Before I begin, I would like to apologize for my tardiness in updating my blog, I hope you all enjoy this post, so here is my latest post:
"Dear God, what went wrong? We hate ourselves, we hate our brother/We so desperately want to find our way, and all You say is 'love one another'"
A couple weeks ago I went with my friends to Savannah to see a free show of an awesome band called Showbread. They're a Christian band and their music is pretty awesome so it was a great show. At the end, Josh Dies, the lead singer, gave a spiel about his Christian faith. He quoted a study done in California about what people think about when they think about Christianity. Among other things, he mentioned that people think of gay-bashers, ignorant, political agendas that are willing to go to war about anything, etc. He then said to anyone in the room who was not a Christian that "that is not our Jesus."
Josh said that as Christians we are called to love people, even those different than ourselves. We are not supposed to hate and condemn people just because of their sexual orientation or religion. He even said that we should be against war because you can't love someone and kill them at the same time.
This shocked me. I mean, it sounds nice, but God's against gays, He's for our war in Iraq, he wants us to only hang out with other believers right? I began to think about it, and so I've decided to go through what Josh said and see was the Bible says.
The first thing that shocked me was the fact that we are supposed to embrace and love homosexuals as our equals. Let's see what the Bible says about this:
"Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable." Leviticus 22 (NIV)
This is what Leviticus, the book that outlines the entirety of the Law says about homosexuality. It doesn't even say anything about stoning them! However, if you look at Jesus' message, it can be boiled down to "love one another." No "love only those who are completely sinless," or "love only those who are like you." Also, if you are to condemn those who are homosexuals because of this verse, we should also condemn those who have tattoos: "Do not cut your bodies for the dead or tattoo your skin..." Leviticus 19:28. After thinking about this for a good bit, I realized that if I was to judge those who are homosexual and completely shun them, then I should do the same to myself, as I have a tattoo. I am by no means saying that homosexuality is a good thing, what I'm saying is that just because someone is homosexual does not mean that we can hate them. We can not completely forsake those who have sinned, if we were to do that, then we are forsaken the message of Christ: love one another.
The other part of Josh's message that I had to think about was his anti-war message. I mean the Israelites, God's own people, had an army, God has to be pro-war right? At least when it's for a good reason right? I mean so many people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we had to go in and attack them right? I sat thinking about this for a long time. I know many people in the armed forces and will always support them, but I had to put my thoughts aside as I thought about this topic. Retaliation has to be justified right?
"But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also." Matthew 5:39
By the way, that does not continue "turn to them the other cheek also to wind up for a sucker-punch." It is meant to say to allow the enemy to slap your other cheek. And Jesus didn't just talk the talk:
"50 Jesus replied, “Do what you came for, friend.” Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. 52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." Matthew 26:50-52.
"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly." 1 Peter 2:23
Jesus does not tell us that it's ok to fight back, in fact, he told us to keep letting them attack. So I guess that that's just one more misconception I had. Unfortunately, I think it will take me a bit longer to accept this. The idea that we should be completely against war is a hard thing to accept. Not really the idea that war is bad, but the idea that after something like 9/11 we should refuse to retaliate is so hard for me to grasp. That we are supposed to love others so much that even when thousands are killed, we are supposed to let it happen without retaliation is crazy to me! But that's Jesus, we are supposed to love each other at all costs, be it our lives or anything else.
Everyone has their ideas of who Jesus is and what he accepts, myself included. I want to challenge everyone, myself included, to give up these ideas and let Jesus speak for himself on what He does and does not want.
p.s. I really want to get back into this blogging thing, so please comment and give me some ideas on what to write about.
