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03/25/2014
Christian charity acknowledges reality of married, gay Christians; usual suspects lose collective sh*t
World Vision, a Christian charity that operates out of same-sex-marriage-having Washington state, has announced that it will hire Christians who happen to be in same-sex marriages. The charity says it is doing so not because it endorses same-sex marriage, per se, but that it wants to avoid controversy so that it can focus on its actual mission. Imagine that.
Within seconds, the politically active evangelicals who have thoroughly harmed religion in the eyes of so many young Americans went absolutely batsh*t crazy about the minor act of tolerance. Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber offered this:
“When faced with a choice to either go with the path of least resistance and embrace the lie of the world and the lie of the father of lies – versus embracing the truth of Christ and the truth of scripture and standing firm on the Word of Life, World Vision has chosen to take the path of least resistance,” he tells OneNewsNow.
...
“This very dramatic, counter-biblical, apostate move by World Vision shows where they stand,” he concludes. “They have destroyed their credibility as a Christian organization with one fell swoop – and it’s heart-wrenching.” [ONN]
Franklin Graham, son of Billy, is all like, "unify, schmunify":
World Vision maintains that their decision is based on unifying the church – which I find offensive – as if supporting sin and sinful behavior can unite the church. [BillyGraham.org]
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler says:
The worst aspect of the World Vision U.S. policy shift is the fact that it will mislead the world about the reality of sin and the urgent need of salvation. Willingly recognizing same-sex marriage and validating openly homosexual employees in their homosexuality is a grave and tragic act that confirms sinners in their sin — and that is an act that violates the gospel of Christ. [Al Mohler]
And Twitter is filled with all kinds of anger:
To show you just some of the reaction. You get the basic idea.
In acting like this, these far-right voices, in their reliably loud attempt to speak for all Christians, are showing just how intolerant they intend to be—then, now, and always. What World Vision is doing here is precisely what they should do. The organization doesn't want to support same-sex marriage, which is its right. However, the charity is recognizing the reality that gay Christians do, in fact, exist and that same-sex marriage is, in fact, legal in many states, including their home base of operations. Even if they'd rather those two realities not be true, those realities are true. So rather than mire their entire enterprise in a political debate that they are so clearly going to lose, the way others have forever tarnished or even ruined their operations over this issue, World Vision is acknowledging the facts in hopes that it can move forward with its, well, world vision. And if a married gay Christian possesses the skills and capabilities that best qualifies him or her for the job, then World Vision is going to use those skills and apply them to its operational goals rather than let its intolerance define its DNA.
If more Christian operations had chosen this path, ours would be an infinitely better world. If an organization like Focus on the Family had chosen, ten or so years ago, to retain its opposition to marriage equality refused to act in an aggressively anti-LGBT way, many of us could've probably found a way to work together on certain issues. Same goes for many other operations that do, in fact, have the potential to do good but sadly chose to define their enterprise with pointed discrimination toward a minority population. Many LGBT people (and particularly LGBT people of faith) would have been quite okay with "pro-family" organizations that choose to hold on to certain beliefs, so long as they didn't try to overstep their bounds and inscribe these faith-driven beliefs in public policy. That has always been the issue! Most of us have always granted these groups the religious freedom they deserve—it's the overextended fist that we refused to accept!
When these usual suspects were able to overextend this fist with reliable results, they got cocky. Now that they are losing, they are stunned. That's what they get for not listening to us when they had the chance. Had they made a good faith attempt to hear and work with us rather than shun and work against us, this earth would be a happier, more united, more peaceful place. They chose war. They chose animus. They chose wrongly. That's on them.
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