On Monday I picked up a student newspaper from the stand just inside the main entrance of the Campus Life Center on the USC Upstate campus. It was an October issue, but it was still there in the stand. I don’t know how frequently it is published.
Today there was a different issue in the stand, this one dated November 12. Page 15 showcases a large (more than half-page) opinion article by a staff writer following up on the news article I mentioned in my last post. I wondered why the university already needed another article about the topic, but I nevertheless felt a need to carefully read it in order to better understand the campus conversation.
My response to the article (which I do NOT plan to submit to the paper) begins where Patricia Jones, the writer, ends. She calls for love instead of hate, even though hate is much easier than love.
Although this article is not written from a Christian perspective, I can, from a Christian perspective, agree with its closing point. We Christians know that all people are sinners, that God loves sinners and freely offers them forgiveness and transformation in the Holy Spirit, and that we, in turn, should be accepting and loving toward all people, even those that we see as sinners. We read about Jesus treating people with dignity and acceptance, even when society had rejected those people because of their sins.
But doing is more difficult than believing. (Well, I could disagree with that statement as a general principle, but it’s true in this context.) So I welcome criticism from outside the church that claims that we do not treat certain groups of people respectfully. However, Patricia Jones is not writing to or about Christians. I am only responding as one.
On the other hand, Patricia does clearly endorse the belief that male-male and female-female sexual activity should be accepted as something other than bad, although she is not willing to call it good. “Just because something doesn’t fit into an archetype of right and wrong, does not mean it is universally one or the other.”
She also stereotypes all perspectives that do not accept such activity, lumping them into one belief that, according to the article, states that love is “gender biased, not gender shared.” (I have read and discussed many perspectives regarding this topic, and I have never heard or seen “gender biased” in a case against the acceptability of homosexual behaviors. Does anyone know where this phrase came from?) The writer continues to describe this overarching stereotype as a “narrow minded sentiment that in the recent past has lead to serious acts of violence against those of ‘non-traditional’ sexual beliefs.”
This post is not directed to the mentioned article, its writer, or its publisher. I am writing for Christians and others who are genuinely interested in the life and message of Jesus.
What can we do to better communicate the grace of Christ to people outside the faith and to decrease misunderstandings such as the ones in this article?
What can we do to counter the horrific acts of violence often committed against people because of sexual orientation? (According to the article I referenced Monday, South Carolina currently has no hate crime legislation.)
I like the idea that Don Miller had in Blue Like Jazz. He set up a confession booth in the middle of campus during a huge campus-wide celebration and when people came into the booth, he and his Christian friends apologized to them on behalf of all Christians for the way that Christians have treated non-Christians throughout history. Maybe we should start apologizing to all homosexuals for how we’ve treated them, even though we disagree with their lifestyle.