An Inconvenient Truth
It’s a little late to start a day’s worth of Lesotho, so I’ll just mention what I’ve spent the day doing!
I’ve got my essay on whether it is possible to be a Christian in a same sex relationship about half done. I had to smile when I re-read a bit to discover I’d written ‘there are three main positions to consider…’! Ooo-err!
This evening, after an excellent Methodist service (why do I always have to wait for the Methodist services to feel like I can really engage in chapel?), our Christian Social Ethics lecture was looking at ecology theology. We watched a large part of Al Gore’s DVD ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. As much as it’s received mixed media coverage, I’m convinced it presents in a simple (which is very important) way one of if not the most important moral issues facing the world today.
The theology of stewardship that Christians hold to is a blessing and a curse. All too easily, stewardship can subconsciously lead to exploitation. Good stewardship is a different beast, and it’s essentiat that the Church starts to pay more attention to devloping this theology. Maybe it’s even more important than ‘the gay issue’.
Leave a comment
Pre-collar
So, this is me. Or, at least, it was when it was taken. Now I look just like a young George Clooney...
Here’s what you think…
 | JL on Sanctified and Consecrated |
 | Moses on Sanctified and Consecrated |
 | http://marshallapper… on Sanctified and Consecrated |
 | Bruce Davis on Sanctified and Consecrated |
| Ann Reyes on Sanctified and Consecrated |
The Running Sheep 
Maybe it’s even more important than ‘the gay issue’.
Not hard. For me, who is going to win Strictly Come Dancing is also in that category.
And that’s not because I am anti-gay or homophobic in any way. It’s because I think that the church has created a new shibboleth, a new defining sin for the age, and I hate it. Get over it. Stop being obsessed.
A homosexual walks into a church – there’s a sinner and everyone is obsessed with his sex life and thinks they have a God-given right to tell him what to do. And (more to the point)what not to.
A vicar walks into the church – newsflash: there’s a sinner too. And a fair number of people in a fair number of churches are also obssesed with his sex life (especially if he’s single and doesn’t have one!). The only difference is they realise it’s actually none of their business to tell him what to do.
We should learn such restraint more generally and offer it out of respect to more people, like they were people, not ethics cases.
I have strong opinions on the rights and wrongs of “the gay issue”. I just think the church’s fixation with it (as exemplified in the way you have to write essays about it) is more sinful than anything else.
I hope my “[M]aybe it’s even more important than ‘the gay issue'” comment reads in the way that it was meant – of course it’s more important.
The obsession that the Church (and, by defult, many Christians within the Church) has with particular sins and which are more important/naughty/sinful than others is pathetic, unbiblical, unChristian and decidedly unhelpful in the current climate (both environmental and Church-statistical!).
However, ‘the gay issue’ isn’t the issue at hand, it’s just the foolish medium by which the Church seems to have chosen to play out the real issue at hand – or maybe it’s the choice of the media, and we’ve fallen for it.
The real issue(s) underlying it is/are:
What is the Church?
What is the Church’s mission/identity/purpose?
How do we use Scripture, tradition, reason and experience to answer these two questions?
Those, I think, are important questions. Because they impact on the real issues that face us – like the environment and whether or not Willie Thorne has got rhythm.
So, I’m not sure that it is necessarily a bad thing that I’m writing essays (well, one, actually) on ‘the gay issue’, as I think that the tutors are clever enough to look into the argument for approaches to the other questions.
However, I wish we had the courage to fixate on Jesus, and talk about things like ending violence, promoting good stewardship, and how to share the Gospel with the world.
Wouldn’t that be nice.
It would also be nice if we could promote ethical behaviour amongst football club chairmen. Grrr.
I wish we had the courage to fixate on Jesus
Go on, I dare you.
Challenge accepted!
I’ll add Hebrews 12:2 as a footnote to my essay!
Hmm.
Is this the sad fate of the church? Challenged to fixate on Jesus, we gladly rise to the challenge –
and make Him a footnote in whatever it is we are up to at the time?
Come on boy, you can do more than that!!!
You’ve got me there!
You’re too clever by half.
Of course, I’m not sure the university marking scheme would appreciate more than a footnote…
Fortunately, that’s not the totality of the field on which I have to play out this challenge.