If anything in this blog raises issues for you, please do contact me and I’ll make a time to hear that personally. I do write this seeking to clarify Christianity, and not to confuse or hurt anyone.
You remember the saying ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’? I prefer the former journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s motto - ‘when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro’. Well, in the middle of Pride Month the going has gotten weird, but who would have expected that the weird ones turn out to be those boring old Christians?
It’s World Pride Month in Sydney and the very normal tram stop in front of me right now looks like this…
The ultra-normal dental hospital right behind me looks like this…
My highly normal supermarket has a rainbow love-shack that your kids can take a photo in!
Among all this excitement and colour, I find myself feeling weird. I want to confirm that weird is an OK place for a Christian to be.
Feeling OK about Being Weird
This is how it was at the beginning, when Christians were regarded as a sore on the social body of Rome. Romans called us ‘cannibals’ and ‘incestuous’ for eating our God and calling one another brothers and sisters. So I feel OK about being weird.
You might not be feeling OK. You might be worried about all the alarming things some Christians say about gay people. Or you might be alarmed by the easy dismissal of the bible by some Christians who suggest a gay sexual lifestyle is consistent with what God desires. You might be feeling hemmed in at work on the issue. You might be keeping your head low. You might be weighing up whether you change your email signature to include the pride material your work has sent out.
One thing is sure, when a rainbow walkway leads to Pacific Square, you pass a Love Shack, and a flag greets you above the Coles counter where you normally argue about expired products, you’ll feel something.
What I Appreciate about Pride Month
Here are some positive feelings I have.
I feel OK that Christians don’t run the culture, because we belong to a kingdom not of this world (John 18:36)
I feel OK that Christians aren’t ‘winning the day’, because I am confident we survive the ages (Mark 10:30)
I feel OK that the LGBTQi lobby is pushing its campaign too far and too stridently, because previously-oppressed groups almost always have a sense of relief when they gain some power and over-act with it.
I feel better than OK that gay men aren’t being routinely beaten up, or even killed, as they were quite often when I was young and first moved to Sydney, because I remember the horror of that with multiple shudders.
I feel better than OK that some young Christians are now so skilled at being right in the middle of Mardi Gras, serving people and happy to gently witness to Jesus. (1 Peter 3:16)
I feel better than OK that Christian ministries have grown for gay/same-sex-attracted Christians who will not lie about the nature of their desires, but who will also not lie about their greater desire to follow Jesus in whatever he is found to teach.
I’m OK with the opportunity to say again that Christians are called to love all gay people, and we call gay Christian people to take Jesus’ call to sexual purity seriously.
What I Appreciate about Being Asked to Feel Weird
And here’s is another positive feeling worth exploring. I feel it very helpful to embrace right now the many ways Jesus calls me to be weird. This month helps me exercise more than one weird muscle at a time. It ain’t all about sex. It never is.
Jesus calls me to follow his teaching on sexuality, but love and welcome all who don’t.
Jesus calls me to life-long faithfulness to one other person if I have made that commitment, yet an even greater eternal faithfulness to him.
Jesus calls me not to be a lover of money, but to supremely love his Father.
Jesus calls me to be generous, and to work out how to live among the poor.
Jesus calls me to be pure about my words, in a culture that uses words for power.
Jesus calls me to be a person of habitual churching, in a culture all about a spiritual me.
Being the Best Weird Guys We Can Be
These reflections have been greatly helped by a book on our bookstall. It is called ‘Being the Bad Guys’, by Stephen McAlpine. It shows us how deeply the shift away from biblical Christianity is in our culture, how not to freak out about it, and how to begin to live fruitfully in light of it.
He says, we need to be the best bad guys we can be, given how the world views us. Read him. I think we are not always seen as bad, but are almost always seen as weird. And when the going gets weird, I’m getting going!
