“Jesus never mentioned homosexuality once. How has it become such an issue? Strange. Strange how all the things that Jesus actually did talk about fail to become issues. I mean, you start talking about war, and conservative Christians say, ‘Oh, I don’t want to be political and protest the war.’ Or you talk about poverty and the causes of poverty. ‘Oh, that’s a political issue; Jesus wasn’t political.’ Why don’t these people deal with the issues that Jesus did? It shouldn’t surprise me. If you look at the Gospels, the most respected religious people were the furtherest from the spirit of what Jesus was saying. It’s just the same thing all over again. But I am surprised. I really do continually expect Christians to be the most willing to accept pacifism, peacemaking, or redistribution of wealth, and care for the poor, and rethinking our prison systems and all that. But we end up being the most belligerent and self-righteous and all the rest. Scary.”—
—Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou
So. Few thoughts on this.
1. Hey, I’m a Christian, and I know lots of Christians, and we’re actually really interested in war and poverty, as well as protecting the rights of the innocent and understanding exactly what “redistribution of wealth” means. I’m not afraid of these topics, and I know a LOT of Christians who aren’t, either. Just because a few public figures who claim to be Christians (but deny it by their life) say stupid stuff, does NOT mean that they are speaking of those of whose faith is real and fruit-producing. Jesus said that at the end of the world, there would be a lot of people begging Him to get into Heaven, and that these people would remind Him how they had done all sorts of things in His Name, and He will tell them that He doesn’t know them, because the actions of their lives deny the essence of who He is. Point being, anyone can talk about Jesus and claim to follow Him; anyone can go to church. That doesn’t make them Christians, and it doesn’t make what they say the actuality of true Christian beliefs.
2. I don’t really understand why these things are always grouped together: homosexuality and poverty, abortion and war. As though a belief or disbelief in one ought to mean a belief or disbelief in another. They are four completely separate issues, and I’m tired of people assuming that because I don’t believe in homosexual marriages that that means that I love war and support every action our country makes overseas, or that because I don’t believe abortion should be legal that I somehow hate poor people. Those things do not logically connect; please do not force your bizarre “logic” on me and put me into those boxes.
3. Just because Jesus doesn’t mention something specifically by name doesn’t mean that He didn’t address big picture ideas. Homosexuality is not mentioned in the Gospels, but it is definitely mentioned in multiple places throughout Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments, and it’s never mentioned in a positive way. I ranted about this in more detail here.
4. I don’t support most government programs to “care” for the poor. Do you know why? The government sucks at taking care of the poor. Consequently, I have no interest in giving them more of money so they can waste it. But do you know what I do? I give my money to various charities, charities that I have examined and vetted to make sure that they will use the money I give them wisely and well, that the programs they have in place are actually helpful to the people they are serving, that the money I give will actually go to those programs and not to line someone’s pocket or support some other random program they aren’t telling me about. Most Christians I know feel the same way. We aren’t against taking care of the poor; we’re against paying the government to do it. When you can tell me about a government program that actually makes efficient use of money and actually changes lives in a positive way, and when you can reassure me that all the tax money designated for that specific program actually go to that specific program, then we can talk. Until then, I’d really rather make my own choices about how I care for the poor. And on that note, when you can prove to me that there are more non-Christian charities doing good in the world than Christian ones, well, then we can talk. Until then, freaking get off my back about how Christians hate poor people. IT IS A LIE.
5. In conclusion, there are a lot of people who talk. They talk loudly and they complain and they whine and they throw around a lot of religious buzz-words and they sit in a pew every Sunday and whitewash the problems in their lives. Newsflash: Those people aren’t Christians. You can tell by their fruit. So please don’t use what they say to taint the actual actions of thousands of devout Christians around the country, who are quietly living their lives, caring for the poor, working for the betterment of the people around them, protecting the innocent, and minding their own business. We don’t have time to get into politics: we’re too busy actually doing something productive.
