"Civil rights" never trump God's righteousness

Growing up, I played the card game Rook all the time with my friends. We had regular get togethers at our homes on weekends to play and whenever we went off to summer camp we would play late into the night by flashlight. The best part about Rook was that you were able to "trump" other cards in the game. Whatever color was called trump, that color was king and it beat the other cards on the table. And if you had the actual Rook card, you essentially ruled the Rook world for that hand. Your trump card could beat the others, even if it was lower in number.

In today's world, specifically in America, it seems as if everyone is looking for their own trump card that will allow them to have things their own way. We want to express ourselves however we want regardless of the consequences. And many people will step up to affirm your personal trump card even if they don't make the same life decisions that you have chosen to make. Helping others and being tolerant has the capacity to be a beautiful thing, and it certainly can be very Christ-like, but more often it is being grossly abused by our own personal trump cards.

At the heart of many American's personal desires is civil rights. The demand for the rights of freedom, liberty, life, the pursuit of happiness, equality, etc., pepper our media headlines everyday. As a nation, there may be no greater defining aspect than the rights that our citizens (and non-citizens) enjoy. The abolition of slavery, voting rights for all, and equal rights for African-Americans are some of the biggest victories for civil rights that we have seen in America.

As a Christian, I rejoice when injustices are righted and the oppressed are freed. Now more than ever there are faith-based advocacy groups who champion the rights of men, women, and children and fight to see them freed from the tyranny of slavery and oppression. Yet if you are a Christian it is so critically important that as you strive to reinforce the rights of others, you don't do so at the expense of the righteousness of God.

What does this mean? Look at the cause you are championing and ask yourself, "How does this fall in line with the righteousness and holiness of God?" I want to see children rescued from abusive homes, but I can never justify vigilante justice against a defendant who has not been given a fair trial. I desire to see an end to abortions, but I will never back the corner of a man or woman who bombs abortion clinics to satisfy that need. You see, while it is right and good for us to want others to have a fair chance in life, we all run the danger of sliding down a far steeper slope of unrighteousness if we are not careful. It is always dangerous to desire a group's victory at the expense of God's righteousness.

God's word is very clear in the areas of righteousness. Whether it is sexual sin (adultery, pornography, same sex, etc.), the harsh words that we speak to others, our immoral and selfish actions, or the insidious plans that we harbor in our minds, God's righteousness stands firmly opposed to these things. We cannot simply throw our trump card to back any sinful lifestyle or decision just because we want people to have a fair shake. In our zeal for the "civil rights" of others we are in danger of sacrificing our pursuit of the righteousness of God.

A love letter to all of my Christian friends

Dear Christian Friends,

Let me first say how much I love each one of you. It's amazing how brothers and sisters can be so different yet united under the banner of Jesus. I treasure all of the insights that you have given to me as we've had civilized discussions and a few healthy debates about various aspects of the Christian faith.I am eternally grateful for the men and women who have poured into and continue to invest in my life. Hugs.

But (and you knew that was coming, right?) I believe that we are missing the mark greatly in the area of love. And just to keep the tone of this letter fair, I am going to address all of you as "we" because I am in the same boat. I'm preaching to the choir, if you will, although I never really enjoyed choir and don't really have the voice to pull off anything special beyond the sanctuary of my car. In fact, I would go so far to say that the most comments I hear from those who aren't Christians about those who are believers is that, whenever they are around them, they feel judged, looked down upon, and essentially unloved.

I realize that this point can be sticky, so please read it very carefully before you label me some kind of heretic and unfriend me on social media. Bluntly speaking, we stink at loving people who don't know Jesus. We say that we do, we hold meetings and events at our churches inviting those who don't know Jesus to come, and we even leave gospel tracts along with our often paltry tips at restaurants so that our server with the tattoos and piercings can get to know our Jesus. How can I say that you don't show love?

I say this because we treat the love of God as if we can package it in a box and unload it on others when it's most convenient. I also say this because we are notorious for withholding love from those who need it the most.

Let me explain with an example. Mission trips are awesome. If you've ever been on one either in the United States or overseas, you understand just how much impact they can have on another community not to mention on yourself. We also look around at our local community and seek to fill the needs that are put in front of us, such as volunteering for a 2-hour block at the soup kitchen or donating clothes to Goodwill. It's such an awesome feeling to bless those who have less!

But you have no clue what to do with your friend who is struggling with homosexual temptations or has already give in to them. That guy at school or at work who is an atheist - we avoid him completely. Those freaks that we see walking around town with all of the tattoos, piercings, and ungodly swagger - well, I just pray that they find Jesus soon because it looks to me like this world is going to hell in a hand basket!

You see, whether we like to admit it or not, we really only want to love those who have, in our eyes, the potential to be lovely. And by doing so we exclude ourselves from much of the dirt and junk that plagues the lives of the rest of the world that needs Jesus. How do we do this? Sometimes we are subtle. We simply pray for "those people" to know Jesus while secretly believing that they might not ever and hoping that it won't be us who actually have to go tell them about Him. But if I leave a tract by a urinal in the bathroom that counts, right?

