Whatever You Do To The Least Of These...

I am looking at well over a week now since my last blog. In an effort to keep my job, I have chosen to refrain from blogging while at work. I think you would agree with me that, in the grand scheme of things, keeping food on my table is at least a little more important than providing a daily updated blog for my legions of devoted fans. But being the devoted fans that you are, I’m sure you will understand and will therefore wait with baited breath for my next installment. And here it is:

The word Christian gets thrown around quite a bit these days. It gets thrown around so much that the word itself has lost its meaning.

What is a Christian? Who are Christians? Am I a Christian? Are you a Christian?

CNN’s Anderson Cooper declared recently that 85% of Americans claim to be Christian. Eight-five people out of every hundred in this country follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. Now, that’s pretty amazing. One would think that with numbers that high, this country had finally figured out how to love our neighbor and our God (certainly not in that order, however). After all, any Christian should be able to tell you that those are the two greatest commandments. But the evidence proves to the contrary and I have two timely examples that I think will validate my point.

In case you don’t know, I live in Greenville, South Carolina. While this fair city is not necessarily the "buckle" of the Bible belt, (Nashville, Tennessee is; trust me, I know) it could certainly comprise a notch or two of that belt.

As in most Southern cities, there is a church on every corner and enough Christian television and radio stations to keep the averaged home-school kid sheltered from anything having to do with the outside world. Luckily, we also have a strong representation of the beloved ultra-conservative version of religious political activism. I write with a hint (only a hint) of cynicism here because, as the contemporary bumper sticker so proudly proclaims, "the Religious Right is neither." And that political special interest group, led by guys like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, is exactly what exists in cities like Greenville.

This "Religious Right" is evident everywhere here, much to the chagrin of Christians like me who would rather open wide the doors of the church than padlock them securely shut. This phobia of actually letting into our church people who look different than we do was, for me, epitomized last Friday night as I arrived at the Elton John concert here at Greenville’s own Bi-Lo Center.

Looking for a reasonably priced parking space, we turned left off of East North Street. Quickly we saw, standing right there on the corner, a group of well-dressed Christians protesting with signs and slogans the concert itself and the "Sodomites" who were apparently not only performing (Elton John is a homosexual), but would be attending as well. Some of the signs were blatantly condemning, some included references to Scripture and some were just outright disgraceful.

Then, once we had found a parking space and made our way to the entrance of the Bi-Lo Center, we ran into another group. Their signs were bigger, more colorful and more offensive. You almost had to trip over these guys just to get inside. Anyone who entered the arena from that main front entrance saw the protestors in all their glory and were hopefully as disgusted as I was.

I sarcastically muttered to myself, "I can’t imagine why homosexuals think Christians hate them." My wife heard my utterance and chuckled painfully as this topic represents an ongoing dialogue between the two of us. I can’t speak for her, but I’m pretty sure she would have joined me had I mustered-up the nerve to do what I really wanted to do: walk up to and apologize – on behalf of loving Christians everywhere - to every single person who saw those signs and was offended, especially those who happened to be gay. But I did nothing like that. I simply stood and stared at the painful exhibition on display that afternoon. My heart sank and I could almost hear the entire evangelical world collectively take two huge steps back in our fight to preserve whatever tiny bit of ground we had taken in our battle to show the gay community that we do not hate them, that God does not hate them.

I have only one question for those protestors: what exactly did you expect to accomplish with actions such as those? If their goal was to alienate more non-believing homosexuals with their actions, then they did exactly that. If their goal was to try and bring more people to Christ (shouldn’t that always be our goal?), then they failed and failed miserably.

On a more positive note, I heard a story recently about another Christian who looks at things a little differently than these Christian protestors do. This particular Christian was in a setting that put him in direct contact with a man who was obviously gay (he had announced his sexual preference to the group he was with earlier in the day). It was also obvious that this man had a rather large chip on his shoulder. The entire situation struck a cord in the heart of this Christian and he felt something needed to be done.

So, when the time was right and he was sure an encounter would not bring unwarranted attention to himself or the other man, this disciple of Christ approached the gay man and apologized. He apologized for how Christians had treated homosexuals in the past. He apologized for the hate-filled venom that had been spewed at gays by Christians in the past. He told him that Jesus Christ – the One whose example we follow – taught us to love our neighbor, not hate him and that he was ashamed at the way gays had been treated by preachers and leaders who claim to be Christians. It was a simple conversation and also fairly one-sided. When it was over, the other man thanked him politely, accepted his apology and the two went on their separate ways.

Now, I pose this question to you: which individual or group of individuals displayed the more Christ-like characteristics? Was it the boisterous, judgmental group of protestors or the humble, apologetic man who personally reached out to a societal outcast?

I don’t recall too many instances in the Gospels that found Jesus on a street corner calling-out people for their sins and condemning them. I do, however, find several instances in which Jesus Himself ate dinner with "sinners" and even had a few meaningful conversations with them. While it is important to note that Jesus did not condone their behavior, He did not shun them either. God forbid we should ever forget that.

I am not ignorant or naïve enough to think that there are not some in the homosexual community who hate Christians. Hate for Christ and what He taught and what His followers believe exists in groups all across this country, all over the world. But what I saw from this group of protesters the other night is the same type of hate that non-believers display every single day. They protested a concert in which the headlining act was an openly gay man and made complete fools out of themselves in the process (on a related note, I haven’t seen any instances where these protestors have picketed adult bookstores or strip clubs – and there’s quite a few of them here; they don’t stand outside bars and harass patrons as they drunkenly stumble to their cars each night; and they certainly can’t be seen standing outside the state capitol demonstrating against politicians and the lies they must have told to get to their respective offices).

They affected no lives, changed nobody’s heart. The only thing they did accomplish is to confirm what should be an incorrect stereotype – both in and out of the gay community – that Christians hate both the sinner and the sin.

Yes, the word Christian gets thrown around quite a bit these days. And maybe the word itself has lost some of its meaning. But Jesus Christ never intended for His Name to be synonymous with a judgmental attitude, condemnation or hate. Until we, as Christians, realize that and put it into practice every day of our lives, we have a long long way to go.