I came upon this interesting comment by Tony Campolo a few days ago, concerning the events over the past few weeks surrounding Ted Haggard, now ex-pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and ex-President of the NAE (National Association of Evangelicals), at the God's Politics blog formed as a joint venture between Sojourners and Beliefnet:
I have heard so many of my colleagues in ministry express deep concerns over what this scandal will do to the image of the evangelical movement, but I have heard little concern among us for how all of this will impact those Christian gays and lesbians that we know. They are in our churches. They teach in our Sunday schools and sing in our choirs. Most of them are closeted brothers and sisters who suffer in ways that are impossible for the rest of us to even imagine. They are good people who do not take drugs or visit prostitutes. Will the ugliness of this sorry mess feed a diabolical stereotype of them, which is too often circulated in our churches by unkind preachers who have little, if any, understanding of homosexuals?You can read the rest of the post here.
This part of Campolo's post stuck out to me, for a number of reasons. After hitting on a number of tough points in his post--among them, that people of faith must extend grace and compassion not only to Haggard but to his homosexual accuser as well, Greg Jones--Campolo then comes to this quote, focusing the conversation on the massive "elephant in the room" for many Christians today, which is the issue of how one may exactly come to better understand and relate to our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, both inside and outside the four walls of the church.
The truest and most needed part of Campolo's commentary is his caution against accepting the typical stereotype of people within the gay and lesbian communities as being drug users and sexually promiscuous; a basis for easy bridge-building that some would say needs to be embraced to a far greater degree by many within the evangelical church today, beginning with those who find themselves in the pulpit on Sunday morning making use of such stereotypes in their prophetic oratory.
The more I reflect upon it, I think the love we must show to our most disinherited neighbors, no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual identity, begins with the compassion that knows one's story; their triumphs and their falls, and the ways in which, as the theologian Howard Thurman once said, their "backs are continually against the wall." I feel like once we begin to develop such an ability in reference to those whom we so often do not associate with because of their perceived place in society, we begin to see the doors of conversation open wide and the facades we often put up begin to crumble mightily, leading the way to the formation of more authentic Christian community.
The more I reflect upon it, I think the love we must show to our most disinherited neighbors, no matter their race, ethnicity, or sexual identity, begins with the compassion that knows one's story; their triumphs and their falls, and the ways in which, as the theologian Howard Thurman once said, their "backs are continually against the wall." I feel like once we begin to develop such an ability in reference to those whom we so often do not associate with because of their perceived place in society, we begin to see the doors of conversation open wide and the facades we often put up begin to crumble mightily, leading the way to the formation of more authentic Christian community.
1 comment:
Andrew, you might want to check out Kelly Brown Douglas's book, "Sexuality and the Black Church". She argues that homophobia is tearing the seams of the church community atlarge, as well as the population at large, in America. I think that you would like the book, it's a good read, and addresses some of these same topics that Campolo does.
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