Recently in the mail I received an offer for a VISA credit card. On its face, the offer is very attractive: an 8.9% fixed rate, no interest until May of 2007 for purchases and transfers, and a low yearly membership fee. Looking at the fine print, however, reveals the setting of a potential trap. First, if even one single payment is late as much as 3 days, the interest rate can be changed to the default rate of 31%. Further, the rate is “fixed” until they provide 30-days notice of a different rate. Beyond that, the default rate can be applied if I am late on any other bill (something referred to commonly as “universal default”) or if the credit grantor decides, notwithstanding that all bills to every creditor have been paid on time that the credit card holder/debtor (me, they hope) is carrying too much overall debt. Nevermind that you can be sure that the card issuer would try hard to get the debtor to run a balance on the card. So, while the credit issuing institution pretends that it wants a valued relationship with a customer, it really just wants power and control.
Are we in danger of using the Bible and interpreting the faith to create a “gotcha Christianity” in which we seek not to build community or disciples, but to catch people so that we can impose penalties on them? Do we entice people with ideals of love but then spring the “universal default clause” on them? Oh, I know some people will claim that I favor cheap grace. What, however, about the danger of easy judgment pronounced not from the mountaintop but from the little mole hill called self-righteousness?
John Brown University (JBU) of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, a private inter-denominational Christian college, has expelled an openly homosexual, but celibate, student, seemingly for publicly acknowledging his orientation (actually an anonymous tip alerted JBU officials to his on-line journal). JBU has provided a fine education to many, many folks and has contributed overall to a moral grounding and sense of community for Siloam Springs. Their students come away with a much greater sense of mission and evangelism than most other places. However, in this instance, it seems to me that “Gotcha Christianity” is prevailing whereby the essentials of the faith are qualified by fine print and asterisks such that he was “set up” for the “universal default” clause to be invoked against him. I have chosen not to reveal the student’s name, but his identity was revealed by the local newspaper, the Herald Leader, for anyone that it matters to.
I do not dispute that JBU has the right to set whatever standards it wants for its students. I do not see, however, that their stance proclaims Christ crucified and risen as much as it demonizes an already marginalized community.
My returning post is dedicated to the memory of my beloved nephew, John Bartholomew “Bart” Thomas Betow, 1987-2005, who died on September 15 from injuries sustained in a tragic car accident. A faithful Catholic and aspiring journalist, Bart exemplified the ideal of Christian community. Please keep his family, friends, and girlfriend in your prayers .
Note: I have consistently identified myself on blogs as Joel Thomas, omitting my last name of Betow in order to have a degree of anonymity. I have since concluded that might not have been such a great idea.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Kim 01.26.06 at 3:16 am
Cleverly constructed and poignant post - and absolutely right. I shall certainly purloin the visa card gottcha ruse for a future sermon on “scam Christianity” or fradulent evangelism.
I think you can tell Bart’s family - and know yourself, Joel - that there are a lot of folk at Connexions praying for them.
Kim
Richard 01.26.06 at 9:03 am
Welcome back, Joel. And thanks for a thought provoking piece. I am keeping your family in my prayers.
dh 01.26.06 at 2:20 pm
Joel, when I first read the piece I too felt my “gotcha” come out. However, the poignent part of your post was “has expelled an openly homosexual, BUT CELIBATE, student, seemingly for publicly acknowledging his orientation (actually an anonymous tip alerted JBU officials to his on-line journal.” When I read the “but celibate” part I realized I fell trap again. I know many times on these posts I have said that being tempted is not sin but it is the acting upon it that is. I really felt bad about my attitude on this. I also thought about it some more and I hope the person who announced his “orientation” will allow people who respect him to help him move past his orientation. Maybe the man was trying to bring this to light because he wanted to get help due to the strong temptations he was feeling and maybe it was his call “I don’t want to fall, Christians please help me to overcome these desires”? I will definiately pray that this man will be able to stand in the midst of this storm and be able to “overcome by the Word of the Lamb and the Word of his testimony”. While you all know my stance on this issue I hope you see the compassion I have for this man who is dealing with something that is difficult but that I believe strongly God can do miracles to overcome these issues and be successful as a Believer in thought word and dead. I also will be praying for his future family and that it would be successful and that these desires will be overcome like so many who have “fought the good fight of Faith”.