And sometimes we are not so subtle with our lack of love. Whether it's a preacher railing against homosexuality from he pulpit to a crowd of hetero-and-proud church members or boycotting an amusement park or food company because they support a questionable cause, all of that speaks to a spiritual arrogance that is destructive and unbiblical masked under the banner of "We're taking a stand against sin." Don't get me wrong, we are to love God and hate sin, yet more often than not we fail to separate sin from the sinner and just hate them both. But we'll still pray for them, right?

Look, we can do better than that. We are called to BE better than that. I realize that we live in a world that is full of filth and smut and greed and Democrats and Republicans. Times are tough, spiritually and morally speaking. Every time we go and elect a Christian politician and a great revival in our land doesn't follow suit, we edge closer and closer to the cliff of gloom and doom. So here is what I am challenging myself to do about it and what I am going to challenge you to do as well:

• I challenge you to love Jesus more - Make Him your sole desire, your passion
• I challenge you to love yourself less - If you get the above one right, this one will naturally follow
• I challenge you to love others more than you love yourself - Yeah, this is hard. It's also biblical. And commanded. And modeled by Jesus (See: the crucifixion, the entire book of Acts, Philippians 2, etc.).
• I challenge you stop loving your opinions and traditions more than you love the word of God - There I go meddlin'! But seriously, how much of what you believe about the love of God is based upon what you've been told or seen demonstrated over the years as opposed to what the word of God actually teaches? How many stones have you stooped to pick up in order to toss at others while ignoring the grace that God has lavished on you? (Ephesians 1:7) The answers depend on how willing you are to submit to the teachings of Scripture and not a bunch of opinions masquerading as godliness. 

Well, that's about all I have to say right now. I hope this letter finds you well and that you've had a great summer so far. I know you're busy, so if you don't get a chance to write back then that's okay. Take care and say hey to the family for me. LLL (longer letter later).

Your friend and co-laborer in Christ,
Sterling

Stop using Jesus to fund your pet projects

Not many days go by where I don't hear some sort of discussion regarding religious and spiritual issues. Usually, these dialogues (diatribes?) are fueled by opinions of what people choose to accept in order to make them the most comfortable.

For instance, let's jump on something very controversial and examine alcohol. I once heard a preacher say that he would rather have a viper in his child's bed than a drop of alcohol touch his lips. That's pretty extreme to be sure, but I think you understand the sentiment. And let's be honest - alcohol has been royally abused in this country and has been responsible for broken homes and trashing lives. So when someone speaks out strongly against alcohol, I completely appreciate the emotion behind that.

Yet this is where it gets kinda tricky. You see, drunkenness is explicitly condemned in the Bible but the use of alcohol is not. This is where many will adjust their suspenders and declare, "Yes, but we all know that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and putting alcohol in that temple brings dishonor to God's Spirit." Often these words are said with a cigarette in hand or after the second plate of artery-clogging fried chicken has been devoured. How much does God appreciate a grease-covered, nicotine-filled temple?

I'm not denying or ignoring the potential hazards of alcohol. I have fallen in that trap in my past and God was faithful to deliver me from a dark place. But it believe it is disingenuous at best, hypocritical at worst, to treat a subject like alcohol with such vehemence while ignoring the issues of gluttony, idolatry, and other dangers to physical health that a majority in our churches seem to struggle with.

I know, I know, this all sounds very "liberal" to my conservative friends (of which I am one), yet my point is that we like to attach the name of Jesus to issues like alcohol when in reality He has been all but silent in His specific treatment of them. Before I dissect that a little more let's take a shot at the other side of the spectrum.

The issue of homosexuality has never been hotter than it is right now. Battle lines have been drawn and here in America we have a divided populace on this issue. Those who favor same-sex relationships are quick to shout out such slogans as, "Judge not lest you be judged!" and "Love your neighbor as yourself!" These, of course, are the words of Jesus and they are liberally applied to any notion of which we are most passionate. If you disagree with an issue such as same-sex relationships then certainly you aren't loving and you are most certainly judgmental, right? After all, Jesus never spoke out against homosexuality so how can you say that He is against it?

Here's the problem with this line of thinking: Jesus did not address homosexual relationships specifically - much like He never addressed pornography as we know it today. But Jesus did announce what He believed to be God's desire for human relationships:

"Haven't you read," He replied, "that He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and He also said: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate." (Matthew 19:4-6)

Do you see what Jesus did there? Instead of pronouncing a whole of things that He was against, He simply and clearly stated truth. Jesus is for marriage between a man and a woman. Any kind of sexual relationship outside of that - whether it be adultery, sex before marriage, homosexuality, or pornography - is outside of the context of what Jesus taught. Therefore, this makes it pretty easy for us to determine what brings honor to God in the area of our relationships. If it's sexual and it's beyond the confines of marriage, then it's wrong.

