ask. There is someone else who has been called to judge, and I am sorry, it is not you.
I conclude this tirade because a few days ago, my pastor, The Rev. Paul M. Turner of Gentle Spirit Christian Church was asked his opinion about Robertson's words on Fox News Atlanta. He was recorded as calling them "Horrific". This has seemed to stir up a hornets nest of Robertson supporters feeling it is their duty to defend their precious doctrine from a Pastor they feel is out to disrespect and attack it. A doctrine of what? I don't think they even know. Over the last few days, he has been called by so-called Christians any and everything but a child of GOD. Here are a few: "You are an idiot", You are the spawn of Satan", "You are Satan", "Why don't you keep your faggot ass opinion to yourself", "You will burn in the fires of Hell", "I rebuke you and your fudge-packing ilk in the name of Jesus!" "I rebuke you", "I vomit at the thought of you calling yourself a pastor!" and to top it off: "It is you who is horrific, you sperm of Hell!"
Now, you might agree with Robertson but would never utter such vile and hateful things to another human being. But if I am talking about you, I want to ask you, where do you think they get this kind of stuff from? Obviously, they call themselves Christians or they wouldn't seem so upset and offended. Could it be possible that they got these attitudes straight from church. Scary isn't it? These people are very likely in your church, if you go to church. If your pastor is not putting his/her foot down on these kinds of hateful attitudes brought on by a slavish adherence to an innacurate bible, you and your pastor are just as bad because instead of making your church a sanctuary of love, you have acquiesed to the real Satan (Ha-Satan: "The Accuser") to create an environment in your church which is then a safe place to hate, the most grievous and root of all the sins. People commit suicide, are beaten, abused, bullied, terrorized and butally killed in the most barbaric ways over these pieces of scripture. We can tell it is not gospel because of its fruit. If you are not working to enlighten the minds, hearts and spirits of your fellow Christians to the Gospel of Love, their blood is then on your hands, you "murderers". You don't get to sit blameless in the attitude of "I agree with the what the bible says, but I would never say or do that." A woman was moments from being stoned to death over what was written as law, and what did Jesus have to say about that? "He is who is without sin, may cast the first stone." I think Jesus was supposed to be "He, who is without sin" so why did He not throw a stone at Mary Magdalene? The letter of the Law said that this is what is to be done with women of her kind. Ignorance indeed kills. I wonder if the pastors of these individuals, if they have pastors at all, have any clue about what their parishoners are doing and what they would have to say about it. As his parishoner, if Rev. Turner ever caught me saying such cursed and hateful things to anyone, I would be sat down for a very stern conversation, even if they were rabidly racist, homophobic or whatever and had said the same thing to me. He doesn't play that, repaying hatred for hatred. So, Christians what will you do today and tomorrow to spread the true Gospel of Love and save some lives before it is too late?
