To Be a Christian...

There was a commercial that recently made the news because it was produced by a church and network TV refused to air it. It staged a church building to look like a night club where there was a line of people waiting to get in and there were two 'bouncer-like' figures that decided who would and wouldn’t be allowed. While it never mentioned gays, or any other group per se, the implication was clear that homosexuals were not allowed in that church. The church that produced the commercial then made the pitch that, unlike the church that wouldn’t let some people in, everyone was welcome in it.

Network TV had their reasons for not airing the commercial. I’m not concerned here with what their thinking was. It generated controversy in the religious community over the implication. Some believe that homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed in Christian churches because the Bible clearly labels that lifestyle as sinful. The other side says that everyone should be allowed in church and Christ wouldn’t turn anyone away from fellowship. Other commentators have correctly identified the heart of the issue as being the central controversy of our time in religious circles…literal interpretation of scriptures versus a metaphorical interpretation.

First I’d like to say that I think both sides that have polarized around this are wrong. Anyone should be allowed to attend a church. No one should be turned away for who they are….not homosexuals, not adulterers, not fornicators, not liars…no one.

The issue of allowing them to remain in a church is quite different. Church is supposed to exist to change people…not to be changed by them. Sinners should all be welcome…but they should be expected to put their sins out of their lives to remain. Homosexuality is no different than adultery or fornication. They are all identified in the Bible as sexual sins that must be repented of to atone with God. All sins need to be repented of to atone with God…period. To repent is to put that behavior out of your life and return to obedience to God. That is a keystone message of Christianity. God decides what is sin and what is not, no one else does, including a church. Another message of Christianity is that the scriptures identify what God reveals to us as sin…literally. In other words…the book means what it says.

There are many things in scripture open to interpretation. When such things are encountered a consistent set of rules should be applied. The first rule should be that the Bible interprets the Bible. When scriptures tell us that wise men followed a star to where the Christ-child was, it could mean a literal star, except that stars don’t move that way. A star is symbolic for an angel in other parts of scripture. The interpretation that the star was an angel can be supported by adhering to the rule that the Bible interprets the Bible…without having to suspend the laws astronomical bodies must adhere to.

The problem with metaphorical interpretation of the scriptures is whom is qualified to interpret what the metaphors mean. Some argue that the church has that authority and that each age of the church can reinterpret scriptures for the needs of their generation. This is not a new controversy…it is one that has divided Catholics and Protestants for centuries. The Protestant reformation began with the motto: “Solo Scriptura…only the scriptures”. In our time the old controversy is dividing Protestants too but, unlike the Catholic church who asserts that it is the final authority, there is no clear authority recognized by Protestants for who correctly interprets metaphorical symbolism. If such interpretation is open to change with each generation then why have scriptures at all? They would become meaningless in such a system.

The last issue around this “central controversy of our day” is whether individuals have the right to expect a church to change to accommodate them. An African American may want to join the Ku Klux Klan…but why? Why would one want to join an organization that is against who one is? Wouldn’t it be better to simply go off and start one’s own organization…one more sympathetic to one’s own cause? For Homosexuals and Adulterers (and any other sinners) to join a church and refuse to change is only to delude themselves. God demands that we change to atone with Him…He will not change to atone with us. He has given His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for our sins…if we will repent, accept that sacrifice, and continue to work to put sin out of our lives He will allow us to come to Him. A part of the message in God allowing His own son to be sacrificed to atone for our sins is just how repugnant sin is to God...it smells of death because that's where it leads. Your faith should make you better than you are. If it is doing its job, your church should make you too uncomfortable to live in sin. To come into contact with the will of God should make you change for the better.

We will never be without sin in our lives as long as we are mortal. But we will have the help of God’s Holy Spirit to aid us in fighting sin as long as we are willing. We can’t give up the struggle and expect God to change to accommodate us. The reward is in the struggle.

Human beings may be able to storm the gates of a human organization…but they will never storm the gates of the spiritual Body of Christ. The only ones welcome to stay there are repentant sinners…and that applies to all of us.