Through another blog, I stumbled on this article. Yeah, I know, you're not going to read it. It's about Ray Boltz (you know, "Thank You", "The Anchor Holds" etc.). He's gay.
This has me wondering what the Christian community will do about it. I know a lot of people won't care, but for others it could be a tough spot. Will those songs be banned in churches now? Will people feel a need to criticize Boltz or publically denounce his career (and all the good it has done for the Kingdom)? Basically I'm wondering how much of a mess the North American church will make of this situation.
I could be optimistic and hope that it will enlighten more Christians to the fact that homosexuals are not evil, God hating individuals, but that might be too much to hope for.
I guess my frustration is the fact that so many people seem to hold homosexuality as this huge horrible sin, worse than murder. Never mind that the Bible states not to hate, a homosexual relationship is worse. If we treated every other sin the way we treat homosexuality (yeah, that's going to get people riled up on the other side of the issue, isn't it. No, I don't think that homosexual relationships are what God intended for His people, and I define sin as knowingly acting against a known law of God (yes, it's the act, not the attraction) I don't, however, feel that living a homosexual lifestyle means that a person is cut off from God. Like any other habitual sin, it will impact a Christian's life, but it doesn't make it impossible for someone to have a relationship with Christ, make sense?) then our churches would be empty - no one would qualify.
Why can't we be about celebrating that someone has a desire for God and helping them along that journey with Him, trusting that He loves them, knows what is best for them and will convict and change them as he sees fit. Yes, it is our job to correct an errant brother - to bring them back to seeking God when they go wandering away from them, but if someone is actively seeking God then it's not our place to push them where God hasn't asked them to go. I think if we're honest, we all have things in our lives that we know wouldn't be there if we were perfect, but we don't go railing on each other about them.
Ok, so most of that made no sense, and I'm sure I've offended just about everyone and haven't expressed my own views properly. This post may be edited as my own stupidity is pointed out to me and I have more time to think about this.
2 comments:
I think your post is spot-on Steph. I don't care in the slightest- and I've hated his music for years anyway, so it really dosn't matter. I think it's kinda funny, but that's probobly mean of me.
I think this is a really good illustration about the Churh and role models. People tend to build up "public Christians" into these perfect people- and then take it personally when a scandal hits, demonizing everything about the person.
It's also ironic because the Church has created this elaborate sub-culture to try to keep stuff like this out, and it's populated by sinful people too.
I read the article a couple days ago, before I saw your post. I had pretty much the same reaction as Lindy. I don't see why anyone would ban his songs. If his songs are truthful, they are still truthful. If they stink, they still stink.
The problem in the article (Assuming we read the same one) is that it is argued that 'God made me this way'. This is akin to saying God made me fallen so I should just be content. All of us are born with sinful tendencies. We have to learn to differentiate b/w our fallen nature and our created nature. The latter is God's doing, the former is our own.
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