Are Christians Anti-gay and Judgmental?

The USA Today is running an article about how our nation's youth see Christianity as anti-gay, judgmental, and hypocritical. Here is an excerpt:

"The vast majority of non-Christians — 91% — said Christianity had an anti-gay image, followed by 87% who said it was judgmental and 85% who said it was hypocritical.

Such views were held by smaller percentages of the active churchgoers, but the faith still did not fare well: 80% agreed with the anti-gay label, 52% said Christianity is judgmental, and 47% declared it hypocritical.

Kinnaman said one of the biggest surprises for researchers was the extent to which respondents — one in four non-Christians — said that modern-day Christianity was no longer like Jesus."

The full article can be viewed here:

USA Today Article


I can't say that I am surprised, because I think the same thing. The church in America has become over politicized and as a result has come to define itself by what it isn't (we aren't gay and we aren't for gay rights or gay marriage, we aren't pro-choice / pro-abortion, we aren't pro-democrat for the most part, and we sure aren't pro-outsiders...or even pro-insiders who hold varying viewpoints from us). We are what we aren't.

The real challenge for the church is to learn how to be known once again for love - love for one another and love for the outsider (the biblical word for hospitality - a requirement for church leaders - literally means "a love for the stranger") while at the same time not abandoning the biblical absolutes that the Bible lays out clearly.

There is a movement today that is part of the emerging movement that is trying to rectify the sin of the church (defining ourselves by what we are not) by redefining biblical morality. These guys give the church a softer public face, but at the cost of biblical truth and the nature of God's character. That error will prove to be just as deadly to the cause of Jesus as the first - it is just the pendulum swinging the opposite extreme...but it is the same pendulum, and really the same sin. It is the church trying to redefine Christian morality in a way that suits its personal tastes - it is a recasting of God in our own image.

I firmly believe we need to redefine ourselves by what we are instead of by what we are not. We need to be known for love. Love for those like us, and even more importantly, love for those unlike us, because it is only in loving our neighbors as ourselves that we can truly love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds. I love my neighbor (gay, straight, democrat, fundamentalist, pro-choice, or pro-life) because Jesus loves them, and while they are all messed up, they are no more so than I am or could be without the grace of God.

Fundamentalism, with its disdain for outsiders, completely misrepresents the nature and work of Jesus. But so does this neo-liberal wing of the church (I am speaking of liberal theology, not liberal politics). Loving our neighbors while redefining the character, nature, and revelation of God isn't loving God either - it is simply a recast (and renamed) religion in the form of secular humanism.

God Seeks Good Lawyer at Resonable Price

Ernie Chambers, a member of the Nebraska House of Representatives, is suing God. He filed his injunction in the District court of Douglas County, Nebraska, on September 14, 2007.

In an effort to protect the people of Nebraska's right to frivolous lawsuits, Representative Chambers is calling God out on the carpet because he "has made and continues to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons" and "directly and proximately has caused, inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating drouths [sic], genocidal wars, birth defects, and the like."

Chambers, ironically an avowed agnostic, has no problem suing a God he is not sure is there and does not live on earth. God claims to exist and to be omnipresent - therefore if he exists, he is personally present in Douglas County.

Chambers bases his accusation on the fact that God "has made admissions against Defendant's own interests to various, hand-picked chroniclers of yore regarding the making of terroristic threats and the causing of calamitous catastrophes resulting in widespread death, destruction, and terrorization [sic] of millions and millions of earth's inhabitants...without mercy or distinction." Further, Chambers claims that God has "directed said chroniclers to assemble and disseminate in written form, said admissions, throughout the earth in order to inspire fear, dread, anxiety, terror and uncertainty, in order to coerce obedience to Defendant's will."

In response to this public challenge, God said nothing.

An unauthorized insider, though, responded to this legal challenge by saying, "What can I say? I can see where someone would say God is a terrorist, especially when you only look at the parts of the story where he is killing people and stuff. I mean, what kind of God would terrorize his own Son and kill him? Sure Jesus rose again on the third day, but I am sure those three days were hell."

Ted Gets More Media with Appeal for Money

Ted Haggard, the recently un-closeted gay anti-homosexual political powerhouse, needs you. Haggard sent out an email this week to his one-time supporters pleading for money so that he could get educated.

Haggard says he needs support so that he can go back to college full time to get a masters in counseling and his wife can get study psychology. He fails to mention in his letter that he was paid $115,000 for his 10 months of work in 2006. He also fails to mention that he received a $85,000 bonus before being fired. He also fails to mention that he lives in a house that appraises for more than $700,000.


I just read tonight on Colorado Confidential that even the non-profit he is recommending people give through (for tax purposes) lost its 501c3 and is lead by a formerly convicted sex offender.

Enough is enough. Please!

