On the church

(really this is a rant)

Another friend of mine was hurt by the church today.

I look back on that sentence (As I left it, wondering if this was even worth writing) and I feel a myriad of emotions.

First, I feel sadmad.

Then I just get angry.

And then I sit down and write stuff like this that may get me in trouble.

My heart cries out for justice.

Church, I am tired of defending you and honestly, I am tired of making excuses, because you know what? I agree with those that condemn you.

Let me give you some examples:

A young woman overseas for the first time is questioning beyond what religion (In the church) taught her and is finding a God that doesn’t make sense in the church( One full of love instead of condemnation, one who wants a relationship instead of an attendee) foundation she grew up in. Instead of nurturing her and surrounding her with God’s love; she is gaslighted.

A young man who loves Jesus with every fiber of his being and yet loves another man. He is cast out of the church until he either becomes straight or celibate.

A woman who had an affair and was told to leave the church and as far as I know never returned; though she tried to seek reconciliation.

A church leader whose husband was recording her in the shower, posting it online, and had other fantasies she didn’t feel safe with. She went to counseling, sought all the right “help” but in the end didn’t feel safe in her own home. She asked for a divorce and was asked to step down from leadership and condemned for asking for a divorce.

A young believer who wants to go into missions is told by her church she needs discipleship. She does everything the church asks of her, her disciplers think she is ready for the mission field, but is ultimately rejected because she has a heart for the LGBTQ community.

And the list goes on, and on, and on, and on.

Stories of believers, seekers, atheists, LGBTQ, the “Them” seeking out Jesus and yet the church turns them away by standing in judgment. By hiding behind thier steeples, traditions, and podiums.

By choosing to be “right” instead of being loving and kind like Jesus was.

It makes me ashamed to be called a Christian because the moment anyone mentions they’re a Christian the other party goes on the defensive. And in honesty it’s not the “them”s fault. It’s the Christians.

This difference that the church now vs the past; to some extent fascinated me because in every example you look at in the bible Jesus did the exact opposite.

He didn’t give a flying fuck about the religious people, in fact, he condemns them on multiple occasions. He condemns them for thier traditionalism, for thier judgment (The woman who was about to be stoned, chances are she was seduced by one of the religious leaders), over and over and over and over again when Jesus deals with the religious people of the day he condemns them.

Why should the church be any different? Why have they grown so arrogant that they feel they then have the right to turn and condemn everyone else?

Ummm.. HELLO! Jesus didn’t reach out to the church in His day and I honestly don’t believe He would now. He reached out to the whores, the adulterors, the polygamous, the untouchables of the day, the demon possessed man. HE REACHED OUT TO THE BROKEN!

Let’s break that down a little more. The woman caught in adultery. Jesus didn’t condemn her he condemned those who were about to stone her (Let he who is without sin cast the first stone) and said “Then neither do I condemn you.” Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save.

The leper, a man who hasn’t been touched in years, and Jesus reaches out and touches him healing him.

Jesus didn’t come to condemn but to save, he cut to the heart of the human need and met them in a way that revolutionized thier lives forever.

He over and over cuts to the chase of the hearts of the broken, not to make them into the perfect Christians but to heal them. He doesn’t tell them to go and live and do something different except with the woman caught in adultery. He doesn’t tell the Samaritan woman to divorce her five husbands and marry just one. Because of her faith, many come to believe. BECAUSE of her faith, MANY came to believe. Did you see that? Did you see what Jesus did? He saved, not condemned.

You church, are so fucked up and broken because you think and act like you’re above that. You have come to think that it is your job to condemn and cast out. You’ve become the elite! You play judge, jury, and executioner. Let me phrase that differently. You play Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God. You think your job as the church is to make everyone into the perfect “Christian” and honestly, that term has become so convoluted that I don’t even know what it means anymore.

In your estimation: The lepers? They’re the atheists. The untouchables? The LGBTQ community, the adulterers; well you get my point. The fact is Church you are not called to yourself and Satan is winning the battle by doctrine only.

You’ve become so caught up in the doctrinal differences that are outside of the gospel that you’ve become the Pharisees. You’ve become so caught up in the fact that the LGBTQ community are in “sin” that you’ve become those Pharisees that are standing over them with a stone. You don’t even know thier stories, you don’t know their hurts, you don’t know what it’s like to change who you are to simply “fit in” to the church and if anyone ever found out you would lose everything. Do you care what that feels like? You have no idea because few to not many of you have ever had to hide. You judge because it’s a “sin” and don’t stop to be Jesus. You don’t stop to hear their voice, thier pain, their hurt. You’ve become so caught up in what is “doctrinally correct” that you divide yourself and become less effective for those you were meant to be Jesus for in the first place.

You’ve become so caught up in the definition of what sin is and isn’t you’ve become irrelevant in lost communities. You have become so ineffective because you’ve lost the heart of Jesus.

I did a google search just now and there’s page after page after page of “How to heal when the church hurts you.” Doesn’t that sadden you? Yes, I know that there are those within the church, individuals who do not stand with the stone; who are not so concerned with the “right” but more concerned with the ‘love’ but as a whole church, you’re standing with the stone.

Church, you’re standing with the stone; over LGBTQ, adulterers, atheists, the “them”. You’re standing with a stone. Don’t you trust God the change people’s hearts and habits? It’s God’s job to be right and your job to be like love like Jesus did.

So my challenge church is this. Stop hiding behind your steeples, stop hiding behind your stones and wake up. Wake up to the fact that you weren’t called to minister to each other. Yes, fellowship with one another, love one another, strengthen one another; but realize that that is not who you were meant to be.

You are meant to be with the broken, with those in need. You are called to the LGBTQ community, the adulterers, the “them” of the world. YOU ARE CALLED TO THIS and I KNOW this to be true by Jesus’ example

Stop being Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God. LOVE because that is what you are called to do. Let God do the rest. If he wants a gay man or a lesbian woman to be straight that is God’s and the Holy Spirit’s call to change; not you to force. If God wants a woman or man to stop being an adulterer God will change their heart, not you.

It’s time to let the Holy Spirit do his job and for you as the Church to once more be what you were intended to be.

Wake up! You’re missing it.