Good Guys, Bad Guys
Right now I’m at the UM General Conference and I feel lost in the mix of warring factions—opposing sides of
Christians. It doesn’t make sense to me. Day by day, I can’t help but put our situation into ridiculously simplistic categories like good guys and bad guys. Of course, we’re the good guys. I have to desperately try to see the other side, “the bad guys,” as human beings that truly think that they’re the good guys. They love the same God, the same Jesus, and believe that He is guiding them in the Truth. Who’s right? Surely we’re not always right and they’re not always wrong. But to make a statement like that out loud is surely blasphemous in my camp (as it would be in the opposing camp as well). I feel vulnerable even typing it. I’ve seen extreme anti-abortionists standing on the street corners holding grotesque placards of aborted babies that brought tears to my eyes and turned my stomach. Their methods, to me, are completely uncalled-for and ineffective. I’ve been prepped for the arrival of the whacked out Fred Phelps and his wayward band of followers by perusing his website GodHatesFags.com. (“WBC to picket the great sodomite whorehouse (Ezek. 16:24) masquerading as the Methodist Church General Conference.”) I’m not kidding. Unless you feel like getting really riled up at the ridiculous, hate-filled lies, don’t go there. The absolute crap that they disseminate is baffling. And the idea that we, as conservatives, could possibly be linked to these people, well it makes me sick. Those sympathetic to the homosexual movement wear rainbow scarves around their neck and many are wearing large badges that read, “My child is of sacred worth,” with a picture of their presumably homosexual son or daughter. Maybe that was directed toward Fred Phelps and crew only, maybe not. But, I resent the implication that somehow I, as a conservative, believe something contrary to that statement. I actually wanted to cry as I screamed in my head, “I AGREE!!” The extent to which we ALL are sacred in the eyes of our creator is impossible to grasp.
“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…” Eph 3:17b-18
But because I subscribe to the side that believes that because of their son or daughter’s lifestyle choices, they should not be pastoring a church (which IS the true issue at hand here at Conference, not their “worth”), then to them, I am the enemy. I am the bad guy. Let it be known that I also whole-heartedly believe that an obsessive gossip, an alcoholic, a porn-addict or a compulsive liar (amongst others) should not pastor a church. All, despite their love for God, while they remain closed to being changed by Him, are continuing to live in a sinful lifestyle. Should they be part of the church? Most definitely. Should they be leading the church? I don’t believe so.
So, here we are, still disagreeing, STILL treating the other like the enemy. Conservatives vs. Liberals. Christians vs. Christians. Both camps are defensive, both sides at odds, but all of us—part of God’s family. And fringe radical groups like the delusional Fred Phelps try to step in, claim the name of a God they obviously don’t believe in and muddy the waters further. The sad conclusion that I’ve come to is that as long as we remain faulted human beings, there will always be division. True unity in Christ will not be attained until we’ve been made perfect, and we all know when that’ll happen.
