Ok, we launched our first "Christ & Culture" Discussion event at Jacob's Well; with a showing of the film: "Lord Save Us From Your Followers". We had around 25 people show up and about 15 stayed for coffee & conversation. I think it was a wild ride for sure, great thoughts, sharp disagreement, valid concerns and opposite positions. Over all it was civil, but more tense than I would of liked, but considering the hot button issues addressed in the film, I understand.
I've started a Christ & Culture blog that will be for anyone, anonymous or not, post event ruminations and ongoing dialogue for those so interested. Some people sit and listen but need time to chew on things and maybe this can be a format for unpacking stuff more. But let me please say, dont use the blog as a smoke screen to hurt people or stab them in the back anonymously. Sometimes bloggers get a little more bold than they would be face to face...that can be good and bad.
So be kind.
So let the comments begin if you desire to engage more on various issues brought up by the film by going here.
And to get the water boiling here is an article written by a Christian who calls himself a celibate, christian gay man and his thoughts on the loneliness such a position has demanded.
2 comments:
I read the article, and must say that my heart went out to the author. Loneliness is a horror all its own.
One of my very best friends in high school once confessed to me that he was gay, and my insensitive, terror-stricked response was "Oh, you are not!"
I've struggled with this topic for as long as I can remember. Homosexuality may be a sin, but then, so are so many other things that many of us do on a daily basis. Is it a sin to BE a homosexual? Or to act on it?
I am a glutton by nature. I love food, sometimes more than my family, sometimes more than God. I've tried not to love, pretended not to love it, and quite frequently force myself not to give in to that part of my nature... But it still exists. Is it a sin to be a glutton, even if you're not living like one?
My heart bleeds for these people who are surrounded by so many thousands, and yet feel like they walk the path of life all by themselves.
Exactly Mel, it amazes me that the very act of thinking about those tensions and comparisons is an indictment as a heretic or a contributer to the moral collapse of all things pure.
The lack of compassionate understanding in this issue is appalling to me.
One side reframes the idea of moral standards to such a degree that mercy and love get turned into a dirty, compromising words.
One side reframes the idea of concrete truth, standards and boundaries into ideas that sound like abuse, repression and totalitarian dominations.
Finding a compassionate, truth honoring path of redemptive posture seems dangerous...one is apt to be stabbed from the front and the back..no matter what direction you try to walk.
Maybe thats the mysterious truth of Jesus being crucified by both Religious Jew and Pagan Roman.
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