A Response To Madison Square Church (In regard to their stance on homosexuality recently made public)

Before I begin, I want to make some things clear:

While I strongly disagree with the public stance Pastor Dave Beelen and Madison Square church have made, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Pastor Beelen and many of their ministries do good work in the community and beyond.  They have been a source of healing when it comes to racial reconciliation and those who struggle with addiction among many other things.

I am not a pastor and my views don't reflect my local church or the denomination I belong to, the United Methodist Church, whose stance (or lack thereof) I also disagree with.  When it comes to education or knowledge of scripture, Pastor Beelen I'm sure could run circles around me.  Before my family became UMC, we even attended Madison Square for quite awhile before we actually became a family while I was dating my wife.  I am fully aware this blog post is unlikely to change any minds, but I am passionate about this issue because I have seen far too many people deeply hurt to stay silent about it.  I have made my beliefs clear about this issue informally, but it is well past due that I make it somewhat public/official.

Here is the link to Pastor Beelen's open letter:
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=dd210c9e906bee82e2493dc83&id=84bdbe6dac

This post will inevitably be long, but I will try to be as concise and clear as I can.  Anyone who wants to discuss this with me in any forum, whether it be face to face, by phone, or by social media is welcome to do so, but I am not going to argue over this and this will probably be the only extended writing I make on the matter, though I do reserve the right to change my mind.

It breaks my heart that Madison Square has chosen to take this stance given their work in other ministries.  I am not certain, but my hunch is that this was written after a certain degree of wrestling with the issue over prayer and scriptural study.  In spite of this, I believe the wrong decision has been made even though they are trying not to single out homosexuals, they inevitably are.  On the one hand, Madison is saying that they don't want to single out one sin over another, but on the other hand if you are a homosexual and want to be married within the church or become a member, then Madison Square Church will refuse to do so based on Biblical grounds, which is basically just a way of saying their specific interpretation of scripture.

There are so many levels of disagreement that I don't no where to begin, but pastor Dave mentioned in the letter that people have pitted Jesus against Paul and given more weight to certain portions of scripture over others and seems to imply that we should give the entire Bible equal weight when interpreting since the entirety of scripture is "God breathed."  He then says it is bad to mention Jesus' lack of a stance on homosexuality since he also doesn't take a stance on "human trafficking or incest."  I've heard similar arguments to this and I want to be clear:  Comparing homosexuality to incest, human trafficking, pedophilia and bestiality among other things is disrespectful, disingenuous and wrong and it contributes NOTHING to the conversation.  To elaborate further, my response to this is twofold:

Should All of the Bible be Interpreted Equally, Authoritative or Otherwise?

I think, if we are all honest with ourselves, that we give more importance to certain parts of scripture than others.  I think it is a cop out to claim that all of scripture is equally authoritative when it comes to this issue or any issue for that matter.  Smarter people than me have pointed out that what is being interpreted as homosexuality by many today may have actually be something completely different in Paul's time.  I believe Paul was referring to pederasty, which was men taking adolescents or even young boys sexually.  There is historical record outside of the Bible of young boys being used as whores around this time period, and that is far from an equal relationship, far from consent, and harmful.  Even if you are inclined to interpret this as modern homosexuality, ultimately you are trusting in your own interpretation (of which each person, church, denomination, etc. has a unique version of) and singling out a perceived sin over loving God and loving others, and loving God by loving others, which Jesus says all the law and scriptures are dependent on.  Sounds like Jesus wasn't aware of the Neo-Calvinist need to give equal weight to all scripture.

The greater danger here is how we can fall into the trap of using scripture as an idol.  We can get so concerned about the minute details beyond our understanding that we are blinded to God's clear call and blinded to the fact that God is with us and does many works outside of scripture.  If your interpretation of scripture doesn't lead you to a very real God who lives and is authoritative beyond and not limited to the Bible, then I believe you are going down a very dangerous path.

What is Sin, the Role of the Church When it Comes to Sin, and is Homosexuality a Sin?

The other big danger in this stance is the message Madison is sending about sin.  When you make sin a list of choices perceived to be bad, the list is endless and we have no choice but to live by the list and to be judged by it.  Whether the intent is to single out homosexuals or not, the message is that God's grace is not available to all, only to those who live by the church's "list."  No amount of confessing can cover our own sins when we act as gatekeeper for those who fit into whatever category, in this case gay folk.  When we don't acknowledge our sin as a whole, including the sin we all continue to live in daily, we are doing exactly what we are saying we aren't doing.  Madison's sins must not be as bad.  People will argue that it's not the homosexuality, it's the approval of it and lack of confession for it.  Do we really want to go down that road?  Or do we actually believe we are identifying and confessing of everything we do wrong?

In my mind, the church's role is not to be a gatekeeper, not to be as holy as possible and not to decide who's worthy of relationship with God through Christ.  God loves us as we are, not in spite of our brokenness but because we are broken and that we choose to be in relationship with him by loving other broken people.  So while I believe homosexuality is not a sin and that the church should affirm monogamous gay marriage and relationships, making a list is beside the point.  We all live in sin daily and God is with us before and after we become aware of Him and before and after we are in relationship with Him, and if He is ultimately in control our role should be to love God, love others, and in our mission field to measure things through that lens.  How is homosexual marriage not living into the story of loving God and loving others?

Authority

In finishing this post, I think people who argue from all angles would agree that the crux of this matter comes down to authority.   I would agree and make this proposal:  If we can agree that we are limited and diverse in our interpretation of scripture, shouldn't we as individuals and the church approach our beliefs and interpretations much more humbly?  If we are in relationship with God and we love others, do we put more trust in God or our interpretations?  Loving God and loving people is clear and consistent throughout the Bible.  The interpretation of the scriptures relating to homosexuality aren't as clear and there are various interpretations of those scriptures and the original languages they are written in.  We don't have a clear picture of the truth no matter how hard we try.  God is truth.  It is a modern day Tower of Babel and humanity still hasn't learned its lesson.  Doesn't the Bible teach to err on the side of mercy and grace?  Do we really think a loving God is going to punish us for welcoming a group of people who has been historically punished, tortured and victimized by the church?  Scripture has been used to exclude gentiles, jews, blacks, women, homosexuals, etc., etc., etc.  Who is going to stand with our gay brothers and sisters who also are born the way they are but often face a life at odds with their family, friends and churches?

Let the church without sin throw stones.  I put my slingshot away a long time ago and I'm way more concerned with what I have to deal with in the mirror than trying to fix someone else.

I hope the response to this is to bring reconciliation and prayer for Madison and other churches who continue to wrestle with this issue.  I want to reiterate my respect for pastor Dave who at least has linked to opposing arguments and seems well intended.

God bless,

Jason

(Any response can go to comments, or you can facebook me, or my e-mail is jsquiggles23@hotmail.com if you want to setup a phone conversation or a face to face meeting)