Audience is important.  This topic, while floating on the periphery of my “soap-box zone,” demands that its audience be clearly articulated.  It is important that readers recognize that I am addressing professing Christians.  I am writing this post for those who proclaim the Lordship of Christ over their lives, for those that call Jesus “Master.”  Though, there exists a more specific audience as well.  I am directing it at a certain enclave of people within the Church.  I am writing to a group of people who I feel like are having a hard time separating certain sociological or political agendas from the Gospel.  My designation of some Christians as hopelessly bound to certain cultural or political ideologies also demands a disclaimer of sorts.  I am not writing about politics, sociological concerns, or culture per se.  For the remainder of this post, I do not care about the audience’s political affiliations, the audience’s acceptance or rejection of culturally normative practices, or the audience’s comfort level concerning certain taboos.  What I have to say can be expressed in one simple sentence, but then requires a little “unpacking.”

The moment you used your Christian faith to justify hate, you profaned the very heart of the Gospel message.

This practice, sadly, only constitutes the next step in a series of hate-crimes perpetrated by ”Christians” throughout history.  From what I have been able to gather, a central theme drives the heart of this hate machine.  Said theme is a misguided notion that touts a sensibility toward holiness (both individual and corporate) which demands that Christians hate sin as God hates sin.  The notion asserts that God, being fundamentally attuned toward holiness, hates sin with everything in his being; so much so, in fact, that there is a veritable flood of his wrath waiting to be unleashed on the unwitting denizens of Earth.  Consequently, this misguided notion of God is further contorted to include the duty of all Christians to emulate God’s hate for sin.  Presumably, this hate begins by being directed inwardly at one’s own heart, directed at one’s own sin, and then radiates in righteous fury outward toward all those that dare stand in defiance of the holiness of God.

As such, some among the Christian community feel compelled to point out the sin of others as a demonstration of the holiness of God.  Consequently, some “Christians” have harbored hate for the homosexual and lesbian community, because “God hates fags.”  Some Christians condone the murder of countless Muslim innocents in the Middle East (and around the world), because “There shall be no other gods before you.”  Some Christians rail against the evil of abortion on the basis of the sanctity of life, but condone the State killing criminals, because God prescribed the execution of those who broke certain of his laws.  There are at least two clear refutations of this sensibility. 

First, equally compelling biblical arguments can be made for the fundamental and irrevocable change that the in-breaking of the Kingdom of Heaven causes in our fallen world.  In other words, for every passage that speaks of God’s wrath against sin, a passage can be found balancing the perspective with God’s unfailing and unconditional love for humanity.  And so, a popular adage rears its ugly head yet again.  “I hate the sin, but love the sinner (‘just like God’ ought to be added to the end of this).”  Ironically, it is a quote frequently thrown around and often attributed to Jesus, but you’re not going to find it in your Bible.  Go on and look, I’ll wait…  See, I told you.  The ironic part is that some modern Christians are content to ignore some compelling instances of Christ seeing past sin in favor of a quote (mostly likely belonging to Mahatma Gandhi) that allows them to perpetuate their personal distaste over certain people or behaviors under the guise of pleasing God and being more like him.  It is misguided at its best, and disgusting at its worst.  I find it most pertinent, and extremely telling that one of the oral traditions cherished by early Johannine communities was eventually grafted into John’s account of the Bible.  When a woman caught in adultery was thrown at the feet of Jesus he didn’t say, “you know you’re right – My Father really hates sin, and this woman is easily the most perverse among us; so, let’s make an example out of her.  Get her, boys!”  What he did say was far more powerful:

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stoneat her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,”Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

While there is some rather compelling evidence to prove that John the Apostle did not write this episode, it will have to wait for another post some other day.  The important point for this post is simple.  Does God call us to live holy lives; lives that reject sin, that embrace his life, and that are patterned after his example?  OBVIOUSLY.  Does God ever condone our desire to take on the role of condemnation?  Obviously not.  In fact, in some very fascinating episodes, he refuses to condemn anyone himself.  Jesus’ posture toward the sinner was one of acceptance, love, and embrace – which leads nicely into my second point.

Second, our calling as Christians is to follow the example of Christ.  It is his image with which we must eventually be reconciled.  The Gospels, generally, and Luke, specifically, infuse the mission of Christ with a priority for the disenfranchised.  In simple terms, if you are the poor, sick, lonely or reviled, then Jesus is on your side.  He is on your side simply because you are poor, sick, lonely and/or reviled.  The Christian’s role ought to be one directed toward reconciling God’s creation back to him.  Our genuine heart ought to be as Christ’s was; we must see the poor, the sick, the lonely and the reviled as God’s priority.  If it is not clear enough yet, allow me to make it clearer still.  Christ is on the side of the homosexual/ lesbian, simply because they are reviled by our culture – because they are disenfranchised (If you doubt this, look at the number of times Luke assigns the position of “true faith” to a Roman soldier and not a Jew).  Christ is on the side of the Muslim victims of war, simply because they are globally reviled.  Christ is on the side of… oh, just fill in the blank with any person or group that “creeps you out” for no good reason.  If you want to be like Jesus, you must love those that nobody else will love.

Furthermore, it is time that more of us stood up for those that even some Christians want to hate.  This is not about politics, social justice, or cultural studies.  This is about the Gospel message containing hope and peace.  It is about the Church being Christ to the world.  Oddly, this is something that most (if not all) would easily accept, and yet our hate continues. 

It is not okay.