A new GLBT resort in our county
A couple of people have sent me an email concerning a new GLBT resort in the works for our area. (GLBT = Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender). The information looks credible. You can see a web site promoting it here. NOTE that it contains some images that may offend, though none that are explicit. The email says that the chosen site is somewhere on the other side of the bridge from Ladd Landing, so that puts it near our youth minister John Pryor. 
Interestingly, the Employment link on the web site states that the owners have “a belief in God” and that worship services will be part of the program, and even hints that prospective employees should be like-minded on this.
The email calls this resort “a threat” and urges everyone to sign a petition (and pass it around at church too) and attend meetings of the Planning Commission and County Commission to try to get this stopped.
I realize that the Bible calls homosexual behavior sinful. But to tell you the truth, I’d be very disappointed in the people of Morrison Hill if we can’t do better than pass around petitions and march on government meetings to assert rights that we supposedly surrendered for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can we love our enemies or our neighbors or the people sitting next to us at church (any of whom may be tempted by homosexuality) by telling them to stay the heck out of our county?
Even though I speak like this, dear friends, I am confident of better things in your case. I have confidence that the Christians I know can come up with ten better responses to this situation, responses that lift up Christ in all the fullness of his grace and truth.
So, how about it? Tell us your best ideas (or whatever you think) in the comments.
UPDATE: Here’s a story in the Roane County News about the resort.
UPDATE 2: I received an email from the developer of the planned resort last night (addressed to “Dear Pastor”) in which he says that “Rosebud is not going to be a gay, nudist, resort of any kind, but that any mature adult 18 and over, no matter what their race, religion, color, sex, or life style, will be welcome there.” I visited the web site again, and now it contains none of the pictures that I previously warned you about, nor any reference to clothing being optional, nor alternate lifestyles. Sounds like a quick marketing switch to me!
UPDATE 3: The Knoxville News Sentinel now has a story on this, along with a string of interesting comments .
Sunday Seven
Today I preached on creating a culture of life for everyone. The first three links provide some rich food for thought along those lines.
- The seamless garment of life. A Catholic scholar lays out the rationale for linking all life-issues in this article from The Word Among Us.
- Facing the myth of redemptive violence. Walter Wink outlines in great detail this myth that I spoke about this morning. I certainly disagree with some of Wink’s views about Scripture, but I am deeply moved by his take on violence. From Ekklesia.
- Confessing Christ in a world of violence. Before the 2004 elections, many Christian leaders signed this statement, which is an attempt to apply Christ’s teachings to current events of a violent nature. From Sojourners.
- The Commons - Old photos from the Library of Congress at Flickr. I recently mentioned the delightful Shorpy as a source for old photos. Now the Library of Congress is opening parts of its huge photo collection through Flickr. One of the first available sets contains photos from the 1930s and 40s in beautiful color. Via TechCrunch.
- Apostrophe Abuse. Another great blog waging the war for decent punctuation (alongside The “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks which I recently mentioned). “Thank’s” to Summer for this one.
- Suzanne Pleshette dies at 70. Her crowing achievement wasn’t Newhart or The Birds, but being mentioned in That Thing You Do, a movie that swept away MHCC’s youth group in the late 90s. P.S. - Sam the Butcher died too.
- True art.
Sermon: A culture of life for everyone
Sermon: A culture of life for everyone. Looking at life-issues (abortion, war, capital punishment, etc.) as a seamless garment.
Listen (stream)
MP3 (right-click to download)
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Lethal injection, abortion, and the seamless garment of life
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about lethal injection. The Court is trying to learn whether the often-used three-drug cocktail causes pain as it kills. I’m glad to see this issue debated at the highest level. Christians who find in Romans 13 a rationale for capital punishment should also see in the Sermon on the Mount an imperative for humane treatment of everybody. We show our humanity by how we treat our enemies.
