Note: After I
wrote this piece, I had an overwhelming flood of emails asking for specific
information about what the bible says about homosexuality. I posted a follow-up
piece where I analyzed the scriptures that speak to this issue.
Click here to
read the follow-up article.
Sit down Christian. You cannot wave your unread
Bible and scare me because I know the larger story that runs through it
beginning to end. I'm trying to resist the temptation to snatch it from your
hands and beat you with it. I am your worst nightmare, a Texas preacher who
knows the good book better than you do. Show me your scriptures. Show me how you
justify condemning homosexual people.
Show me what you got, Christian. The Sodom
story? That story is about people who wanted to commit a brutal rape. Let's all
say it together, “God doesn't like rape”. You could have listened to your heart
and learned that, Christian. Move on. What else you got?
A passage from Leviticus? Are you kidding me?
Are you prepared to adhere to the whole Levitical code of behavior? No? Then why
would you expect others to? Move on. What else?
Two passages - two verses from Romans and one
from I Corinthians. There you stand, your justification for a worldwide campaign
of hatred written on two limp pieces of paper. Have you looked closely at these
passages? Do you understand their context and original language? I could show
you why you don't have much, but there is something more important you need to
see.
Come with me to the church cellar. Come now and
don't delay. I am shaking with anger and fighting the urge to grab you by the
collar and drag you down these steps.
You didn't know the church had a cellar? Oh
yes, every church does. Down, down we go into the darkness. Don't slip on the
flagstone and never mind the heat.
There, do you see the iron furnace door, gaping
open? Do you see the roaring flames? Do you see the huge man with glistening
muscles, covered with soot? Do you see him feeding the fire as fast as can with
his massive, scooped shovel?
He feeds these flames with the Bible, with
every book, chapter, and verse that American Christians must ignore to support
our bloated lifestyles, our selfishness, our materialism, our love of power, our
neglect of the poor, our support of injustice, our nationalism, and our pride.
See how frantically he works? Time is short,
and he has much to burn. The prophets, the Shema, whole sections of Matthew,
most of Luke, the entire book of James. Your blessed 10 commandments? Why would
you want to post them on courtroom walls when you've burned them in your own
cellar?
Do you see? DO YOU SEE? Do you see how we rip,
tear, and burn scripture to justify our lives?
The heat from this cursed furnace rises up and
warms the complacent worshippers in the pews above. The soot from the fire
blackens our stained glass so that we may not see out and no one wants to see
in.
Do you smell the reek of this injustice? It is
a stink in the nostrils of the very living God. We are dressed in beautiful
clothes and we wear pretty smiles, but we stink of this blasphemous hypocrisy.
Every church in America - mine not excepted -
has a cellar like this. We must shovel 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a
year, because every chapter and book we ignore must be burned to warm our comfy
pews.
Our souls are stained from this biblical
holocaust, but somehow these two scraps of scripture mean all the world to you.
You swallow whole camels, and now you're gagging on a gnat? When did you ever
give a shit about what the Bible has to say?
Sit down Christian. Sit down and be you silent.
How long has it been since you forgot that we
were called to walk the earth as pilgrims? Do you not remember when he told us
to give our coats to those in need and sell our possessions to help the poor?
Did you forget how the first church had all things in common so that none would
lack.
Did you forget the day He told us that whatever
we did for the oppressed we did for Him, and whatever we withheld from them was
kept from Him as well?
Sit down, Christian. You have not earned the
right to speak to this generation. The right to speak is earned with love.
Take back your bible. Take it back and start
reading it. Fall in love again with Jesus. Sell what you must and walk the
earth. Let your love be astonishing and people may one day listen to your words.
Even now you might be saved. Our God is
merciful and forgiveness awaits.
The Preacher