"Love your neighbor as yourself" doesn't mean that you accept everything that others choose to do because if you don't then you'll be judging them. No, it means that you love your neighbor in spite of what they choose to do because your desire is to see them in a committed relationship with Christ. There is nothing wrong in believing that alcohol is wrong and that you have made it your choice to abstain from it. That being said, be consistent in all your ways to make sure that your temple is well-cared for for the glory of God.   

We can whittle it down to this: It is so easy to take our own agendas and turn them into pet projects as long as we attach the name of Jesus to them. We can extrapolate on other Scriptures and try to say they apply to what we want them to, but ground zero of what we proclaim must lie with the truth of Christ and what He has said in His word. God commands us to be holy, and that injunction goes well beyond a few areas that we choose to treat as more or less serious than others.

Your viewpoint is valid. That is, as long as others agree with it.

A professional athlete, a player in the NBA who is now a free agent, just came out as openly gay after living his lifestyle in secret for years. Even his biological twin brother didn't know it until he told him last year. This certainly sets a precedent as this man was the first pro athlete in a major US sport to declare that he was a homosexual. As a result, the media simply exploded with this story, with headlines and comments sounding like this:

"What a courageous act this man has performed, revealing his sexuality to the whole world."

"I really hope he gets picked up by a new team next year so that he can have the chance to play for the first time as openly gay."

"If no one signs this guy to an NBA contract next year, that will just go to show how bigoted professional sports have become."

Of course, not all of the press sang the same tune. One media figure, an ESPN sportswriter by the name of Chris Broussard, spoke out against the homosexual lifestyle. In fact, he spoke out against ALL sex outside of marriage, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual. In doing so he showed great respect for this man and did not choose to denigrate him as a person nor as an athlete. Yet Broussard did stick to his belief that the Bible speaks against all sexual sin, of which homosexuality is one. I think you can figure how this played out.

Intolerant. Bigoted. Hateful. Shameful. Narrow-minded. And those were just the cleaner words used to describe Broussard's opinion, which he voiced only when asked to do so. No one commended him as brave for speaking openly about his Christian faith. In fact, social media "experts" were abuzz with calls for him to be fired for being such a self-righteous bigot. We don't need that in sports! How dare he share his religious beliefs like that!

At about the same time that this was consuming the mainstream media, another athlete, this one a well-known NFL player, was handed his walking papers. Tim Tebow, the much maligned quarterback of first the Denver Broncos and most recently the New York Jets, was released from the team after just one season in which his cleats barely graced the turf on game day. It seems that Tebow was not a good fit for the Jets organization so they released him, putting their hopes in their more veteran quarterback and a newly drafted college star. Business is business.

Yet Tim Tebow's story was also splashed across the media headlines. Why so much coverage, much of it negative, for an athlete who has been released from his team? Players get cut all the time in professional sports. The reason Tim Tebow's story was so sensational is also due to the fact that he also chose to openly live his life in a certain way as well.

Tim Tebow has chosen to live his life on a different platform, that being to honor Jesus Christ. Many have criticized Tebow for being over the top with his faith, almost too zealous. But Tebow is simply an example of one who takes the truth of the Bible seriously and lives publicly what he believes. What has amplified his story is that, since he was first heralded as a quarterback phenom in high school, the press has been all around him with microphones shoved in his face.

Tebow's faith has never been private, never been kept a secret. As long as there have been reporters asking questions, there you've had Tim Tebow deflecting all glory to God. And he's enjoyed quite a bit of success along the way. Two-time NCAA champion in football, Heisman trophy winner, and AP college football player of the year, just to name a few. Yet for some reason, all along the road of his football journey, Tim Tebow has been castigated, doubted, and basically hated by so many.

The only reason that comes to mind is that Tim Tebow is a guy who is serious about his faith. Is he flaunting his faith, forcing people to believe as he does? No, he's just taking the many opportunities given to him to publicly profess Jesus. Not many in our world are given this kind of a stage to stand on as an athlete, yet there is a double-standard out there of what is acceptable to say once you are on that platform. It seems that Tebow's views are not what people want to hear, so he is publicly ridiculed for expressing what has always been public for him. Chris Broussard, welcome to the club.

When Tebow was released from the Jets, the media hounds were waiting on him to catch his last walk of shame from the Jets' facility. They captured still-shots of Tebow walking to his car, plastering them all over the news so that the rest of the sports world could revel in his failure as a player. At least that is what most people were saying - he's a failure, a joke, a disgrace to the game of football. And why? Certainly not because he was a loser. No, when he took the reigns as the quarterback in Denver they won games, even advancing in the playoffs. He was never given the chance with the Jets so it is unfair to say that he was a loser who didn't know how to win. You can't win at a sport that no one will let you play.

But that really isn't the issue here. It's about which viewpoints in our culture are considered valid. I'm sure this NBA player that came out as gay is a fine basketball player - he's been in the league for 12 years so he does have talent. And if a team needs him for next season I hope he plays and has a great season. I also want Tim Tebow to succeed in football because he has a great track record as a winner and has a work ethic second to none. Yet this is not how this will play out.

To want a player to succeed because his viewpoint matches yours while at the same time hoping to see another player fail because you don't share his values is hypocritical at best, shameful at most.