The Dangers of Condemnation

A Methodist minister married his son and his son’s male fiancé some six years ago.  He did so in the full knowledge of his superiors.  Six years later, a parishioner finds out about what the minister did.  The minister is now on trial in the church courts.  He says, if I have the quote right, that he would pick his family over the church any time.

This was the verbal summary I received of a news report on GMA this morning.  If I messed up the facts, I apologize.  This blog post presupposes the information above.

So, how do you react to the story?

“Crucify him?”

Which one, the minister or the parishioner…or the son?

“None of his ***** business?”

The parishioner?  The church hierarchy?

“Well, the Bible condemns homosexuality…”

The Bible also condemns taking the Lord’s name in vain, adultery, theft, and being jealous of your neighbor’s stuff-and those are in the Big Ten condemnations.  And we usually close our eyes to all that!  None of our business or some such...

For example, when was the last time someone was dragged into a church court for damning someone in God’s name for their driving habits?

If we want to get issue-oriented, we can focus on the fact that Jesus never talked about homosexuality, that we have to draw our condemnation for it from ‘secondary biblical authority’.

I was never taught about ‘secondary biblical authority’ in church or Seminary, never found it in my own studies of Scripture.  Jesus is the center of Scripture, the focal point of all of it, and there may be degrees of relevance of how the Bible relates to any given situation, but the authority is uniform.

But it is really, really hard to draw lessons from what Jesus didn’t teach. 

However, there are powerful lessons to be drawn from what Jesus DID teach.  And He taught a powerful lesson on Condemnation.

They dragged a woman before Him condemned to death for adultery.  They wanted Jesus to green light the stoning. 

(The Jews were not allowed to impose the death penalty without Roman approval.  Apparently, they were looking to Jesus to be the replacement authority-but that is another post.)

Jesus response: “You who are without sin cast the first stone.”  He was without sin, and He did not.       

I don’t know if that Methodist minister did a ‘cost/benefit’ analysis for himself before he agreed to perform his son’s wedding.  He let the denomination know.  They apparently had a ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ policy.  Being a father, there is always a part of me weighing costs and benefits for my children.  I don’t want them hurt, I want to protect them forever, against everything, and it hurts that I can’t, even when its “good for them”.  But where my children are concerned, the cost/benefit is not about me, but about them.

He acted out of love.  And it appears that he would do it again.  And damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.  I would do that for my kids. 

“You’d pick your kids over Jesus?”

Let's consider that question: Would I pick my kids over the condemnation of my church?  No brainer.  Would I pick my kids over Jesus?  The Jesus I worship wouldn't ask that. 

The person most damaged by this news report, in my opinion, is the parishioner who brought the charges against the minister.  It could be argued that he did nothing wrong, that he was within his rights, that he did what the church should have done six years earlier.

You could argue that.  Six years ago, a father presided at his son’s wedding.  Six years later, the parishioner finds out and gets the minister charged. 

Six years have passed and how many other sins have gone by ignored because the world pronounces them “okay”?  Six years have passed and how many other sins have gone by forgiven by Jesus because that is why Jesus died on the cross?  Six years have passed and something in the parishioner has so sharpened in his soul that those years of relationship with the minister are suppressed.

Jesus looked at the assembled leaders of the Jews and told them, “You who are without sin, cast the first stone.”  He was without sin, and he did not.