As we are in the midst of Holy Week I am reminded of those things that Jesus death and ressurection have accomplished; the forgiveness of sin, the freedom and liberty of the believer, the joy of knowing a Holy yet personal God, and of course, the right to be intolerant, abusively intolerant.
I am dismayed yet strangely entertained by the newspaper article I read this morning from the L.A. Times. I know most of you don't have time to read the entire article, so I'll hit the highpoints. Apparently Ruth from Atlanta, such a nice Biblical name, hates gays...I mean, really hates gays (like Jesus, right?). It's not enough for her to hate them, though, she says that her faith compels her to "speak out against homosexuality". She is suing the Georgia Institute of Technology because they have a ban on hate-speech based on sexual orientation. The Times said that she is joining a campaign of Christians who are seeking to "eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment." She and her ilk are upset that "when they protest tolerance codes, they're labeled intolerant." (I ask you, then, "What is the definition of intolerant if not one who is not tolerant?")
I'm not joking here. Of course, the pop-Christian preacher-of-the-day has proclaimed this the "civil rights struggle of the 21st century". Yeah, black people being treated as second-class citizens and Christians having the right to wear a God Hates Fags T-shirt to work are exactly the same thing. Ruth and her courageous freedom-fighters are piggy-backing on the likes of an Ohio middle school student who won a court case that gave him the right and privelage to walk the halls with other 13 year olds, wearing a shirt that read "Homosexuality is a sin! Islam is a lie! Abortion is murder!" (Modern poetry at its finest). By far, the best line from Ruth comes from a letter she wrote to the local Gay Rights Club on campus, where she penned, among other things, "If gays want to be tolerated, they should knock off the political propaganda." Once again, I'm not kidding around.
In all seriousness, could this be less of a Christian movement? Have we so forgotten the command to love even our enemies that we believe it infringes on our civil rights to not be able to verbally "harrass" another human being based on their sinfulness? Have we forgotten that Jesus did not condemn the adulterous-woman, but offered her grace and forgiveness? Need we be reminded of the entirety of the gospel, where Jesus loved those lost in their sins and saved his harshest rebukes for those believers who lived as hypocrites? How are we, then, any different from the Pharisee of Jesus' parable who said, "Thank God I am not like this sinner"?
Instead of remembering these passages, we hate; we hate with the fury of a thousand Satans. Ah, Jesus would be proud indeed.
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