Today I received an email asking me to oppose a new legislation designed to end discrimination regarding sexual orientation.
Here's a bit of what the email said:
"The full U.S. House of Representatives is likely to vote on H.R. 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as early as tomorrow or Wednesday. ENDA would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of "actual or perceived sexual orientation." Every business or organization with more than 15 employees would be barred by federal law from refusing to hire a person because of the person's sexual orientation. Although the bill exempts "religious organizations," this exemption would likely result in expensive, time-consuming lawsuits to determine if the employer was a "religious organization." Organizations...and religiously based homeschool organizations or co-ops with 15 or more employees could face such lawsuits."
As I read this I can't help but think that we're upset about the wrong thing here.
First of all, what would be so bad about a Christian organization hiring a capable employee who was homosexual? Would that be the end of the world?
If we think about this a little I think we can see that we're getting our panties in a bunch over practically nothing.
Would a non-Christian want to work for your Church or ministry? Is there any legislation that prevents them from working for you now? Why would you want to keep them away from the work you're currently doing? Wouldn't it be a good thing if they got involved with your ministry efforts? Are you afraid that a non-Christian might slip through the cracks and get past your security gates in the HR department?
Why are we so afraid of catching what those non-believers have? Why do we go so far out of our way to avoid interaction with them?
Didn't Jesus command us to be loving? Didn't Jesus tell us to be the light of the world? How can we do that from behind our closed church doors?
I also wonder why someone who was living an alternative lifestyle actually WANT to work for your church or Christian ministry? Are we afraid that they'd want to infiltrate and corrupt our efforts from within? And if so, what prevents them from doing that right now? Anyone can pretend to be a Christian these days. There's practically no difference between us and them anyway.
If we can agree that most who are outside of the Church really have no desire to be around us, then maybe we should really be asking "Why?"
Weren't we supposed to be ambassadors of Christ? Weren't we supposed to be winsome and loving and compassionate and caring? Isn't that what Jesus modelled for us? Isn't that what the early Church put into practice?
Why are we so radically exclusive?
kg
I think we as Christians are reaping what we sowed by turning our faith into business organizations with paid minsters and staff. The 501c3 comes with obligation to the State which many did not realize
ReplyDeleteGreat post! As someone once observed, when you mix religion and politics, you get politics.
ReplyDeleteYou ask a very pointed question - would a non-Christian want to come work for your Church or ministry. Ouch! What if the environments we've established are so unwelcoming, so judgmental and so unloving that they wouldn't want to be a part of it? And what if it's not a "what if?"
As our pastor mentioned at church this past Sunday, the only people Christ condemned in the Gospels was... religious leaders who condemned people. Me thinks we're imitating the wrong crowd...