Cruel Christianity

There is a new movement afoot among a segment of Christians in California, called California Exodus. Their goal is to have all Christians leave the public school system, both students and teachers. The reason? The straw that apparently broke this camel's (ass's?) back is that despicable foe of all that is Christian, us deviant homosexuals! Here's a sampling of the verbiage spewed forth on their website:

"Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed a package of public school legislation that represents a complete reversal of 2,000 years of Christian moral teaching on human sexuality, family, and marriage. This is to be accomplished by using the California public school system to indoctrinate children to accept homosexual and other sexually deviant lifestyles as normal and morally acceptable, beginning as early as pre-kindergarten and continuing as long they are in California's public schools"


Even if it weren't for the reason it is (that is, anti-gay/homophobic), the very idea of Christians separating themselves off from society, creating an Island unto themselves; this concept and the attitude behind it is just so completely repugnant on every level that I don't even know where to begin!

Okay, so I'll begin here: If they actually went through with it completely, then there would be no one to share the Gospel with the other kids in public schools! And there would be no teachers to share the Gospel with other teachers! And I don't mean that students and teachers should be going around hitting people over the head with the Bible, but the Gospel can be shared and preached through the simple presence of Christians in any given social setting. By living as examples while letting their faith be known, Christians throughout time have effectively brought people to the Lord. Jesus said that His followers are to be the salt of the Earth! Salt doesn't fulfill its purpose by staying in the shaker! Jesus said to be the light of the world. Light can't shine into the world if it's covered up by an opaque lampshade, keeping to itself. How completely arrogant and repulsive is the attitude of this movement! How self righteous can you get? "We're too good for this place, and as far as we're concerned you can all rot in hell", is literally what this movement is saying.

What a cruel, heartless, selfish type of Christianity this is! The spiritual origin of this isn't from Jesus Christ, this is from Satan!

Oh, but what is our response to be? Can we fight them? Do we get all invested in this and get angry and make a stink? Or do we really just have to continue to live lives of authentic Christian faith and pray for them, leaving the battle to the Lord. It's possible that some of us are called to do the former, but certainly we must all pursue the latter.

Bless their well intentioned, misguided, pointy little heads.

Blech!!!

But you know something, it occurs to me that of course, not every Christian is going to follow suit and remove themselves from the schools! In fact, maybe this could all be a very good thing, maybe this is God's plan after all! Now the cruel Christians - okay, "well intentioned, misguided (pointy headed) Christians" - will be purged from the system, leaving the loving ones behind to do God's work unhindered!

This all reminds me of a bumper sticker:

"Lord, save me from your people!"

Perhaps He's answering that prayer!

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The Cows Will Come Home, But We Ain't Waitin'!

The use of the phrase, "when the cows come home", to refer to something that is not too quickly forthcoming strikes a contrast to another phrase, "when heck freezes over" (okay, I know its not "heck"!). The latter implies that something is simply not ever going to happen; the former that it will, but its going to quite possibly take a very long time! The name of this blog refers to something that is probably going to take a very long time, namely the full acceptance of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trans-genders, et al, by society, and particularly by Christians. Even more specifically, the full acceptance that one can be gay and Christian! But the fact that the name of the blog is not "When Heck Freezes Over" means that there is, in my estimation, hope that this acceptance will come! (And I still know the word is not really "heck").

Yes, I believe that one day the world, even the USA, will fully accept us homosexual folks. One day we will have complete equal rights and no one will say we have "special rights" and complain. One day we will have marriage equality. One day Christians everywhere, even here in the USA, will accept us and realize that the Bible doesn't really tell them what they once thought it did about us. One day no one will contest the fact that we can be both gay and Christian, and no one will question if we are truly Christian, or truly saved, if we continue to be homosexual after we accept Christ as our Lord. One day. When the cows come home. Who knows when, or how long.

But guess what? Those of us who are gay, and know Jesus, we aren't waiting for those cows to get home!

We're not going to wait for our brothers and sisters in Christ to get around to resolving all their debates about us. We've already started following the Lord! We have already sensed His calling. We've surrendered our lives to Him, and we don't need to go out into the cow pasture and step all in the manure in order to try and get those cows to come home any sooner than they are willing, either. I used to be so concerned with wanting to convince Christians who opposed homosexuals, that they were wrong. Really, who cares! I'm done, and I think we all need to be done, with that. Its time to simply follow the Lord and leave the rest to Him!

The cows will begin to come home, in fact they are already trickling in. They will come home more and more as they begin to see us fruits bearing fruit! As the Gay Christian community lives out authentic Christian community, as individual gay Christians live authentic Christian lives, people will begin to become confounded and ultimately be led to re-examine "what their Bible tells them so", and the Holy Spirit will begin to bring truth and conviction to Christians everywhere, and those cows will come home. It is going to take time. We must persevere and not become discouraged as time goes on. In fact, the reason we are following the Lord and living our lives in accordance to His purposes, forging authentic lives and community, is not merely to convince other Christians to change their views!

Our purpose is in being about God's business in our time and generation, and within the homosexual community; its about the Great Commission! There are people that need to know the Lord, whom He wants to bring to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ so that they may spend eternity with Him and with us, and with our un-accepting family members in Christ as well! Besides that, God wants to advance His Kingdom in the world today, and He asks us to participate in doing that! John Lennon's imagination is nothing compared to what a worldwide community of truly compassionate Christians of all types can do to transform this planet! Not that it will ever be any kind of Utopia until Christ Himself returns, but He is asking us to prepare the way for His return!

I truly believe that God is doing a new thing. I believe that He is using the outcasts, including the homosexual community, to begin bringing this new thing about, to bring a new reformation to His Church. We can't wait until those cows come home! We can't worry about going out into the fields and dragging them home, kicking and screaming. No, the time is come for us to put aside all that distracts us from our relationship with Jesus Christ. The time is now to simply be about being obedient to our Lord and love Him; with all our mind, all our heart, soul, and strength. And love others as ourselves. The cows will come home when they are ready.

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