Homosexuality.


So, last fall I had an assignment for all my students, where they were to go to some ministry that was dealing with some social issue and then come back and do a presentation on that issue. I had a number of students choose the issue of homosexuality, I think because they are confused by the discrepancy between what they see on TV and what they hear in church. In any case, a number of the groups went downtown to A Church 4 Me? and visited a gay church. I emailed the pastor after the semester explaining my assignment and letting him know how the presentations went over in class.

Today I received this email:
"Hi Tim, I got your name from Pastor Kevin Downer at a church 4 me in Chicago. I'm doing a video story on the church for the Northwestern News Network, and it's going to air on WYCC, Channel 20 this Sunday evening. If you have the opportunity this morning or afternoon, could you please let me know what your thoughts are on this church? Are you opposed to it, and if so, why? Are you a proponent for gays having their own place to worship, and if so, why? Also, Tim, if it would be easier for you, I can be reached at . . . , and I look forward to hearing from you today. All best, Amy Wolf
Amy WolfReporter, Northwestern News Network"

I wrote her this (perhaps too long) response:
"Amy,
Thanks for contacting me. Sorry if the following is more information than you wanted. It's something I've been thinking about a good deal, though, lately.

I find this subject to be terribly complicated. The church I attend recently spoke up on this issue (perhaps a feat in itself). The sermon and discussion was full of love and compassion and criticizing the church for not be accepting enough, or more precisely criticizing the church for so strongly condemning homosexuality as a sin while ignoring greed and so on. The answer that was given in the end was that God can change people, homosexuality is a sin, and as we invite people into the church, into relationship, God will deal with their sin (with the obvious outcome of changing them).
For the conservativeness of our church, this was an appropriately challenging message.
I grew up in an extremely conservative (fundamentalist) atmosphere in the south, where gays would be as likely lynched as accepted into church. Perhaps that's putting it a little strongly, but not much. Where I grew up, the people's stomachs still turn inside out if you say the word "homosexual," and their faces inevitably bear witness to their intestinal discomfort. If Christians can move away from that and toward what was preached in the church I now attend, we will have made some progress at least.

Now more to the point of your question (hopefully). On an ideal level, there are two reasons I am opposed to gays having their own place to worship. First, and most importantly, I am ideologically opposed at some level to any specific group having their own place to worhsip. The picture given in Revelation at the end of time is of all peoples, languages, cultures, etc. worshiping God. This beautiful picture of the kingdom of God, however, is not just for some future time after all the wars have been fought. Instead, Jesus inaugurated the work of said kingdom in his life on earth, and to follow Christ (to be a Christian) is to carry out this kingdom in the present. A huge part of this has to do with the "body of Christ," to use the apostle Paul's language, where we are reconciled to God, and also to each other. In fact, Jesus said others should know us (non-followers should know followers) by our love for one another. When we divide into different churches so we don't have to argue as much, surely no one is knowing us by our love. When we divide into these separate groups we are NOT being one body, and we are NOT carrying out the work of the kingdom of God that Christ calls us to.

The second, and much less important reason, I am opposed (on an ideal level) to gays having their own place of worship, is that I do believe the act of homosexuality is a sin. Gay churches argue it is not a sin, and so the discussion becomes very polarized, which harms both sides. Perhaps if we were in the same church, living together, being Christian together, we would have more balanced dialogue on the issues at hand.

Now, those two reasons are the ideal. That being said, the church is currently far too screwed up, particularly on this issue, to try to enforce these ideals. There is too much anger, even hate, in the current "debates," if you can even call throwing crap at each other "debates." From this perspective, I am all for A Church 4 Me and others like it to exist. I much, much, much, much prefer gay people to have their own place to worship, even if I disagree with a point of their theology, than to have no place to worship. It is not as though they are doing something wrong. It is the fault of the church at large, which has abandoned gays, that gays have to have their own place of worship. The onus is upon the church at large, not upon the gay church. The confession of wrongdoing must come from the church at large before we can begin to attempt any true dialogue or any movement toward the reconciliation with one another that the kingdom of God demands of us (and for us).

This is why I encouraged students I was teaching at a very conservative, Evangelical school last fall to attend A Church 4 Me and to see that they worship and how they worship there. Many of the students returned with their eyes wide open. Many experienced at that church a level of acceptance and love they had not experienced in church before, and from gays, the very people many of their home churches had demonized their entire lives. They hopefully at least began to see that the issue is not so wrong and right as sin and righteousness, but that there is sin on both sides and righteousness on both sides. Only when we move beyond the impass of us vs. them will the church at large be able to recognize and confess its own sin in this area, thus opening the door for the first time to true dialogue.

Thanks for inquiring about and then reading my thoughts. Please let me know if I was unclear at any point, or if you have other questions. But note, and perhaps you've learned from this response, that further questions may require a good deal of reading on your part :)
tim basselin"


I'd love to hear your thoughs.