Helping Churches with objections...

[AZOwl]

In the spirit of qwazse's thread about how to talk to the youth about their objections, I'd like to offer this up. This was prompted by a video I saw on CNN about a First Baptist Church in Alabama who is refusing to let their local troop meet there anymore. There was no mention as to whether they were chartered there, or just meet there. But over the past week, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how this all works out, and I put together the following letter to the Pastor, which I will be sending today. Its respectful, doesn't flame him or his beliefs, but does ask him to reconsider his position along biblical lines.

 

Pastor Walker,

I recently viewed a video on CNN featuring your response to the decision of the Boy Scouts of America to no longer disenroll youth because they have been ‘outed’ as having a homosexual orientation. I would ask that you reconsider your decision based on the biblical teaching of Jesus.

 

Jesus himself was never recorded as being against homosexuality. Nowhere in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is homosexuality even mentioned in any form. And according to traditional interpretations of Jesus, his coming and teaching replaced the teachings of the Old Testament, where homosexuality was addressed. In Matthew 22:37-39 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.â€Â

 

I understand that Paul himself wrote a few times about homosexuality, however, I have serious concerns about Paul. One, he was a convert (in a really dramatic fashion) and self-proclaimed Apostle. He also was not a contemporary companion of Jesus, and while possibly inspired by the Spirit, there is no guarantee that that is truly the case. He could have been a man who was atoning for his previous persecution of Christians by dealing with his guilt through conversion. I’m just not convinced that he is a credible source for teachings of the Spirit.

 

If in fact we are to follow Jesus’s commandments, in his own words, then your decision to no longer allow the troop to use your church goes against his second commandment. You yourself pointed out that it would be harming the youth by no longer allowing them to meet there. And all of this because of the possibility that a gay youth might be part of the troop. Homosexual persons constitute a very small minority of the population, and the odds that a youth might openly show his sexuality in this setting are really low anyway, given the hostile environment. You are punishing all of these youth for the so-called sins of what likely is an imaginary youth.

 

If you are committed to a strict biblical interpretation, then I suspect that you yourself, as well as your congregation, follow all of the rules laid out in Leviticus. Either Jesus replaced everything that came before, or he didn’t. Paul states that some of those rules still apply, and some don’t. But who do you believe, Jesus? Or someone that came after him, didn’t associate with him, proclaimed himself an Apostle, and possibly had an unstable personality.

 

Pastor Walker, Scouting is not about sex, and never has been. Youth and adults don’t go around having sex on campouts and outings because that’s not what Scouting is about. It is about young men learning their path in life, and learning to do their best, according to what they believe. My final question to you is this. If Jesus were here in person today, and was the pastor of a church that allowed young men to meet, would he kick them out because of a single youth? If you can say ‘Yes’ to that, then I think we are reading two vastly different bibles.

[Scouter99]

It was a bad idea to get into theology with him. Jesus didn't say a lot of things; your personal misgivings about Paul don't mean squat. Et cetera, etc. Instead of appealing to him and possibly engaging hi min an internal dialogue, you've just put him on the defensive if he even finishes reading it past the first sentence which would make any Baptist laugh.