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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyMarch 28th, 2012
Russell Moore is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It is safe to say that Dr. Moore and I agree on very little when it comes to matters of sexuality or society.
But Dr. Moore, writing about the proposed Starbucks boycott, recognized something that I think that American Christianity has forgotten: faith isn’t about forcing people to obey you. There may not be much I can share with this man, but I commend the wisdom of this paragraph:
We won’t win this argument by bringing corporations to the ground in surrender. We’ll engage this argument, first of all, by prompting our friends and neighbors to wonder why we don’t divorce each other, and why we don’t split up when a spouse loses his job or loses her health. We’ll engage this argument when we have a more exalted, and more mysterious, view of sexuality than those who see human persons as animals or machines. And, most of all, we’ll engage this argument when we proclaim the meaning behind marriage: the covenant union of Christ and his church.
None of this is new. The founder of Christianity told his followers a couple thousand years ago that the way to follow him was to love – and to do so in a way that everyone else would marvel. Converts would not be made to avoid the wrathful anger of an vengeful god and his curses of eternal flame, but because they wanted to be like his followers. And Moore seems to have – at least for this moment – taken a little trip down retro lane.
And he’s right. Not about the mystery covenant exalted churchbabble, but about what matters in this debate. The argument over equality is not going to be won by whomever can exert the most economic pressure. It’s not even going to be won by whomever has the best political connections or the more articulate orators.
The argument is going to be won by whose lives look the best. And that’s why we are winning.
It’s because while the bible thumpers are threatening JCPenny, the gay couple down the street took in another child born with HIV and drug addictions. While Suzy Churchharpy is collecting signatures to take away rights, Janet Bigdyke is down at the park with a post hole digger trying to get the kids a new swingset. When Mr. and Mrs. Jesushatesyou couldn’t possibly help the troubled kid tossed out by a drunken but church-going father (“we don’t want to condone sin and he’d be a bad influence on our little darlings”), Ms. Raven Usedtohaveapenis found that if you turn the couch sideways there’s room for another kid and there’s always an extra minute to talk to a social worker.
While the Christian Church has been demanding that the world follow its dictates, the gay community has been – mostly unintentionally – following the wisdom of their founder: treat people the way you want to be treated and if you want to be known for something, be known for love.
I hope Moore’s audience listens. I hope he listens to himself. The world would be a much better place if Christians spent less time trying to force me to become what they teach and more time trying to be the best person they could be. And if they want to know what that looks like, they can just take a look at our community.
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Bernie
March 28th, 2012
Well said Tim. Well said. Thank you.
randy r. potts
March 28th, 2012
Beautiful, beautiful piece there.
Boo
March 28th, 2012
You know Janet Bigdyke too? She’s pretty awesome.
Timothy Kincaid
March 29th, 2012
She’s very very awesome
;)
Dale
March 29th, 2012
And yet in still very easy count hate groups that do not self identify with a make believe sky fiend. It is about time people as a whole asked if mythologies are actually the problem facing society and not the solution.
[language used for no purpose other than to demean other readers such as “make believe sky friend” is contrary to our Comments Policy. Had not this comment generated far more thoughtful response, it would have been deleted]<\i><\b>
Hunter
March 29th, 2012
First, good commentary. It’s something that needs to be pointed out, and I wish we could hear it more from their side.
Second, I’ve known a number of what I call “real Christians,” and they are just good people — kind, tolerant, generous, compassionate, and non-judgmental. I’ve counted some of them among my closest friends.
Third, @ Dale: mythologies are part and parcel of who we are, and we recreate them to fit the world we live in. The key question, it seems to me, is not “Do you believe in God?” but “What does God mean to you?” I count myself a theist, but I don’t think of my gods as superheroes walking around meddling in my life — they are metaphors for aspects of the world around me. (Take a hard look at any sacred text you wish, and you’ll find it’s all metaphor.) They resonate with something deep inside of us — so maybe you don’t believe in Zeus or Susano or Yahweh, but you have to admit, Elvis and James Dean and JFK have some kind of magic to them. (The boundary between gods and celebrities seems to be a fuzzy one — that’s why it matters what celebrities say: we’ve given them some small measure of deity.)
By the same token, morality is not something, in my view, that you can subscribe to as a rule book that everyone must obey. It’s something you have to think about every day in terms of the behavior and attitudes that are going to create the person you want to be. One of the most ridiculous statements I ever heard was from William F. Buckley, who said “Morality is an absolute.” No, it’s not and never has been. For individuals, it’s a continual balancing act. That’s the huge flaw in the thinking of the social conservatives — they take morality as something that’s given, when it’s really something you have to engage with and think about if it’s to have any meaning.
And frankly, if I’m going to err, I’d rather err on the side of generosity and compassion rather than compromise who I am.
(Hmm — I think one of my buttons got pushed.)
Timothy Kincaid
March 29th, 2012
Hunter, I don’t agree with everything you said, but your comment certainly gave food for thought. Thanks.
Paul in Canada
March 29th, 2012
Nicely written, Timothy. Thanks.
Snowman
March 29th, 2012
Some of those kind of people talk about “the power of god” a lot but I think it’s really just power that they worship.
Snowman
March 29th, 2012
Good post by the way, and I meant for that to be in my last post.
Must. Sleep.
Jay Jonson
March 29th, 2012
It is rather amusing for an official of the Southern Baptist Convention to make this statement. Maybe they actually learned things from their boycott of Disney when Disney first extended domestic partner benefits and allowed “gay days” at their amusement parks. The SBC adopted resolutions calling on all Christians to boycott Disney. (Ironically, they did so at a convention meeting in New Orleans. Yes, while they were meeting in New Orleans they asked their members to boycott DisneyWorld because it was so licentious.) Inasmuch as the boycott was spectacularly unsuccessful, maybe Moore learned something. But, of course, not enough–otherwise he wouldn’t be a Southern Baptist at all.
