The Rainbow Dilemma
Rarely do I rant and rave about a particular topic on my blog. I just try to share experiences I’ve gone through in my life, so that you may be able to relate or learn from any of these experiences. Today’s post needs to start off with this explaining, because I’m not ranting and raving, I’m just writing an experience.
In this post I shared that on my vacation, Carie and I drove to the tip of Massachusetts to go to the beach. This is a place known as Provincetown, and has a particular reputation of being inhabited heavily by the homosexual community. The beach was small and private and we were pretty much with a small handful of people the whole day.
That evening however, we drove to the downtown area of P-Town where the shops are world renowned for all things art. We began to walk through the crowded streets, and I instantly knew I had never been in a setting like this. I’ve seen guys holding hands with guys and shows like Grey’s Anatomy on Television have tried really hard to push their agenda of making me think this is normal behavior, but this atmosphere proclaimed things that I had never seen before.
Almost the entire town it seemed, save for a handful of shop dwellers, derived their identities and festivities from dressing opposite of their culturally perceived genders (aka drag queens), walking around in their underwear, or simply holding hands with their loved ones who happened to be the same gender.
Now before you judge me for being a biggot or old-fashioned or a compromiser or whatever you might judge me based on your perspective of what I’ve written so far, you should know that I believe that sex is a gift from God, is part of his plan to populate the earth, and is designed especially for a married man and a married woman (to each other, by the way).
The purpose of this post, which I’m sure will receive both positive and negative comments, is not to bring condemnation on these actions though, but to bring condemnation to the church. About halfway through the town, there was a big white church, as there commonly is in the center of most towns in the US. It was a mainline denomination. There was an event going on at the chuch the same evening I walked through the town. It wasn’t music (though there was a drag queen singing karaoke nearby), and it wasn’t sharing the true love of God that comes through Jesus Christ. It was Bingo.
In fact, as I walked by, the bingo dj yelled out as loud as he (or she) could, “O-69″ to the wild cheers of the crowd around.
I was sick. And I thought to myself, “Why aren’t we doing something about this?” I don’t mean something like hand out gospel tracks and preach against the long hair and short skirts of the passerbys, I mean, “Why has the church of Jesus Christ just abandoned this town. Why wasn’t anyone doing something?
I’ll be asking myself this question for a while, and my prayer is that God would consume me with the answer and the remedy. My hope is that someday my church will be able to plant a church that leads people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ in provincetown, Mass. A church that will not have a freakin bingo game in the middle of the city during night life or even have a nerdy guy with a bullhorn yelling “you’re going to hell!”, but will be a shining light of the love of God in a place that mistakenly believes that “feeling good” is what life is all about.
Things I didn’t say in this post
Homosexuals are going to hell. (No more than the deacon who is into porn or the pastor who cheats on his wife deserves hell. Or the girlscout who steals money from her cookie sales. Sin is sin is sin. God hates all of it.)
Homosexuals are a lower class of people. (They are not.)
Homosexuals are going to heaven. (Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father, but by me” )
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Good food for thought Marty. It definitely deserves prayerful consideration. Thanks. ~JP
This is so good Marty.
I don’t think it’s an accident that the hot-button issues for traditional evangelicals– the sins we capitalize the “S” on– are ones that a man who is attracted to women can’t commit.
I’m becoming increasingly clear that abortion is bad in all sorts of ways. And for me, the jury is still out on homosexuality.
But the people who have been setting Christianity’s agenda, who have been perverting God’s word– these people can not have abortions. If they are attracted to women (as most men are) then homosexuality is not an issue for them. How convenient, that they can’t commit these things they’ve chosen to emphasize.
I think that one reason for the rampant promoscuity and perversity that is apparent in places like Province Town is that we’ve given these people no reason to take on any of our values. We have so thoroughly rejected them, why should they think we have anything to offer them?
It’s a particular pet peeve of mine when we whine that these communities are Godless. After spending years telling them that God hates them, what did we expect was going to happen?
Now that I’m done with my rant, I’d like to throw a question at you:
Let’s suppose FC Provincetown opened. I agree Bingo is a rather bad idea. What should this church do specifically to reach out? I mean this as a real question, not a rhetorical device.
I try hard to remember what a wise peer once told me regarding the same issue (homosexuality) “Why does it matter to you?” and “Who does it matter to?”
The answers would be, “because I want ‘them’ to experience salvation” and “It only really matters to God”
(well, that’s what I said, doesn’t exactly make it the right answer…)
So, what’s so wrong with Bingo? It keeps the AA folks out of bars, gets the tax collectors together with the taxed, and keeps the doors open for the questioning wanderer. Some might think a rockin’ band with bass and drums would be more appropriate to reach out to the average community population, but in a place like P-town, what IS average?
Also? Hey, seriously, society wise, we really have kicked homosexuals out of normal average everyday living… they are either flagrantly outed by media attention for raising children or being community activists, or totally ignored and even harrassed by the local “townies”. Why shouldn’t they congregate in a community that supports them? And why does a community support them? $$$$
You would rather a community potluck I suppose? If you want to attract the average population, you have to EMBRACE the average population. That’s what homeless shelters do – and soup kitchens – and charities…
BRAAAAAKE… sorry, got up on a high horse. The dismount is sure a lot tougher than the mount!! Let me have a moment to gather my thoughts…. whoops, they scattered waaaaaay too far… this is gonna take some time…
thanks for the thought provoking content!
if I get back to the states, I’ll run that church.
This is good. I share that similar burden as we have a few homesexuals living in our neighborhood in Smalltown, USA. I often wonder how they can be reached out to….
BTW, found you on my brother’s (Dave Cross) site.
great stuff marty, really great
thats big coming from a homophobe like myself