The Salvation Hunger Games
what does it mean to hate the sin and love the sinner?
What does it mean to represent Christ? Does it mean harsh and mean-spirited? Does it meaning shaming and public humiliation? Does it mean condemning and self-aggrandising? Reader, if you think these behaviours will help you represent Christ, can you explain your reasoning? Can you tell me the thinking that led you to that conclusion?
I came across this video clip this morning and it jarred me, leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I found myself quite irritated at the pastor in this video. I found myself frustrated by and saddened for those social media Christians who lauded this pastor’s message and his harsh mean-spirited delivery. This pastor claims that his accountability to G-d requires him to call out sinners in his congregation, condemn them, and banish them or shame them publicly. He talks about a woman conceiving outside of wedlock as sinful.* He talks about not letting sin into the camp. He talks about keeping the devil out of the pews. He contrasts being compassionate with being biblical. He says sinners can’t participate in the choir, they have to leave. He says a person can’t represent Christ when they’re living in sin.
Reader, we all sin, that includes the pastor in the videoclip. What Jesus does this pastor think he’s talking about? What Bible did this guy read? What’s more important, taking a few biblical verses out of context to browbeat people for the sake of your soul before G-d, or aligning your behaviour with the Jesus Way? Will you carry the sword or the cross? Pick one, you can’t have both.
* Can I point out that Mary conceived Jesus out of wedlock? When you think of it, that’s what happened—Mary conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, not with her betrothed. Besides which, if you believe G-d created each of us, then you believe He intends each life to exist, whatever the carnal circumstances of that life’s human conception.
What Spirit are you of?
Today in Duties of the Heart study group, we discussed abstinence. What does abstinence mean to you, reader? Most of us think of the table and the bed when we hear the word abstinence. We think of carnal pleasures. We fall into the trap of idolising our disgust and calling that morality. Is that it, though? What about self-aggrandisement? What about humiliating others for our own self glory or righteousness? What about when we respond to contrition and humble admission of wrongdoing with FAFO? Shouldn’t abstinence guide us to curtail these behaviours of ours, too?
Who did Jesus choose to spread His message and plant His church? He chose Saul of Tarsus, who attended in the stoning of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen.
Who did Jesus hang out with? The Pharisees or those relegated to outside the camp? Jesus argued with and challenged the Pharisees. He sat with the sinners, saying the sick, not the healthy need a doctor.
Jesus said he who is without sin can cast the first stone. He said pluck the plank from your eye before deigning to remove the sliver from someone else’s eye. On of the great sages of Jesus’s time, Hillel the Elder, said do not do to others what you hate done to yourself. Jesus flipped that teaching on its head and taught His followers do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
What did Jesus teach about judgement in His Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 7:2 :: ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.’
So, reader, I’ll repeat my questions. What Jesus does this pastor guy in the video clip think he’s talking about? What Bible did he read?
I never understood why some Christians think they need to condemn and humiliate and publicly call out their fellow humans for the salvation of their own soul. What kind of G-d requires any of us to throw our fellow humans under the bus to win salvation? It makes Christianity into some kind of Salvation Hunger Games.
Readers, who here thinks, that in signing up Christianity, they’ve joined the Salvation Hunger Games? This would mean that G-d created humans so He could run some kind of cosmic hunger games with which to entertain himself. I’m not sure what that says about the self compassion of those who see their connection with G-d this way. I’m not sure what it says G-d. That’s an invitation for reflection.
Below you can hear an unscripted ad lib sound clip of my thoughts on this pastor’s self-aggrandising sermon in the video clip above. Note: the passage I read in this clip,is from the beginning of the third part of the sermon on the mount.
Reader, Christianity isn’t the Salvation Hunger Games. The Bible doesn’t say act like a jerk to gain your salvation.
How can we have these discussions about balancing the hating of sin and the acceptance of the sinner in a compassionate manner? Can we step outside of our disgust in order to preserve the relationship? Whom do we worship—our uncomfortable feelings and unpleasant thoughts about people’s behaviours, or G-d? Why do we seek to gate-keep G-d?
“Knowledge puffs up and love builds up.” — 1 Corinthians 8:1
I wonder, why do some preachers take such a narrow view of fornication? Why do they target single mothers and unmarried couples, rather than pastors and clergymen who violate their vows of celibacy and of marriage, who rape children and women, and all those who help these men dodge accountability and responsibility? Why not single out men cheating on their wives as fornication and sin in the church?
image: Mary and Eve stand together in a garden, illustration by Sister Grace Remington, OCSO
It smacks of a kind of misogyny, whereby men who claim religious authority project evil and sin onto the female form. It’s an ego defense mechanism men employed, reader. Mary paid Eve’s debt, Jesus forged a new path toward G-d, so why are some religious men acting like that never happened?