Conservative Christians played a significant role in the Legislature’s
refusal to shield LGBTQ citizens from the indignities of discrimination. They
believe God answered their prayers when legislators voted. Other Christians
heard God exhort them to work harder for justice. When two voices say decidedly
different things, they cannot both be attributed to one God.
This shines light on the 900-pound elephant in the sanctuary.
I mean no disrespect. We are entitled to our own religious views. But, it is
reasonable to acknowledge that conservative Christians and progressive
Christians do not worship the same God.
Lincoln said both Northerners and Southerners invoked one
God in seeking victory on the battlefield. It’s true, humans may ask one God
for opposing outcomes. However, it’s not possible for one God to support two
diametrically opposed causes.
Progressive and conservative Christians focus on differences
over Biblical interpretation and creedal doctrine. These differences cannot explain
our discord over the very nature of the Divine. We are confronted with irreconcilable
views defining the existential essence of our bond with God.
The God of conservative Christianity teaches there are
caveats to scriptural commandments to love your neighbor. The God of
progressive Christianity sanctions none. That God opens hearts, cuts through
prejudices, and places radical hospitality for all God’s children at the center
of our relationship and does not ask us to fear those who are different.
Witnessing how scripture is used in their sustained campaign
against the LGBTQ community. it seems reasonable to conclude that the God of
conservative Christians encourages discrimination regardless of the harm. The contrast
between how some and not others are called to treat God’s children with sexual
orientation or identity different from our own makes it unlikely we serve the
same God.
There are other related differences in voices each hears
from the Divine, such as Jesus’s teaching that what we do for “the least of
these,” we do for him. The two versions of Christianity diverge on a
Jesus-followers duty to care for the marginalized. These are not superficial
differences. They go to the heart of our relationship with the God of
Creation.
Comments made during public testimony over whether legislators
should defend LGBTQ legislators, staff, and constituents from discrimination recall
ancient parables establishing the centrality of loving, welcoming, and
protecting the vulnerable.
It was accepted in polytheistic societies long before
monotheism. Homer’s classic tale tells of Odysseus’s son Telemachus sailing the
seas, searching for his lost father. His entourage happens upon an island. They
know no one. The islanders “saw the strangers coming, they all stood up with
open arms to greet them.” Not until they were welcomed and offered a lavish
feast, did anyone ask these strangers their purpose in coming to the island.
Such lessons were not lost on ancient Hebrews as they
assembled the writings of the Old Testament. Throughout, God tells us to
welcome vulnerable people, cast to the margins by the dominant community. God
recognizes these folks are especially susceptible to exploitation and abuse.
The God of progressive Christianity demands their
protection. The Bible includes a parable about the consequences of a
community’s failure to do so. Genesis 19 is the story of Sodom.
The myth provides further evidence of the divide in
Christianity. Conservatives see it as judgment against homosexuals. Progressive
Christians and, more importantly most Jews, to whom the story belongs, see it
as God’s judgment on those who fail to offer hospitality and sanctuary to
strangers.
One God countenances saying, “Love the sinner while hating
the sin,” though followers believe the sinner is, in fact, the sin. The God of
progressive Christians says loving one another includes caring whether people
lose their livelihood or are otherwise deprived of human dignity because of how
God created them.
Unlike the other, this God informs our belief that the more some
of God’s children are despised by the culture, the greater our responsibility to
love them as God loves us.
God cannot invoke two vastly different views and be the same
God.
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