The Christian Message

A week or two ago, an interview with Elton John started me thinking about the common perspective that Jesus and his teachings are good and admirable but that organized religion and the modern church are not desirable and are actually harmful to society. The way John put it:

...the world could be a more compassionate place free of "hateful lemmings" if only all religion was banned. In an interview with Observer Music Monthly magazine, Sir Elton says that while he loves "the idea of the teachings of Christ," he still believes that, as a whole, "organized religion doesn't seem to work."

I wondered what the root of this is: Do people like John misunderstand the teachings of Jesus and what he was all about...or is the modern church distracted and failing to live out and emphasize the teachings of Jesus? The post created such a deluge of conversation that I thought I'd bring it up again and continue my conversation with myself. Several more stories recently spurred me to think more about this subject. Last month, the president-elect of the Christian Coalition made news by indicating that the message of the gospel goes beyond pro-life, pro-family, pro-morality...such as concern for the environment. Well it was too good to last...via Dvorak Uncensored, an AP story reported that Hunter has resigned over philosophical differences:

The Rev. Joel Hunter...said Wednesday that the national group would not let him expand the organization's agenda beyond opposing abortion and gay marriage. This is the latest setback for the group founded in 1989 by religious broadcaster the Rev. Pat Robertson. Four states - Georgia, Alabama, Iowa and Ohio - have decided to split from the group over concerns its changing direction on issues like the minimum wage, the environment and Internet law instead of core issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. Hunter, who was scheduled to take over the socially conservative political group Jan. 1, said he had hoped to focus on issues such as poverty and the environment. "These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about," Hunter said. He resigned Tuesday during an organization board meeting. Hunter said he was not asked to leave. "They pretty much said, 'These issues are fine, but they're not our issues, that's not our base,'" Hunter said.

This past Saturday, in an article titled "Group targets Midland Wal-Mart" by Angela E. Lackey, our local newspaper reported on protesters outside our Wal-Mart on Black Friday:

Area Wal-Mart stores were targeted by protesters Friday, part of a nationwide effort of Operation Save Wal-Mart to return the giant retailer to its "godly roots" and stop its alleged support of abortion and homosexuality. Cal Zastrow and his 13-year-old daughter, Corrie, of Kawkawlin, stood on one corner near the Midland Wal-Mart store. He and his small group earlier went to the Bay City and Saginaw Wal-Mart stores. They plan to return to the Kochville store today and protest at other stores in the future. "Our motivation is to encourage Wal-Mart to stop funding abortion and homosexuality," Zastrow said. "And we are to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ." Zastrow had two large signs, each depicting an aborted fetus with torn body parts, propped against each hand. Corrie held up a plastic banner that read, "Wal-Mart Funds Murder & Perversion." Saginaw resident Ryan Murphy stood across the street. As vehicles stopped to turn onto Joe Mann Boulevard, he handed out fliers that said Wal-Mart supported homosexual causes in several ways, including donating $25,000 to the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), becoming a corporate member of the NGLCC and sponsoring some of its programs. The flier said the retailer supports abortion by dispensing the Plan B pill, which the group calls the "abortion pill." Zastrow also said Wal-Mart supports Planned Parenthood.

The American Family Association had been asking its supporters to boycott Wal-Mart's after-Thanksgiving sales but eventually relented. According to an AP article by David Cray:

The American Family Association...said it was pleased that Wal-Mart had pledged in a statement to stay away from controversial causes. Wal-Mart said it would make changes in the way it contributed to such groups, earmarking funds only for specific causes it supported, such as workplace equality, rather than giving unrestricted gifts.

"This has been Christian families' favorite store _ and now they're giving in, sliding down the slippery slope so many other corporations have gone down," said the Rev. Flip Benham of Operation Save America. "They're all being extorted by the radical homosexual agenda."

Finally, via Andrew Sullivan, Baptist minister Oliver "Buzz" Thomas wrote in an opinion piece in USA Today titled "When religion loses its credibility" in which he questioned (not very persuasively) the conventional Christian view on homosexuality and again raised the possibility of a disconnect between the modern church's pet issues and the message of Jesus:

For those who have lingering doubts, dust off your Bibles and take a few hours to reacquaint yourself with the teachings of Jesus. You won't find a single reference to homosexuality. There are teachings on money, lust, revenge, divorce, fasting and a thousand other subjects, but there is nothing on homosexuality. Strange, don't you think, if being gay were such a moral threat? On the other hand, Jesus spent a lot of time talking about how we should treat others. First, he made clear it is not our role to judge. It is God's. ("Judge not lest you be judged." Matthew 7:1) And, second, he commanded us to love other people as we love ourselves. So, I ask you. Would you want to be discriminated against? Would you want to lose your job, housing or benefits because of something over which you had no control? Better yet, would you like it if society told you that you couldn't visit your lifelong partner in the hospital or file a claim on his behalf if he were murdered?

Frankly, I'm not completely on board with Buzz's arguments. Based on my study of the Bible, I believe that the practice of homosexuality is contrary to the will of God. That's different from believing that homosexuals should be subjected to discrimination by our society and government. I don't believe that the teachings of the apostles lack importance if they don't have an explicit shout-out from Jesus. But I do think there is something to the argument that there are conclusions to be drawn from what Jesus actually said and did and what he didn't say or do. Again, it's not that I think issues like homosexuality have no place in the teachings of the church. But maybe that place is actually in the church as a means to help committed Christians continue their transformation according to God's will...and maybe not as the poster-child issue that frames the conversation between Christians and non-Christians. There is a core message of Jesus and the gospel. Maybe Elton John, Joel Hunter, and Buzz Thomas have valid points. Maybe the modern church does Jesus a disservice by drowning out his core message to a lost world with issues and debates that are not central to Jesus message even if they are of some importantance and relevance to a life lived according to God's will. Maybe, as Thomas suggested in his article, the collective we do need to reacquaint ourselves with the teachings of Jesus and reformulate the expression of the Christian message that we share with non-Christians.