The world is abuzz this morning over the Pope’s remarks yesterday
(July 29, 2013) concerning gay people and the church. The front page of the New York Times blares
out in bold type: On Gay Priests, Pope
asks, “Who is to Judge?” Then in lesser
type a sub-headline: No Change in
Doctrine. Then in even lesser type: Comments From Francis Are Still a Departure
From Benedict’s. Some gay people are
already commenting that maybe they will have to reassess their membership in
the Catholic Church and come back home.
Is the Pope really signaling a change in church doctrine and attitude
toward the gay lifestyle? I hope not, I
think not.
From this Lutheran pastor’s perspective and opinion, Francis
seems to be a Pope who has a lot of personality, is very outgoing, and wants to
engage with people in a discussion on theology and life in the church. He is a people person. People persons, in my view, are more apt to
engage with those who are skeptical of the church and attempt to explain
theology and the church in a way that comes across as more loving and
compassionate. The Pope seems to be
speaking about homosexuality the way the Scriptures do; the way Jesus dealt
with sinners.
Jesus gave a new command when he celebrated the Passover
with his disciples on that first Maundy Thursday—Maundy coming from the Latin,
meaning mandate or command. The new
command, “to love one another,” wasn’t really a new command but a reiterating
of the commandments. The first table of
the Law (commandments 1-3) can be summarized by Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:39
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.” The second table of the Law
(commandments 4-10) can be summarized by Leviticus 19:18 and again, Matthew
22:39, “And a second is like it: Love
your neighbor as yourself.” Thus Love
summarizes all of the commandments. First and foremost we love everyone—whether
they are Christians or not. Jesus always
spoke to people with love and respect; he always took people where they were
and lovingly and gently led them in his direction. (Check out his conversation in John 2 with
the Samaritan woman; also note that Jesus hung out with people that the
religious leaders of his day wouldn’t be caught dead with because of their
self-righteousness—tax collectors and sinners.)
And consider his conversation with the woman caught in
adultery. People love to quote from that
account where Jesus says, “let he who is without sin cast the first
stone.” In other words, we are all
sinners and we shouldn’t be judging people.
But there is way more to this than meets the eye. First off, Jesus is speaking to the teachers
of the law and the Pharisees. These men
were not interested in redeeming this woman; they wanted to shame her and use
her as “bait” in a conversation with Jesus so they could trap him and bring up
some kind of charges against him. Jesus
was on to them. Thus the words “let he
who is without sin cast the first stone.”
This is much akin to Jesus saying elsewhere that before one can get the
speck out of his brother’s eye he must first get the log out of his own. After the woman’s accuser’s leave, Jesus
turns his attention to the woman. It is
his words to her that nobody seems to ever remember let alone quote! “Go and sin no more.” Jesus doesn’t condemn her, he doesn’t berate
her. He treats her with love, respect,
and compassion—and yet—he tells her that her lifestyle is wrong, sinful, and to
repent and no longer engage in that behavior.
All we have to do is substitute gay for adulterer in John 8 and we would see how Jesus would deal with the issue of being gay. It is not the church that mistreats gay people, but misguided and loveless Christians in the church who mistreat gay people. God calls us to love one another as he has loved us. Therefore we treat all people—even gay people—with love and respect. We call their gay lifestyle exactly what God calls it in his inspired, inerrant Word: SIN. But we treat them lovingly, compassionately, and respectfully. Jesus was not a hatemonger and he doesn’t call us to be hatemongers either.
I suspect that the Pope isn’t going to/ doesn’t want to
change church doctrine, just the way he wants the church to relate to gay
people; which brings me to a real sore spot with people who say that because I think
homosexuality is wrong I am a bigot and a homophobe. Why can’t I just see things differently than
you do and yet still respect you and be nice to you? Why does disagreeing with you mean I am
afraid of you and your lifestyle? Why
does disagreeing with you mean that I hate you!
The gay person would say to Christians that we are judging them without
knowing them. But aren’t gay people
doing the same thing to us? I think
Francis just wants people to dial down the rhetoric and be more Christ-like in their
attitude toward gay people.
Stay tuned for part two . . . . .