Bene Diction 01.27.06 at 5:42 am
Welcome back Joel, you have been missed.
Joel 01.27.06 at 11:25 pm
Kim, Richard, DH, Bene,
Thanks for the welcome back and for the views expressed. The prayers are much appreciated, too.
Thinking Christian 01.28.06 at 1:15 am
Thanks for a gentle treatment of this subject. I would also like to point out a bit of irony in your condemnation of John Brown. Colleges, by law, are prohibited from releasing their side of these type of issues, to protect the student involved. It would be a mistake to assume that one party or the other is right or wrong based on a one-sided view of an issue. Perhaps you have more knowledge than the rest of us, and if you do please excuse this post. If you don’t I would encourage you to try to avoid a quick response based on incomplete information, especially when it results in condemnation. God Bless.
Joel 01.29.06 at 12:50 am
Thinking Christian,
I really didn’t see my view as condemnation as much as disagreement.
dh 01.29.06 at 3:57 pm
I believe strongly that all homosexuals have the ability by placing their Faith in Christ to overcome these temptations. I pray that people would come alongside him, as a celibate, to assisting him to overcome these sinful desires and have an abundant life free from these trappings.
Beth 01.30.06 at 12:11 am
dh - you have no idea what you’re talking about.
dh 01.30.06 at 4:07 pm
Where do you get that idea. Maybe you have a small idea of God that He can’t help people overcome these desires? I personally believe we can “by the bllod of the lamb and the word of our testimony”.
Kim 01.30.06 at 4:14 pm
the “bllod” of the lamb hey, Beth, dh is learning Welsh!
dh 01.30.06 at 5:00 pm
Okay, but you still got the point. Doesn’t everyone have incorrect spelling every once in a while?
Beth 01.30.06 at 5:38 pm
Kim and I have three and a half degrees in English between us, so you must allow us to patronise occasionally.
Can’t even be bothered to argue the gay conversion point - it’s an idiotic idea which can only harm those it pretends to help.
Richard 01.30.06 at 5:38 pm
If you know anything about welsh, you’ll realise that ‘ll’ is a seperate letter of the alphabet, dh. Here’s a guide to its pronounciation. Kim’s just teasing you again. He’s like that. (Actually, in ‘real life’ he’s alot worse)
Beth 01.30.06 at 5:42 pm
Guys, please don’t encourage the non-Welsh to attempt “LL” - a worldwide saliva flood can only exacerbate global warming! And talking about Kim and teasing, did you ever hear him say “Llanelli”?
Kim 01.30.06 at 7:03 pm
“Llanelli”? Did you ever hear me say “Dewi”! [Beth cringes.]
Yes, just teasing, dh. It’s a compliment, really - that we “know” each other well enough - and are fond enough of each other - that we can pull each other’s leg now and again.
Cheers!
Kim
dh 01.30.06 at 7:39 pm
Harm those who intend to help? Come on I have heard of so many who have turned away from the behavior. Why can’t you believe that God can change these peopl? You must believe in a God who can’t do miracles in peoples lives and who can’t help people repent of sin. So I guess God telling an adulterer to “go and sin no more” is a case by case basis? That seems strange to me.
Kim, yeah I know. I’m glad you are fond of me as a Believer in Christ. I hope you see the care I have for people who are homosexual and how I truly believe God can help people be all they can be just like 1 Chronicles (not in the same context but it seemed a-prapoe (spelling)) “If my people which are called by My name shall pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways then I will hear from heaven and heal their sin and heal their land.” (this can be used in other posts I replied to but I thought in a different way this can also apply here)
dh 01.30.06 at 7:40 pm
At least Kim, maybe not Beth, you know I don’t have a “Gotcha Christianity” but I believer very strongly in all of us turning from sin. That goes for all of us and that goes for all sin including homosexuality (practicing not the temptation)
Beth 01.31.06 at 8:50 am
I didn’t say “harm those who intend to help”, I said that it “harms those it pretends to help”. That’s a very different thing.
dh 01.31.06 at 4:40 pm
How can you say it pretends to help them? Again I misspoke but understood what you said originally. I don’t think you read the entire post. Please reread the ENTIRE post
“Come on I have heard of so many who have turned away from the behavior. Why can’t you believe that God can change these people?”
