Messages from the World Vision debacle

And the Pharisees asked him, "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?".
Jesus replied, "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.  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments."
Then the Pharisees said, "What about the third greatest?"
Jesus said, "Oppose anything gay."

Okay, so the last two lines of that are somewhat apocryphal (and completely tongue in cheek), but if the Bible actually said that, even this would not support the actions and attitudes from some of our brothers and sisters regarding the recent decision and reversal of World Vision's employment stance on homosexuality.  If you aren't familiar with it, you can Google it.

tl;dr version: On Monday, World Vision says, "Okay, we won't discriminate against employees in same-sex marriages."  Tuesday, the Christian Right (not all, but some) is in an uproar and threatens to drop the children they're sponsoring.  Thursday, World Vision reverses its stance.

I hope to keep this pointed and following a logical progression, but no promises.  I do promise no insults though.  ...and commence rant now.

 <rant>

First of all, World Vision is not a church.  They are an ecumenical non-profit organization providing aid to people in need.  Their employees are just that, employees for an ecumenical non-profit organization.  A shift is taking place in the church today, and more and more churches are changing their stance on the sinfulness of homosexuality.  As an ecumenical organization (clearly this is the record for most times saying "ecumenical" in one paragraph) World Vision decided they would leave this highly divisive issue out of their employment practices and leave it up to individual churches.  They are not in the business of indoctrinating stances on types of baptism, what happens to the Eucharist elements, and so forth.

 I believe this was the right move.  Why?  Well, I work in HR; specifically recruiting.  When we look for someone to fill a job, we try to place the person who is most qualified to perform the job duties.  We look for a couple other things as well, namely safety, hence criminal background checks, and we would prefer people who buy into the mission of our organization.  If someone meets those criteria and has another issue that is not relevant to performing the job, it's none of our business.  Nor should it be.

Shouldn't we as a church (in the holy catholic {universal} sense) want this to be the case with people trying to feed the poor?  Should it matter that someone who disagrees with us on a highly contested doctrinal issue is trying to do good work in the name of Christ with a Christian organization?  (especially if they're the most qualified person!) Here's what Jesus says about people who are not "with us" doing work in His name:

 “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”  “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”  Luke 9:49-50
Or in Mark 9:39-40 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. " (emphasis mine)

Based on the rest of World Vision's hiring stances, these employees in same-sex marriages are doing this work in Jesus' name.  We're not talking about people from different religions doing this; we're talking about people who follow Jesus. How can we, as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God here on earth, not want to encourage this?  Even if homosexuality is a sin, should we not encourage these acts of love?  Do we discourage people living lives of gluttony or pride or lust from doing charitable work for a Christian organization?  Of course not, but we single out the LGBT community.

Tangent:  I would claim, based on the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), that we should even encourage secular (Half the Sky) and other religious (Islamic Relief) organizations doing the work of the Kingdom.  As they serve "the least of these" they're serving Jesus whether they realize it or not.

Now, just for a moment, let's forget what I said.  For the sake of argument, let's say World Vision changing their stance to allow employees in same-sex marriages was wrong.  Let's say I currently sponsor a child through World Vision, but I disagree with their decision.  So I'm going to end my commitment to that child by cancelling my World Vision sponsorship.  That'll show them, right?  Right?  Well, maybe a little.  But it really shows that child that I care more about some doctrinal issue than I do about them.  You can flip that around for those considering pulling their sponsorship after the reversal. 

Think about all the messages we're sending here.  

To LGBT Christians-"I'm sorry.  Your desire to do the work of Christ is not welcome here."  

To our fellow Christians-"You need to believe everything I do the way that I do, which is the right way." 

To the non-Christian community-"We Christians cannot agree on anything.  An action meant to unite us divided us even further."  

To the people receiving aid from World Vision-"Sorry. Meeting your material needs is not as important as meeting our need to be right."  

To World Vision-"Your mission should only proceed if you believe everything the same as I do."

I'm tired of these messages being sent again and again, recycled and reworded in different ways.  I'm tired of our LGBT brothers and sisters being singled out and pushed out.  I'm tired of the religious right claiming "THE Biblical view" or "THE Christian view" as if theirs is the only one, with no possibility for error, and no room for discussion or respectful disagreement.  I'm tired of the religious left calling the right "bigots" instead of building bridges toward empathy.  More than all of this though, I'm tired of Christ and his church being defined by what we're against and not what we're for.  I want to be defined by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; empathy, engagement, and empowerment; justice and mercy; shalom.

</rant>

Patrick Stewart, Yul Brynner, and Me

I am balding.

There, I said it.  I've been in denial for the past six years, when the recession apparently hit not only the economy, but my hairline as well.  It has been thinning out in the front, and I have been unable to accept this inevitability of male aging.

My Grandpa Sutter (the bearded one) and two of his brothers; the greatest man I've ever known, but damn this gene passed down to me!

Every minute away from work, I cover my head with a Cubs hat or one of two "newsy" caps, which I love to wear, but the time has come to face reality.  I am going to be bald.  I have three options I can take with this; I can hold on to the past as long as I can, growing it, and trying to style it to where it looks the least amount of bald, I can accept it and realize that I will more resemble George Costanza than I ever wanted to, or I can embrace it, meaning shave it all off.

I have been going with the first option for far too long, and I can't stand the second option, so it looks as though option three would be my best bet...except for one thing.  On the left side of my head, I have a protruding mole the size of Texas.  Now, I don't want to be vain (which this post thus far would not lead you to believe), but this mole would become my caricature.  People would not describe me as "that bald guy" (which I could grow to be ok with; it sounds scary right now) but "that bald guy with the giant mole".  I am fairly confident with most of my body image, at least content, but this mole is taunting me.  It is a bald man's nemesis.

Enter apple cider vinegar.  My wife saw, on Facebook or Pinterest or one of those dumb sites, a post about using apple cider vinegar to remove moles.  Apparently it contains an acid that will dissolve the mole over a couple months, and it will look as though it was never there to begin with.  Skeptically, I researched the internet, and there seems to be quite a bit of anecdotal evidence in support.

So at night time, I'm wearing a headband, holding an apple cider vinegar soaked cotton ball in place.  Should this work, should it dissolve away the excess, I will be able to accept my baldness, and be happy with it, because it's who I am.

Jesus works the same was as apple cider vinegar on a mole.  When people see our sin, our insecurity, our imperfections, like the mole, they can become our caricature.  They become what people see.  They become what we see.  Jesus dissolves these away.  They are not part of who we truly are, and the more we let Jesus work in our lives, the closer we become to the image of God we were created to be.  Only then can we fully embrace our true identity.