There is an article in today’s Washington Post that describes how some clergy are advocating for their transgender kids. The article focuses on a Rabbi in Missouri who is concerned about proposed bills in the state. There is also an Orthodox Rabbi mentioned, and a Christian pastor from a Mennonite Church. Each of these members of the clergy, in opposing proposed laws, are, in their description, fighting for their own family and on behalf of others. According to one, “Our state is at war with our family.”
I write this reflection not to advocate a position on a particular issue, but rather to point to a particular truth in relation to matters of stances on issues and morality pertaining to faith.
Many loud voices have declared that their view is THE Christian view. These voices are often the least accepting, the most rigid, and the most willing to impose their own moral position. In the article, there are a couple of graphs showing who supports laws like the clergy mentioned are fighting against. The graphs demonstrate that it is white evangelicals who make up far and away the largest demographic group supporting laws that the clergy profiled are opposing.
One of the evangelical state representatives who is seeking to have the laws enacted says that his desire for this comes from his faith, “I am a man of faith, and I am a Christian…”
Well, the Rabbi in the article is a man of faith as well. The Pastor of the Mennonite Church is a Christian. Come to think of it, I am “a man of faith, and I am a Christian”, and it is because of this that I oppose some of the very things that you support. In other words, there are many times when I long to see a more open, inclusive social and cultural reality not in spite of my religious faith, but because of it.
You may feel the same way. The trouble is, that the loud and fearful voices so often claim that their view alone is the “faithful” or “Christian” view. I have been a pastor for a few decades and my career has been spent in the evangelical church. I have come to a different perspective on many issues than that claimed by large swaths of white evangelicalism.
I am not questioning anyone else’s faith. I am simply saying that I know that I know the Bible, the tradition, and the faith at least as well as many or most (not all) of those evangelical leaders. Some leaders have been willing to attack or demean people who think differently than they do. They claim some mantle of authority or expertise or spiritual leadership to tell people that any view other than their own is unchristian or unacceptable. If you have not spent years studying theology or reading the Bible, you might then defer to such voices and even begin to see your own views as less than faithful. I pray that you would be freed from such domination.
I want to offer you a possibility.
Are you moved by compassion, acceptance and love?
Do you find yourself tearing up when someone who has denied their identity for fear of judgment finally embraces who they are?
Is it hopeful and compelling for you to see people who disagree on an issue actually recognize the humanity of one another?
It might be that your views are because of your faith, not in spite of it.
Don’t let religious leaders tell you that your faith couldn’t possibly be at work unless you come to the same opinion that they have.
It is a weak moral and spiritual system that seeks to be imposed on other people. If your morality depends on someone who sees things differently than you being declared deviant or immoral, then you may be stuck in a phase of spiritual adolescence. This, by the way, is true from both ends of the political spectrum.
I hope not to sanctify everything I feel or every view I have. I hope not to assume that my way of seeing things is THE Christian way. I do seek to live out my faith and the call of Jesus who told us that His only commandment is that we love one another.
From a Christian pastor, a “man of faith”, may you be blessed to know that some of your ways of seeing things, even if they might differ from the loudest voices, are because of your faith, not in spite of it.
The podcast on which I am co-host, Rector’s Cupboard, recorded an episode this past summer with Canadian writer, Michael Coren, in which we discussed changing perspectives not in spite of, but because of faith.
In Spite of? Or Because of?
That interview with Michael Coren was wonderful – I shared that with a lot of people
If people call themselves Christian then I think it is acceptable to expect them to live the teachings of Jesus whose main message was one of love and acceptance of everyone. Thanks for being a shining light in the world's current darkness.