{"id":49981,"date":"2015-04-04T04:34:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-04T10:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/04\/on-christian-rights-and-responsibilities.html"},"modified":"2015-05-07T15:42:39","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T21:42:39","slug":"on-christian-rights-and-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/04\/on-christian-rights-and-responsibilities.html","title":{"rendered":"On Christian Rights and Responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

'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.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Which calls to mind (through some odd veering and weaving) 1 Corinthians 8 (https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=1+corinthians+8&version=NRSV<\/a>), 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<\/i> to something doesn't mean that exercising that right is always the correct thing to do.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n
\n<\/a>
\nOutrage Over RFRA Might Be A Fear Of Christians<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “On Christian Rights and Responsibilities”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,25,27,378,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-gay-stuff","category-religion","category-intolerance-persecution","category-religion-me"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23578,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/09\/whod-have-thought-bachmann-was-so-progressive.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":0},"title":"Who'd have thought Bachmann was so … progressive?","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Nov-11 1:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"You know, with that whole If anyone will not work, neither should he eat thing? Since there's a logical corollary that goes with that:\"Because if Bachmann was arguing that every American capable of working has a responsibility to work without also arguing that every such person has the right to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8959,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/16\/lets_hear_it_fo.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":1},"title":"Let’s hear it for the boys?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Mar-06 6:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Male abortion rights? That's what an interesting court challenge is asking for -- financial \"abortion\" rights, at least. It's a legal stunt, but as a way of calling attention to...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20634,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/03\/actions-without-reactions.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":2},"title":"Actions without reactions?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 3-Apr-11 12:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Afghanistan continues to see bloody violence against Westerners in response to the burning of a Quran by Terry Jones and his Florida church. Another pastor at the church, Wayne Sapp, told the AP, \"I in no way feel like our church is responsible for what happened.\" Really? Really? Now, there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"Torches and Pitchforks","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/angry-mob-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2598,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/30\/kids_parents_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":3},"title":"Kids, Parents and Restaurants","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 30-May-02 9:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Anne has a very well-written post on parents and their responsibilities over their kids while dining out (and while out in public in general). Hear-hear. We've very intentionally tried to...","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13500,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/26\/holding_auto_executives_r.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":4},"title":"Holding auto executives responsible? Inconceivable!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Nov-08 9:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Talk is cheap, of course, but when's the last time you heard a President of the United States say something like this?\u00a0 BARBARA WALTERS: How did you feel when you...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23418,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/03\/responsibility-vs-opportunity.html","url_meta":{"origin":49981,"position":5},"title":"Responsibility vs Opportunity","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Nov-11 9:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article looking at differences between conservatives and liberals in the area of causes of wealth and poverty. In short, conservatives tend to blame (or reward) personal choices as the cause of success or failure in society -- the poor are poor because they are lazy and make bad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49981"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50542,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49981\/revisions\/50542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}