Where Are We Headed?

This post started out as something else that was going to end up in sanctimonious self-righteousness. But as this piece developed I came across articles and news reports that made me reconsider the subject.

It started with a news item I came across last week. A pastor in a prominent Christian denomination is going to be stripped of his congregation and taken off the clergy roster because of his admitted gay relationship with another pastor from the same group.

For more on this go here and here.

Another article I read had to do with a pastor in another prominent Christian denomination who committed suicide because his illicit behavior was going to be exposed on TV during sweeps month. Read here for the follow-up report.

I took quite an exception to these two articles in different ways. In the case of the defrocked pastor, I asked myself why are they even in that quagmire to begin with. The answer is unpleasant to contemplate. By their own admission, the disciplinary committee has voiced near-unanimous concern that the “policy against pastors in same-gender relationships are at least a bad policy and may very well violate the constitutions and by-laws of this church.” The implication to me is in that particular denomination’s by-laws, there is policy that allows a homosexual man to be ordained as a minister as long as they are not openly practicing homosexuality. That as long as these homosexual men and women are not in a “loving, sexually intimate and faithful relationship, they can impart the word of God without actually having to apply it in their personal lives!

If I understand the facts of this case correctly, this pastor admitted to being in an openly gay relationship with another pastor may I add. And the disciplinary charges filed against him were not because of his sexual orientation or chosen lifestyle, but because he was having intimate sexual relations outside of the holy sacrament of marriage. So in interpreting their policy, it stands to reason that if the accused pastor marries his partner, then all would be just fine and dandy.

Are you kidding me? What is wrong with this picture? Am I the only one who realizes that practicing homosexuality is in total disobedience to God’s word? Forget about the labels or the denomination, this circumstance is a direct challenge to God’s doctrine. If this pastor, upon accepting Christ, denounced his lifestyle and there is evidence that the Holy Spirit is constantly and continuously working with his heart and his intentions, then that would be a different story. That becomes then a testament to God’ love, grace and salvation in the transformation of our sinful ways.

But how can a pastor, who is openly gay and in a gay relationship give credence to God’s word especially on the pulpit. How can he truthfully and without reproach preach and teach about say Romans 1: 18-32 or 1 Corinthians 6: 8-10? Or does he pick and choose what is applicable and archaic or, God forbid, irrelevant, in light of today’s culture.

The second article is an outcry against those of us in the church. It’s a shame that those who are in pain and those suffering in our pews aren’t able to come to the one body of people who are obligated to minister to them by virtue of Christian brotherly love. It is heartbreaking to realize that given the choice between suicide and a chance at reconciliation, suicide seemed the better alternative to this ordained man of God.

Have we become such Pharisees that there is no more room for error in our lives? Have we become such spiritual vigilantes that not only do we ignore the planks in our own eyes but we’ve also pointed, plucked and judged the specks in our brothers and sisters eyes? Are we swimming in spiritual righteousness and are our noses held up high in Christian snootiness that we forgot once upon a time, we too were sinners? That on more than one occasion in our pathetic, arrogant lives, God reached down to us and held out His hand and all we could do was cling to Him with everything we had left.

If that is the case then we are in a sorry state. We’ve given the devil and his minions a foothold in our antiseptic, spiritual existence and somewhere in the very depths of hell, our enemy and his cohorts are all gloating about it.

Here’s a reminder, in case anyone has forgotten. Repeat after me: We are sinners and there is absolutely NOTHING we can do or accomplish to avoid that great big rotisserie in hell. And if not for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and my acceptance of that sacrifice, we have no place in heaven. In essence, without us having to lift a finger and as my beloved so aptly puts it, we are getting better than we will ever deserve and it’s ALL BECAUSE OF GOD!

What can be done about this? Should we, uphold the truth in a loving and sometimes contentious manner in our thoughts and actions and live out our holier-than-thou lives in isolated, like-minded communities? Or should we reside in the trenches of human drudgery, in a cafeteria-like expression of faith, hoping to “save” the lost even as we compromise God’s truth basking in that falsely warm, fuzzy feeling of congratulatory, sanctimonious self-righteousness when we’re assured we did something “good.”

Are we so lost that we’ve twisted doctrine to suit our own needs? Or are we so self-righteous that we’ve become blind to the suffering of our brothers and sisters? What is becoming of us, the collective, North American church? Where are we headed? And why?