As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

Romans 14:1-4 ESV

This week, Jason Collins came out as a black, gay, professional basketball player in Sports Illustrated. His bold and courageous move was met with encouragement and support from a wide cross-section of America. Many notable figures, including Magic Johnson, Father James Martin, Kobe Bryant, Nancy Pelosi, Rev. Al Sharpton, and both the Clinton and Obama families offered words of support and encouragement.

Rev. Gil Caldwell, TruthinProgress.com, National Board of PFLAG, Asbury Park, NJ

Bishop Yvette Flunder, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, San Francisco, CA

Rev. Darlene Garner, Metropolitan Community Church, Prince George’s County, MD

The Very Rev. Gary Hall, Dean, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC

Rev. Cedric Harmon, Many Voices, Washington, DC

Rev. Candy Holmes, Metropolitan Community Church, Prince George’s County, MD

The Reverend Luis Leon, St. John’s Church – Lafayette Square, Washington, DC

The Reverend Dr. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Middle Collegiate Church, New York, NY

The Rev. Dr. Pamela R. Lightsey, Boston University, Boston, MA

Rev. Irene Monroe, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Gene Robinson, IX Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Pastor Joseph Tolton, Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, New York, NY

 Here is what they said in a jointly written Washington Post editorial:

As Christian leaders in America, we know that Christians hold a wide variety of viewpoints on human sexuality. It is not necessary, nor is it right, to reject lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people out of hand due to the Christian faith. To do so, misrepresents the ever widening nature of the gospel of Christ, who engaged with those on the margins, and placed in leadership people who were not powerful by worldly standards.

We are pastors and leaders who have discovered that LGBT people are often the most faithful members of our congregations and denominations. We have received blessings upon blessings when we free them to be the people God made them to be and use the gifts that God gave them. In the same way, we are thankful that Jason Collins has been able to use his God-given gifts for athletics, and now has the freedom to be faithfully and authentically himself with the world. That is a cause for rejoicing, not of condemnation.

When Broussard uttered his words of condemnation, LGBT-supportive people of faith sprang into action. Faithful America has already gathered over 24,000 signatures, asking that the Bible not be used to bash gay athletes on EPSN. GLAAD is helping faith leaders like us formulate a challenge to the false claim that Christians must uniformly reject LGBT people and LGBT athletes. And thousands of people of faith are offering a prayer for thanksgiving for Jason Collins and the role model he is for thousands of LGBT athletic young people, including people of color.

As Christian leaders, we also encourage the media to report the reality that an increasing number of people of faith, including many Christians, are embracing and supporting their LGBT friends and family. They do so, not despite their faith, but because of it. As GLAAD demonstrated in last year’s ‘Missing Voices’ report, too often, stories like that of Jason Collins becomes one of “gay v. Christian,” when the reality is that Collins is a man of strong Christian faith, as are many who support him.

We pray that God will open the eyes of Chris Broussard and help him mature in his faith. May Broussard see that Christianity is not a faith that is closed off to those who are different from him, but one that continually expands, reaching out to the neighbor and the stranger, sharing the good news. We encourage Broussard to listen with humility to LGBT Christians, their lives and stories. It is through listening that we learn.

We are among those who give thanks for the life and witness of Jason Collins. May he always know that God has created him and loves him just as he is. May he exemplify the courage and grace that he has displayed in the last two days. And may God use him to send that message of love and inclusion to others, telling everyone of the ever widening love of God.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But he answered, “It is written, 

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'” 

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ 

and 

“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” 

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, 

‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”. Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, 

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'” 

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Matthew 4:1-11

Dear Lord, 

You know the temptations that I am facing today. But your Word promises that I will not be tempted beyond what I can bear. I ask for your strength to stand up under the temptation whenever I encounter it. Your Word also tells me you will provide a way out of the temptation. Please, Lord, give me the wisdom to walk away when I am tempted, and the clarity to see the way out that you will provide. Thank you, God, that you are a faithful deliverer and that I can count on your help in my time of need. 

Amen

I probably err too much on the side of grace in most of my writing, but I believe some things necessitate taking a firm stand. Marriage equality is important for any number of civil reasons. I think it’s critical for preserving the essence of Christianity. Many have told the Church, on this issue, it’s standing on the wrong side of history. I believe it’s standing on the wrong side of theology. I say this more as a person of faith than as a gay man: I don’t believe one can truly claim to be a Christian and oppose marriage equality.

Faith is a cosmological framework to interpret everything from conflict to purpose. It guides me in such a fundamental way that offering others a glimpse of mine requires more emotional energy than I usually have. Describing faith requires, too, a vocabulary I often don’t possess, which makes sense in the context of what I believe God to be — a being beyond the comprehension of the human mind.

As someone who values empathy, I have to assume this is similar for other genuine people of faith. Knowing it manifests differently throughout lives and cultures, I try to avoid making moral proclamations and condemnations. I appreciate the respect of friends with dissimilar beliefs, and I want to show the same respect to others’ faiths. But in the weeks since the SCOTUS hearings, I’m at a loss.

I don’t understand how Christians oppose marriage equality.

I don’t. I’ve tried: I’ve read conservative blogs; I’ve read my Republican friends’ Facebook posts; I’ve reread the Bible verses (supposedly) relevant to the issue. It’s confounding to me, and writing about it is difficult because whatever inspires many of my family members and a minority of Americans to oppose marriage for gay and lesbian couples stems from something beyond my understanding of faith, the faith responsible for my joy and peace in this chaotic, troubled world.