To say people who have been helped as being pretended to help is ridiculous. It is a struggle just like drug counceling. Many say the same thing but more people than otherwise are being helped. And why can’t people face the responsibility for sin and turn away? I have Faith in God that He can help them to do that. My God is all powerful that I believe He can do all He can for those who have true repentent hearts. As you can see it isn’t just the sexual sin but for all sins for that matter. “Go and sin no more”.
Beth 01.31.06 at 4:52 pm
I did read the ENTIRE post, dh; I just think it’s nonsense. Please stop patronising me and insinuating that I’m too stupid to understand what you’re saying. I’m not. I just don’t have the energy to argue with you about the damage you do to people with this kind of “help”.
dh 01.31.06 at 6:23 pm
I’m not patronizing you. I just explained thereafter what I was talking about and it was in relation to what you actually said. I also never said you were stupid.
damage? what damage How about the damage caused by people who say things are okay when in fact it keeps people in their continuing “damage” (that goes for all sin that is condoned as okay, I’m not singling out one sin over another)?
Was the lady caught in adultry damaged by Jesus saying “Go and sin no more”? As you and I know all sin is equal in the sight of God. Remember Christ said “If you love Me keep My commandments.” To me that would be including doing serving God in thought, word and deed as well as obeying what God’s word says in that as well.
Beth 01.31.06 at 8:42 pm
What if, day in and day out, the dominant religious and cultural group kept telling you that you are sinful just by being heterosexual? Don’t just pay lip service to this, really try to imagine it. You’re bullied at school, maybe rejected or assaulted by friends and family, you’re in danger of being attacked and even killed on the street. People you know make jokes about you and you have to pretend to find them funny. People blame you for disease and social decline. If you’re unlucky enough to live in one of the more repressive cultures, you’re subject to being imprisoned and tortured. You can’t walk down the street hand in hand with the person you love (regardless of whether you’re sleeping with them or not). Imagine all this, just because of how you were born, because of something innate which is not under your control. And then imagine that the church in which you were brought up, tells you that your God will send you to hell because you are inherently sinful. This is reality for hundreds of people. Tell me how I can justify being a Christian to my gay friends, when all they see is condemnation, homophobia and violence coming from the Church?
dh 01.31.06 at 9:08 pm
There are no scriptures that say heterosexuality is a sin so the hypothetical doesn’t work, sorry. My advise reminds me of a story of my mom’s interaction with some gays in the community. There was a local mail box company owned by a lesbian couple. Every week my mom would take the time to ask how they were doing. Many times the women would say “we do business with people but no one talks to us”. My mom would say they would be sad by this. My mom from that time on would tell them everytime she was at the store that “God loved them”. She went on to tell me that when she said this to them they understood that my mom didn’t approve of their behavior but at the same time they knew that my mom care about them. I think this is how we should respond in love but with truth. Just like Jesus did with the adulterous woman and my mom did with the mail box owners.
I personally believe that homosexuality is a temptation unlike heterosexuality, as evident in Romans 1 (forsaking the natural causes, etc.) That temptation is not sin for Jesus was tempted like we are yet without sin. It is the acting upon that temptation that is sin just like in the heterosexual community with adultery and licentiousness or for that matter any sin. I have compassion for people who have temptations in the area of homosexuality and I believe strongly that my God can produce any miracle and has produced miracles in peoples lives to overcome any sin. I believe God can produce miracles in homosexuals lives to overcome any of their sin. The same goes for any sin you mention.
P.S. I also don’t condone anyone going to jail, imprisoned, attakced, bullied, rejected, assulted or tortured for the gay lifestyle. These things I never condone and I don’t feel this should be included in the lowest common denominator when relating to gays. Just because some people did what I said in the PS doesn’t make the gay lifestyle okay. Do I need to have care and compassion like Jesus did with the adulterous woman? absolutely And Jesus never condoned sin as evident by Him saying to the woman “go and sin no more”. I also believe that God can forgive any sin and provides ways of escape for any sin that goes for homosexuality as well. If a person rebelliously sins and intentionally sins this is what the Bible calls bad fruit. While I can’t say 100% that the person is going to hell, the Bible says I can get an idea of a person by their fruit whether good or bad “by their fruit you shall know them”. This isn’t me saying this but God. “there is no condemnation…to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Those who are not in Christ Jesus are condemned already John 3:17-19 and for preachers who are leading people astray Galatians 1:8-10.