I am a Christ-follower. I recently started working for my church and even more recently accepted the title of pastor. I am deeply honored to serve my church and my Lord in this capacity...but the title of "Pastor" is a weird thing. I used to not like it because I was a bit too "organic" and got hung up about calling someone "pastor" when pastoring is really a function not a title. I have identified and repented of my former ignorance and arrogance, but now find myself reluctant to take the title for other reasons.

Try this conversation on for size. I meet someone, strike up an initial conversation, find a bit of normalcy and pretty soon the question comes:

"So what do you do for a living?"

"For a living? I am, well, a ... pastor."

"Oh -- a pastor? Oh, yeah, interesting..." as he guards his wallet and slowly moves away.

There is just too much baggage...too many scandals...too much hypocrisy. I don't like to define myself by what I am not, but feel compelled to say, "I am a pastor, but not like that. I am not a radical conservative republican. I do not think the former moral majority has the corner on the ethical market. I do not steal money from the sick and old. I was not raised in a Christian home and did not spend my entire adulthood getting paid by the church. I do not think I have to be stuffy, legalistic, or separatist in order to follow Jesus. And, no, I do not do drugs and sleep with men while publicly vilifying people who do."

The Apostle Paul got ticked at the religious leaders of his day because they preached one thing and did another. They had one standard for some people and another standard for themselves. In a great twist of irony, he said that the unbelievers watching them would blaspheme the God they claimed to serve because of their behavior.

Not much has changed in 2000 years.

I do not hate Ted Haggard (or others who have fallen before him). I am angry at the way they misrepresent Jesus and those who follow him, but know that the same grace that could redeem a broken person like me can also bring healing and wholeness to him.

I do wish he would just go out and get a job, though, and quit trying to live off the labor of others... I expect it would be good for him to have to put in an honest day's work for awhile.

Baptsim -- A Dunking Good Time

As a Christ-follower and an educator, I guess it was natural that I would be called upon to perform certain ceremonies for former students. In fact, I have officiated a half-dozen weddings -- and sadly, about the same number of funerals. I thoroughly enjoyed the weddings (nothing like a front seat view of the expressions of the bride and groom!). The funerals not so much, but I was still glad that I was able to be a voice of comfort and eternal perspective to the families and friends. Funerals are particularly hard. My wife has reminded me many times that no one remembers what you say at a wedding, but they always remember what you say at a funeral!

This last Sunday, though, was my first opportunity to "officiate" a baptism (I doubt that is the right word, but you get the drift). Our church held an outdoor baptism on a local river. It was an incredibly cool setting for a baptism. The weather was threatening rain in the distance, the air was warm and humid, and the river was muddy. A group of very athletic, muscle-bound guys played Frisbee on the beach next to us while another group sat in the water on lawn chairs drinking beer. Another guy floated in the water behind us with his dog (who was wearing a flotation device). It was perfect.

Our church has been growing and we are serious about engaging the culture around us with the truth of the gospel. God has done some incredible things, and we had around 50 people getting baptized at this event. Even though we baptized a lot of people and there was a crowd of several hundred standing on the shore watching, each baptism was incredibly personal...at least from my perspective.

I didn't have to say much -- not like a funeral or wedding. An introduction, a quick question (Do you have faith in Jesus as the leader of your life and forgiver of your sins?), and a pronouncement (I baptize you then in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The whole thing was easy and joyful...

But it was still stirring, and a bit strange. Have you ever dunked someone in a pool and held them under water? I have -- my brother and I would get into a dunking fight every time we got in the water together. Every time I tried to get his head under water (or visa versa), he has fought me, punched, kicked, and exploded out of the water like a wild animal fighting for life. Even if I never got my brother's head under the water, there was a fight.

It struck me how the whole baptism thing is different. These people walked joyfully out and willingly allowed me to shove their heads under water. I stood there above them, watching them under water, their hair waving with the current, as they waited with anticipation for the moment when I would pull them back up.

What an incredible picture of what it means to follow Christ. Everyone knows Jesus died for sinners, but I don't know how many have really thought about what that means. Jesus was, in a sense, baptized into our sin, submerged in our moral and spiritual corruption so he could take our place in punishment. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who did not know sin became sin for us." He willingly became our sin-bearer, our substitute on the cross in order to suffer the full, undiluted wrath of the Father in our place -- a punishment we deserved and could not avoid. He was baptized under God's wrath...and in that mirky water of judgment, He willingly died to set us free. When he rose from the grave on the third day, he proved that the penalty was paid, the payment was complete and there was no judgment left for those who would follow him.

As I pulled each person out of the water on Sunday and saw them wipe their eyes, take deep breaths, and smile in joy, I saw in them a picture of Jesus. They were entering into his death and resurrection in a public, symbolic way to announce to me and the guys playing Frisbee and the guys drinking beer in their lawn chairs and the guy with the flotation-protected dog (and to the entire world of unseen beings) that they were followers of Jesus, that they believed and were entering into the work Jesus had done for them. They were receiving, not giving. They were resting, not working. In the end, their baptisms weren't even about them -- they were about the One who had gone before them in order to win for them what they could not win for themselves.

It was very cool.