“God clearly forbids…”

“My heart has convinced me…”

“Leviticus 18:22 says…”

Declarations such as these are personal convictions, and they’re grounded in a narrow theology. They don’t reflect the humility true faith inspires.

Depending on whom you ask, marriage equality is about family, society or moral law. It’s about civil rights or theocracy: sanctity, liberties and normalcy. It’s about politics and philosophy and the pursuit of happiness to Americans, children of the enlightenment and gay citizens. I have deep convictions about all facets of this debate, but it’s primarily as a Christian that I support marriage equality, because ultimately, more than anything else, it’s about others.

Of course it affects me as a man who hopes one day to marry a man, but my convictions transcend self-interest. If I were straight, they wouldn’t change. Maybe they’d strengthen, liberated to stem unequivocally from my faith, a faith that drives me to love others, not morally control them.

However you interpret the Bible, combating marriage for gay and lesbian couples with ballots, lobbying dollars, bumper stickers, wheels-off former SNL cast members, and any other secular means you have access to is not biblical. It doesn’t reflect the ministry of Jesus or Paul, who never advocated establishing the Torah as law over the tyrannical Romans. It doesn’t reflect the notion of sin: any impediment — internal or external — to communion between a person and the divine. Rather Christianity advocated a revolution of faith; it made religious practice personal and humble. The imposition of a moral code is the Pharisaical doctrine that incited Jesus to fury, and yet it’s what’s driven the Christian right to support traditional marriage more than education reform, clean air initiatives, or the only caveat that according to Paul reflected pure and undefiled religion: caring for orphans and widows.

Personal convictions are exactly that: personal. Even if I don’t share them I have to respect them. But as a person of faith, who reveres faith and grieves the defamation of it in our modern world, I can’t stay ambiguous about this issue. Opposition to marriage equality slanders God, true adherence to the Bible, and the revolutionary practice of faith Jesus brought to this world. I don’t understand how Christians oppose marriage equality, and I believe until they revise their politics, faith will deservedly appear antiquated, bigoted and dead to a growing majority of our world.

Sent from my iPad

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.  For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

In the parable of the prodigal son, as recorded in Luke 15, Jesus illustrates God’s unconditional love for His children. A man’s younger son asked his father for his share of the estate, packed his belongings, and took a trip to a distant land where he wasted all of his money on parties and prostitutes. About the time that his money was gone, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He finally came to his senses and realized that his father’s hired men at least had food to eat. He decided, “I will go to my father and say, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired man.”

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Galatians 5:16-26

The Holy Spirit empowers us, guides us, and enables us to grow and endure in our relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. Often the most misunderstood member of the Trinity, the Spirit should be of great focus and attention today.

When we talk of being led by the Holy Spirit we need to make it clear he directs us primarily through the Scriptures he inspired. Through them he brings revelation, guidance, correction, vision, conviction, answers, encouragement, challenge and freedom to our lives as well as principles and doctrines we can build our lives on.  All of this helps us to grow in relationship with God and keep in step with his will for our lives.

The Holy Spirit never bypasses the Holy Scriptures he inspired. This means we cannot be led by the Spirit if we undermine or undervalue his book. For this reason an open heart with an open Bible reveals and expresses a persons desire to be led by the Spirit. Likewise a closed heart and a dusty Bible reveals and exposes a persons desire not to be.  The Holy Spirit and my open Bible led me to contemplate patience this week.  One of my students once made me a sign that hangs on the wall of my classroom, “God, please grant me patience, because if you grant me strength, I might hurt someone.”  Thankfully, God does grant me patience.  I could not be a teacher without patience.  Thankfully, the fruit of the Spirit includes love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control along with patience.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  —John 14:6 

Joe — I also just stumbled across the articles, and although I haven’t had a chance yet to read all of them, I plan to.

My father was a Church of Christ minister who had six kids. Of the four boys, one died at 13, and the rest are all gay. I struggled for years…married, had kids, etc. After I got divorced, I was finally able to live my life freely, but once I came out, I was lovingly escorted out of the church. There were other people at that congregation — “liberal” by CofC standards — who everyone knew were gay, but the rule was as long as it wasn’t official, they were welcome. 

Ultimately, and somewhat ironically having spent decades drawing a distinction between the two groups, I joined the United Church of Christ. It still breaks my heart that I have been rejected by the church in which I spent 40 years, and I still have a lot of affection for the Church of Christ. My husband mentioned the other day that I seem to know where the local Church of Christ in every neighborhood in Southern California, and that wherever we travel, when we pass a Church of Christ I always point it out. 

God bless you, in a very literal sense, for what you are trying to do. It’s very brave, and very important. If the Church of Christ came around on this issue, would I go back? In a heartbeat. But the more of us who leave, the less likely that is to happen….

Come back to the Church. Let go of the strange life. You can love other men, you just can’t have sex with them. Christ loved many men, but never lusted after them. John laid on His breast,Paul told the men to greet one another with a heavenly kiss (in the middle east it’s still often practiced), so you can even kiss a man in Amish churches and churches that are liberal Amish. Just let go of the lust, you aren’t 21 ya know. Let go.

Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.