We show our humanity by how we treat the powerless too. As we approach the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (January 20, 2008), it’s disturbing how little mainstream concern exists regarding the brutal violence against the unborn. (Do a Google image search on abortion if you must, and you’ll see what I mean).
Evangelicals have made huge mistakes regarding abortion. We have worked the political angle more than the grasroots one, for example, and we have neglected other issues - poverty, racism, war, pollution, exploitation, and even capital punishment - that are properly part of the seamless garment of life. Thankfully this is changing, and to be faithful to Jesus, we must continue to force it to change.
But I don’t want us to forget about the violence that persists against the unborn. 35 years on, there is still no more powerless group.
John Piper: Responding to the bridge collapse
John Piper, author of Desiring God and many other books, ministers to a congregation within sight of the Interstate 35W bridge which collapsed yesterday. His response to the tragedy is excellent. It’s called Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed: What Do Tragedies Like This Mean for Us?…and it’s well worth reading - neither greeting-card-fluff nor shoot-from-the-hip theologizing. Piper isn’t afraid to wade in to issues of repentance, judgment, and God’s love. Check it out. (Link via Relevant).
Todd Wagner on homosexuality and same-sex marriage
One of my favorite preachers is Todd Wagner of Watermark Community Church near Dallas. We listened to one of his audio sermons (on pornography) here at MHCC a couple of years ago, and I have made a regular habit of feeding on his preaching ever since.
He recently preached a message on homosexuality and same-sex marriage that I find to be compassionate and truthful. I recommend it highly to you. Wagner’s 34-minute sermon is followed by a ten-minute testimony by a Watermark member who is in the process of finding freedom from homosexual behavior.
Death to America brought to you by the BBC
The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is promoting Death to America - not ACTUAL death, but a podcast series as part of their Documentary Archive, which I’ve blogged about before. I just listened to the first episode, which investigates anti-American sentiments in Latin America.
Why would you want to listen to this? Because it’s healthy to understand why people in other parts of the world hate us, whether you decide their reasons make sense or not. It’s especially healthy as this new presidential election cycle begins spinning.
Here’s the RSS feed for the BBC Documentary Archive, where you can find a list of all the current episodes.
Virginia Tech & gun control
After the horrendous shooting spree at Virginia Tech yesterday, there has been/will be a steady wind of gun-control talk. Far be it from me not to blow a little wind myself.
One viewpoint is that an armed citizenry could prevent tragedies like the one yesterday- that is, if guns were not illegal in most public places, there no doubt would have been a responsible gun-owner in the building yesterday to put a stop to this murderous rampage. This is the position of gun-rights advocate and former CEO of the National Rifle Association Wayne LaPierre in his 1995 book. I’m confident that if more people carried guns, and if they could have legally carried them on campus, the Virginia Tech shooter would have been stopped much sooner. But the trade-off is that more guns in more hands and more places means more accidents, more crimes of passion, and more stupid decisions - an unacceptable solution, I think.
On the other extreme is the viewpoint that more, tougher gun control laws are needed, perhaps even an outright ban on the sale and ownership of guns. I don’t think it’s remotely possible to get rid of guns by passing laws, but I have to admit that the harder it is to get a gun, the less likely a tragically-ill English major would have obtained one. But this is a dangerous solution too. One of the most serious felonies you can commit these days is to carry a gun into a public place like a university classroom building, which means that if someone is deranged enough to do it, he is virtually guaranteed an overwhelming advantage over anyone he chooses to kill. If we’re going to ban guns from all public places, we have a duty to acknowledge and address this.
Maybe we can learn a lesson from the airlines. An army of armed passengers isn’t the answer. Total disarmament (plus surprise) brought us 9/11. But the possibility (remote though it may be) of an unidentified armed air marshall provides a measure of deterrent. Could we do the same in schools, stores, concert venues and the rest of society? I’m not thinking of paid security guards, but a few trained, responsible volunteers. On a college campus or in your kids’ school, it might be several teachers or administrators. In church, it would be (and only be) the preacher (no, I’m kidding about that last one). Several good friends of mine who are responsible gun-owners have carry-permits, but these DON’T allow them to carry guns into public places where they might be needed to prevent a tragedy like yesterday’s.
