Muslims, Homosexuals, and Jesus
Here are several interesting things you all might be interested in reading...
Article from the Telegraph (UK) – Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali
Basically, he's complaining about the growing population of Muslims in the United Kingdom. (He sees this as encroaching on the authority of Mother Church of England. Debatable, as you'll see.)
Here is a good synopsis of his Grace's comments on "No-Go Zones" for non-Muslims and other controversial bits (from Fr. Jake):
And here's another perspective on it all, this time from the Right Rev. Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham (Mother CofE).
In other news, Fr. Jake has posted an interesting analysis of Christianity's "image problem."
From the cited study:
Question: Here are some words or phrases that could be used to describe a religious faith. Please indicate if you think it is an accurate description.
91% - Antihomosexual
87% - Judgmental
85% - Hypocritical
75% - Too involved in politics
Here are some of the responses to the same question from young adults (16-29) who are church members:
80% - Antihomosexual
52% - Judgmental
47% - Hypocritical
50% - Too involved in politics
Interesting, yes? Many will come back with "Jesus warned us we'd be hated" and "Be in the world, not of it," but I don't think that's the end-all-be-all of the argument. Both of those phrases must be put into the context of Christ's Summary of the Law. We are called to love God first and foremost; then, we are commanded to love our neighbors. They say, "Do not love the world!" To a certain extent, we shouldn't, but to take an extreme, fundamentalist view of this circumvents God's own example. How does John 3:16 begin in the KJV? "For God so loved the world..."
"So loved the world." In spite of everything. "So loved the world."
We sometimes forget we are in the world at all. I think it is our Christian duty to seek transformation for our world into the sort of societies people like St. Paul envisioned. Also, the statistics above aren't necessarily talking about whether we are "loved or hated," so to speak. I think it is a direct answer to "How effectively are we carrying out the Great Commission?" The middle two percentages are especially telling: "87% - Judgmental; 85% - Hypocritical." Are they perhaps mis-characterizing the Church? Maybe – maybe not. Regardless of the verisimilitude of their assessment, it shows we aren't able to effectively minister to this particular demographic.
Are we closing off the Gospel to an entire generation of people? I think that's a fair question.
I agree that we shouldn't change our message to reflect polls or popular opinion. We have plenty of things that make people "hate us," though I'm not sure I'd use that exact word to characterize their emotions. (But, then again, it might do it justice. Who knows.) But, these are real issues for real people, and they could mean the difference between faith and non-belief.
I read a reflection yesterday which advised people to stop asking "What do I believe?" so much as "What do I trust?" Are they going to trust "God's mission on Earth" (to quote Fr. Ross)? If the Church loses its credibility, then what will we do? Thinking objectively, I'd affirm God's ability to intervene and re-establish some bastion of faith in the world. But, should we just sit around and wait for that to happen? I think not.
As you can see, the issues keeping young adults away from the Church are about what it means to live out faith in the 21st Century, not so much about worship styles. That's all well-and-good, and different things work for different people, but I think there is a definite witness for a “new” kind of Christianity. Imagine if we could reverse some of those statistics.
Today’s Daily Office lesson (from the Letter of St. Paul to the Colossians) says "Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ. For this I toil, striving with all the energy which he mightily inspires within me." Are we proclaiming Him effectively?
The paintings I include here are especially appropriate. Which one are you?
At the end of the day, may we all be able to say with Paul and all the saints “For you, Lord Christ, I did toil, striving with all the energy which you mightily inspire within me.”
Amen.
