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On Christian Rights and Responsibilities

I find this essay fascinating; the author is far more conflicted about gay relationships than I am, certainly, but the conclusion he reaches is, to my mind, a critical one.

'Perhaps now is the time for Christians to focus more on our responsibilities than our rights. Our responsibility is to love others like Christ. Our responsibility is to lay down our lives for another. Our responsibility is to give grace with same reckless abandon that put Christ on the cross. Our responsibility is to comfort the hurting, mend the brokenhearted, and stand up for the oppressed – even if we disagree with their theology, lifestyle, and choices. In this case, our responsibility is to listen. Which may mean our rights have to take a back seat.'

Which calls to mind (through some odd veering and weaving) 1 Corinthians 8 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+corinthians+8&version=NRSV), which focuses on dietary laws, but has the interesting passage, "Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak." Just because one has the right to something doesn't mean that exercising that right is always the correct thing to do.

In Paul's case, he's referring to eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols — something that's okay for a Christian, he asserts, but that might cause a weaker or less enlightened brother to "stumble" into sin. I have to wonder if a Christian, who feels righteously entitled to freely exercise their religion and so decline to serve a gay individual or couple in some way might not similarly provide a cover for someone who similarly discriminates out of fear or hatred or disgust to stumble in acting on their non-religious passions.

Christianity has never been obsessed with standing on its rights. That's largely been because, for the past 1600-odd years, that hasn't been an issue (except to claim them against other persecuting Christians). Perhaps those of us who claim to follow Christ should consider carefully what demanding the religious right to discriminate means for our faith in the future.




Outrage Over RFRA Might Be A Fear Of Christians

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6 thoughts on “On Christian Rights and Responsibilities”

  1. +Paula Jones I think many people fear Christians because of the acts of the Christian majority against minorities in this country (and the world) over the centuries — and to this day. Gays to the present day have to deal with prominent Christian figures declaring them to be sinners, abominations, the equivalent to child molestors, people who need curing at best, incarceration or death at worst. There are many similar reasons for religious minorities in this country to fear Christians, given both historic example (including mistreatment of Christian minorities) and the words and actions of those today who equate faith in Islam or the Hindu religion, or Buddhism, as dangerous and even treasonous. And let's not even start on atheists.

    No, there are plenty of reasons for non-Christians (and even some Christians themselves) to fear Christians as a whole.

    What I think we are seeing, though, is Christians beginning to fear a fall from majority status; from no longer being able to set the religious, moral, or even social norm; from being able to assume that everyone is a Christian or else doesn't count, to being looked at askance as intolerant and even dangerous.

    The shame here is that the more some Christians thrash about from that fall form social dominance, with actions like Indiana's RFRA, the more it accelerates the process, and makes it clear that too many Christians can't be trusted with power or influence, for feat that they will try to re-institutionalize their dominance. I think there is, in fact, a growing social backlash, extending across coming decades, against Christians as a whole in the US, and it's, sadly, the fault of a vocal few and a quiescent many.

  2. I absolutely agree with the author that there's a fear of Christians here. The vast majority of Christians aren't out to hurt those they disagree with. But an extremely vocal minority does want it to be illegal to be gay, to defund anything that disagrees with their interpretation of their religion (even if it leads to more deaths), to start religious wars with other countries, etc etc. They are abusing their majority status, and that's very frightening.

  3. +Kee Hinckley I think there are at least a portion of those "vocal minority" — the ones most likely to have their own TV pulpit or to be invited on to Sunday talk shows or Fox News — who are less acting out of religious zeal than out of pleasure from the attention and power that leading the bandwagon gets them.

    I agree that the vast majority of Christians aren't out to persecute gays — but I think a lot of them simply don't see it as an issue (because they are unaware of gay individuals in their lives), wish it would all go away, or feel more resentment over the issue being forced on them (and finding themselves cast as the bad guys), and simply aren't willing to speak out against that vocal minority. Those are the folk who need to wake up to the moral challenge before society as a whole decides they're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

  4. +Dave Hill Yes. That's why I tagged my share somewhat ironically with #notallchristians. There are a lot of parallels. I'm actually pleased to see with this case that other denominations are stepping up to take back their religion. At the same time, I got in a discussion with a conservative who insisted that any denomination which wasn't opposed to gay marriage was shrinking in their numbers and not truly representative.

  5. +Kee Hinckley Because, of course, Jesus was all about voting for what was the right moral stance to take.

    The fact is, most mainline Protestant denominations are declining (my own Episcopal Church among them) — but evangelical denominations are also stagnant or declining as a whole (one can find exceptions, but many of them are either scavaging from their neighbors, or else resemble cults of personality).

    Identification with Christianity is dropping in the US; only the Catholic Church has seen a net increase in its numbers — and that's largely from immigration (an uncomfortable point for many conservative Protestants).

    Regardless, anyone who effectively claims its a numbers game hasn't been reading their Bible (or, from a Protestant standpoint, their Calvin).
    .

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