I’m hoping that my good friend and ultra-neo-con Josh Stevenson will weigh in on this, either here or over at his blog.
Focus on James Dobson
James Dobson of Focus on the Family has been in the news lately. On March 1, Dobson and other leading evangelicals sent a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals which strongly opposed the work of NAE vice-president Richard Cizik and his campaign against global warming. The signatories acknowledge diversity of opinion among Christians about climate change, but charge Cizik with using the NAE to promote his own opinions.
Here’s the paragraph that gets to the heart of their displeasure:
…we have observed that Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children. In their place has come a preoccupation with climate concerns that extend (sic) beyond the NAE’s mandate and its own statement of purpose.
The million-dollar question is: Are those really “the great moral issues of our time?” And where does poverty fit in, and war, and AIDS? And even climate change?
I have a lot of admiration for James Dobson, and I don’t think he is nearly as political as he’s sometimes painted.* His vision has been sharply focused on the family, just as his ministry’s name suggests, and his political activism has grown out of family issues. I credit Dobson for showing many in my generation that Christian faith MUST have an impact on our participation in public life.
But I can no longer accept such a narrow definition of the great moral issues of our time. Without minimizing abortion, sexual morality and marriage, we have GOT to widen our focus. I’ll admit that climate change is a lot less interesting to me than the other issues I listed above. But I’m glad Christians are focusing on the care of creation, as well as focusing on poverty, AIDS, genocide, war and yes, focusing on the family.
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* Yet Dobson has more political power than any evangelical leader. Dan Gilgoff, author of a new book called The Jesus Machine: How James Dobson, Focus on the Family and Evangelical America are Winning the Culture War, says that this is precisely because Dobson doesn’t go to the political well too often. His broadcasts are mostly about family issues, so when he DOES call for action, his listeners respond. Here’s a link to a very balanced interview with Gilgoff on NPR’s Fresh Air.
The great evangelical weakness, pt. 3 - Poverty
I spent some time today talking to my good friend Carolyn about poverty. She works with it regionally and understands a lot about its causes. I hope she’ll write a guest post on the subject here soon. In the meantime, she helped me see some connections between our stalwart evangelical individualism and our lack of understanding about poverty. (See parts one and two in this series of posts).
Let’s say a guy comes by the church for food from the pantry (and let me make it clear that I’m making up these details, not trying to represent some specific real-life person). Because of the kindness and care he receives from Joanie M., he comes to church and accepts Christ. He even gets into some counseling and kicks his drug habit, which certainly contributed to his poverty. Because of our elevation of the individual, evangelicals tend to think that his problems with poverty should be over - or if not, it’s his fault. This is exactly where our belief in the power of self leads us.
But because this guy grew up in a culture of poverty, it isn’t so simple. He has a tenth-grade education, but he really stopped trying after fifth grade. He has few employable skills. He lives with five other people from his extended family who haven’t made the transition to faith with him, so he won’t get a lot of encouragement to clean himself up and get moving - quite the opposite. The house they occupy has had its water and electricity cut off many times for non-payment, so even staying clean and presentable for a job is a challenge. But he can’t leave that house since he has nowhere else to go.
Even more, he has some simple but chronic health problems - perhaps a recurring abscess tooth or severe allergies. Most of us would get treatment for such things and miss only a little work, but he has no health insurance and no money to pay for these basic medical services, so they may keep him from working regularly or even hamper his performance in a job-training program.
I could go on (and I hope Carolyn will read this and add to it) but the point is that saving the individual’s soul, while of eternal significance, is only the beginning. There’s a whole culture of poverty which still reaches out to enslave this man, and it takes the whole church community to pull him out of it.
And all of this is complicated further when race issues enter the picture, which is the subject for pt. 4…