Clay
March 29th, 2012
Is it so hard to remember that the company is spelled P-E-N-N-E-Y?
Richard Rush
March 29th, 2012
“We won’t win this argument by bringing corporations to the ground in surrender.”
Does Moore mean that if the argument could be won by bringing corporations to the ground, he would support doing so?
Timothy Kincaid
March 29th, 2012
Richard,
He expounds on his meaning in the full article. It’s a rather interesting read.
Moore recognizes that the church no longer holds social veto power. It has caused him and a few other conservative SBC folk to begin to question whether their power paradigm works or is even within the call of their master.
Its a cycle:
Start as an underdog. Do good and love your neighbor. Attract others who see happiness and niceness and want to be a part. Grow until you are a majority. Get a bit full of yourself, dogmatic, theocratic and power hungry. Lose respect and followers. Start to feel rejected. Have divine revelation that your god wants you to do good and love your neighbor.
Blake
March 29th, 2012
There are a couple more gems in there:
That line of reasoning pretty much punches a hole in any of the legal or “not-religious” arguments against gay marriage.
That’s anti-dominionism in a nutshell. The whole of the blogpost reads as an argument against the overreach committed by evangelicals of the David Barton / Kurt Cameron variety.
Maurice Lacunza
March 29th, 2012
That was the most succinct article I have read in a long time. It is about love and doing for others. Thanks for writing that.
Ben in Oakland
March 29th, 2012
As always, Timothy, bang on. Anent Dale’s and Hunter’s comments:
I’ve been an atheist for the greater part of my life, or rather, an it-doesn’t matterist. For most of the last 40 years, despite having every reason to do so, I have held no particular animosity towards anyone’s religion. Whatever makes your life better, whatever makes you a better person, it’s all fine with me.
And yet, the past few years, for obvious reasons, I’m having a more and more difficult time maintaining neutrality and tolerance. Not towards ALL Christians, but towards a certain class of Christian– or Jew, or Muslim, or Hindu.
The faith doesn’t matter, even though I think it is usually absurd. It’s the attitude. “I believe X, and I know I’m right, because my version of god says I am. And you’d better believe it, too, or my god, in the person of me, will hurt you.”
And dr. Moore, as close as he is to not being in that certain class, frustrates me no end. He clearly understands the problem, but cannot understand that he chooses to remain a part of it. He STILL needs to be right, to be the only answer, to find the speck in other people’s eye.
As long as he doesn’t actually follow the Christ he claims to serve– as you once so beautifully put it, there will always be an asterisk to John 3:16—- he’ll continue to be the problem even for his own followers, instead of the solution.
Maurice Lacunza
March 29th, 2012
It-doesn’t matterist.
My newest favorite term! Thanks Ben! I think that describes me very well.
Larry Gist
March 29th, 2012
That is my new religion as well! I used to call myself an agnostic – I’ll wait and see kind of guy. Now I truly think I am more of an “it-doesn’t-matterist” because I truly could not care less about religion. That being the case I feel like I have to keep an eye on what the “theists” are doing, because I know that 1) they are out to destroy all that I hold dear, and 2) if no one is really paying them any attention, the next thing you know we are living in a Theocracy with a Constitution based on the 10 Commandments.
Ben in Oakland
March 29th, 2012
Well, gentleman, thank you for the compliment.
The New Church of It Doesn’t Matter is now ummmm, open for business.
we are always happy to accept new un-converts, provided they are willing to embrace totally our deepest doctrine, which fortunately can be summarized in one lightning line– no unholy books and unholy interlopers– strike that, intermediaries– required.
Here is our untheology: The ultimate answers to ultimate questions ultimately don’t matter.
And in keeping with the great examples shown by our forbearers and Saint Lucy,
5 cents please.
Hunter
March 29th, 2012
“Hunter, I don’t agree with everything you said, but your comment certainly gave food for thought.”
Timothy — You’re certainly free to disagree, and I’m pleased to have provoked some thought. But I warn you — I’m not just shooting from the hip on this.
Larry Gist
March 30th, 2012
Hunter I agree with you to a point about the morality thing, it truly is a choice. I like George Carlin’s take on the whole thing. He said you can basically boil the Ten Commandments down to one simple rule: Mind your own f*&^ing business! And if more Xians would find it in their minds to do so then the world would be a much better place. They scream and yell that they are trying to protect innocent children, not realizing that the ones they are trying to protect are BORN the way they are and no amount of coercion or therapy can change them at a fundamental level. They need to mind their own business. To me morality is a choice, when you are confronted with a situation, you can either do the right thing or the wrong thing, but either way we choose, most of the time we can justify the wrong choice in our own minds.
Timothy (TRiG)
March 30th, 2012
By the way Timothy, your link is to Russell Moore’s blog homepage, not to the specific blog post you’re discussing. As he adds more posts, this one will drop off the front page and the link will fail.
TRiG.
Timothy Kincaid
March 30th, 2012
Thanks TRiG, fixed.
Greg
March 30th, 2012
Maybe someday spreading love will be a better and more lucrative business model for an ambitious Chrsitian activist than spreading hate. But until then…
Ravenbiker
April 2nd, 2012
Bingo, Tim:
While the Christian Church has been demanding that the world follow its dictates, the gay community has been – mostly unintentionally – following the wisdom of their founder: treat people the way you want to be treated and if you want to be known for something, be known for love.
Thanks for saying so ellequently.
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