I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me anymore, but it still does. I recently came across an article talking about how the song “Girl Crush” by Little Big Town has been banned by many country radio stations around the country. As the argument goes, the song promotes the “gay agenda”. Of course anyone who actually listens to the song knows this is NOT what the song is promoting. In brief the song is about a woman who is jealous of her lover’s mistress. She has a girl crush on her in the sense that she wishes she was her so that she could be everything her lover wished she could be.
Despite the fact that these radio stations are incredibly incompetent (I say incompetent because given their area of expertise they should know how to interpret a song), they seem to be completely blind to the fact that country music regularly celebrates having extramarital affairs and enjoying excessive amounts of alcohol? I suppose if country music stations want to take a moral high ground on what they chose to play they would not have very many options.
This is yet another example of the blatant hypocrisy that exists within conservative Christianity.
Pharisaism
The frustrating part about Pharisaism is that the individual being accused rarely, if ever, comes to the realization that they are living life this way.
Perhaps the most significant example for this form of hypocrisy (and complete irrationality) is in the LGBT conversation? The refrain can be heard everywhere “being gay is a sin!” okay, let’s suppose for the sake of the argument it is. How is that sin any different from being a gossip? Why are these same Christians not lining up in droves to protest the blatant gossip that is prevalent in our society?
How about Divorce? Divorce is just as common in the church as it is outside. Is the “world” to blame for this too? Are the “gays” or “secular progressives” the reason for all of the emotional and sexual abuse that takes place in the church?
How is it that the Church can welcome a convicted criminal into their community, but not a homosexual? I suspect if the church were to rid itself of sinners it would be a very lonely place.
Imagine what the church would be like if we held ourselves to the same standard as we hold others.
Some will no doubt argue that the criminal has repented of their sin where the homosexual perpetually lives in sin. This is an awful misunderstanding of what sin is. First, repentance is relative. If we truly repented then eventually we would all be perfect. Since there is not an infinite number of sins one can commit it’s not a far leap to think that one would eventually be perfect – having never repeated any sin they had repented from.
Second, we are under this impression that sin is for us to judge in others. With the exception of Church leadership, there is no biblical justification to support that we have a right to judge sin in others. In fact, we have much support to the contrary. In the end it makes no difference on what we think sin is or is not. In the end, sin is between God and the individual, and has nothing to do with the Church.
Third, do we not all live in perpetual sin? Is the sin Christians perform any different than the sin non-Christians perform? Does not everyone in the church knowingly live in perpetual sin?
How can we remove the specks of sawdust in the eyes of others when there are gigantic planks in our own?
There is no place for politics in God’s kingdom. God is judge and jury; and he is just. We are not Him, and we should stop pretending we are.
It’s important to understand that although we may convince ourselves of these irrational beliefs they are unjustifiable. And those who continue to oppress others based on their own bigotry will be held accountable by God with the same judgement and vigor they have shown others.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Matthew 7:21-23
charlesburchfield
April 25, 2015Yes! This is the hardest truth I am facing today; I really cannot fix anyone.
Delwyn Campbell
September 5, 20152 Timothy 3:16–17 (ESV)
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
If this is part of the Word that you have hidden in your heart, it will be inevitable that you will be in a hostile relationship to sin, and to those who are unrepentant of their sins. The difference between the repentant sinner and the unrepentant sinner is their relationship to sin: the former hates the things that he does, while the latter relishes it, flaunts it, and celebrates others who practice it (see Romans 1). Which of those two is a more accurate description of the homosexual “community?”