The Odor of Sanctimony
[apologies for the formatting problems; this was one of my early postings, and I'm not sure what happened. I can't fix it, though!)
Are you a practicing Christian? Are you on a mission to bring sinners to Jesus? Would you like to introduce cranky Damozel to some good old time Christian fellowship, as soon as you get rid of the people you think Jesus probably doesn't want us to hang out with? Well, before you sit me down for a cozy chat about the sinners you want me to join with you in casting into outer darkness, let's reflect for a moment on what Jesus said about pretty, clean white urns filled with rotting bones.
Are you serenely conscious of your own virtuous heterosexuality---as attested by your two marriages? Do you like to say "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve"? Are you all for school prayer? Are you down with Leviticus when it comes to same-sex relationships? Are you secretly waiting for God's hurricanes to smite South Beach in Miami like he smote Sodom and Gomorrah?
And is Jesus your best friend? Does your best friend want you to help him decide who can follow him and who can't and to drive out the ones whose particular sins you don't like?
See, I'm not so sure about that. I am not sure what the Syriac was for "I don't actually like you that much," but I think it might have been "Hypocrite!" He said that a lot. Let's see what else he said:
Does Jesus really want you for a sunbeam?
“Read the Bible,” my friend said impatiently, when I questioned the theological soundness of some of her beliefs, particularly those that had to do with excluding certain other Christians from the community of Christ.
Fine. Let's start with the Gospels, shall we? Ready, get set, go.
FIRST I wanted to ask her about some of the errors that Jesus himself specifically addressed..
Consider Matthew ch.5:
“They [the Hebrews] were told, “A man who divorces his wife must give her a note of dismissal.” But I am telling you: “If a man divorces his wife for any cause other than unchastity he involves her in adultery; and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
In addition, note this:
The question was put to him: ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? ‘ This was to test him. He asked in return, “What did Moses command you?’ They answered, ‘Moses permitted a man to divorce his wife by note of dismissal.’ Jesus said to them, ‘It was because your minds were closed that he gave you this rule. In the beginning, God created males and females….A man and his wife become one flesh. They are no longer two individuals; they are one. What God joins together, a man cannot separate.’ When the disciples questioned him about this later, he said, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; likewise, if she divorces her husband and remarries, she commits adultery.”
I mention this because if we are going to go all the way back to Leviticus to find authority for finding homosexuality an abomination, we need to bear in mind that divorce---and I and quite a few whited sepulchres of my acquaintance are divorced---is specifically condemned by Jesus. The Catholic church had it right about that, actually. And yet very few of the divorced people I know suffer pangs of remorse and pray for forgiveness. None that I actually know, including myself, have remained celibate since. Adulterers all! For a pithy comment on adultery, consult the Ten Commandments. And for a few unpithy recommendations on how to deal with fornications in various forms, refer to....Leviticus.
If we exclude or burden our fellow Christians who have not complied with Christ's instructions, most Protestant churches would be empty.
If you're not divorced and have never fornicated, good for you! Are you a pure temple of the Holy spirit?
From Matthew ch. 6:
"Be careful not to make a show of your religion before men; if you do, no reward awaits you in Heaven...When you pray, do not be like hypocrites who make a production of saying their prayers standing up in the synagogue and out on street corners for everyone to see. They have their reward already; they will receive nothing further. When you pray, go into a room by yourself, shut the door, and pray silently to your Father who is present in secret; and your Father who sees what is secret will reward you. In your prayers, don't babble like heathen who believe that the longer and the louder they pray, the more likely they are to be heard. Don't be like them; don't imitate them. God already knows what your needs are."
My friend who is an evangelical Christian feels that the injunction to the Apostles and to Christians generally to witness for Christ and spread the good news is a gloss on this passage. I am not sure if it is or it isn't, because the selfsame friend got into a snit with me when I suggested that we consider the context of certain other passages on which she relied for her condemnation of homosexuality. And if I adopt her assumption that the Gospel writers who recorded Jesus's sayings a varying number of generations later were divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, I have to assume that he meant what he said here, yes? What price school prayer or religious services on TV?
At any rate, it's very clear that just saying that you are saved and that you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior is not enough. Even if you appear on TV and cast out devils and heal the sick, Jesus isn't necessarily your best friends. He said so.
Matthew ch. 7:
Not everyone who calls me “Lord, Lord” will enter Heaven, but only those who do God’s will. When that day comes, many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, cast out devils in your name, and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I’ll tell them to their faces: “I didn’t know you; get out of my sight, with your evil ways!”
Luke ch. 6:
“Why do you keep calling me “Lord, Lord”—and never do what I tell you? …If you hear and don’t act on what I say your are like a man who has built his house on a sinkhole. The house will collapse and fall with a great crash.”
“Don’t you presume to judge me,” my friend said. "Jesus said: let the one who is without sin cast the first stone." Aha, good point.
From Matthew ch. 7:
Don’t pass judgment on others and you won’t be judged yourself. As you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever action you take against others will be dealt back to you. Why do you look at the speck of dust in your friend’s eye without dealing first with the huge splinter in your own? How can you say to your friend, “Let me get that speck out for you” if there is a splinter in your own eye. If you do, you’re a hypocrite! First, get rid of that splinter the size of a plank that's in your own eye. Only then can you see clearly enough to be helpful in getting the speck out of your friend’s.”
From Luke ch. 6:
“Don’t pass judgment and you won’t be judged. Acquit and you will be acquitted. Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
This presents a considerable initial problem for a Christian who presumes to judge another Christian. It’s not an unqualified prohibition, but there is a strong suggestion that you'll be judged in the same manner in which you mete out judgments on others. Furthermore, Jesus notes that self-righteously attempting to eradicate the sins we see in others is almost always suspect. If you aren't free from sin yourself, your own eye for sin is occluded and if your vision is occluded, you really aren't a good judge of what is and is not sin. This seems to be a pretty powerful suggestion that the business of a Christian is to address his or her OWN sins, not to be concerned with correcting the sins of others.
In other words, if you're a sinner yourself---which as a Christian you presumably believe that you are---you are not in a position to judge sin in others. You haven't got the necessary clarity. Furthermore? It's none of your business. Your business is yourself.
John ch. 8: “Your judgment is human judgment, applying worldly standards; but I judge no man. And yet if I were to judge, my judgment would be truthful and correct, because in all my judgments I act together with God.”
Only God knows the whole tale from first to last and Jesus specifically warned against preempting the authority of God to assess the worth of a human being. That's something that people who want that eye in exchange for an eye and the tooth in exchange for a tooth forget. . If we are to think of God as a parent, we have to think of even the most egregious criminal as a child. Consider the feelings of a loving parent toward even a wicked child and the allowances that such a parent might make. Qualities that an outsider can't see and acts that an outsider wouldn't know would have to be weighed in the balance.
Extenuating circumstances and mitigating acts would be considered as well. And the parent wouldn't thank the outsider for being harsh, unmerciful, and more severe than the true facts require in punishing the child.
I infer from these passages that it really is morally necessary to distinguish the sinner from the particular act, however appalling by the standards that the society applies. As for punishing the crime, the social compact may absolutely require it, and yet we clearly ought to proceed with care and to ensure that even in inflicting punishments we affirm the dignity of the person we are authorized to punish.
John ch. 8, some more:
The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who was guilty of adultery. They said, “We caught her in the act of adultery. The law of Moses requires us to stone an adulterer. What do you say?” They asked so because they wanted to force him to deny the authority of the law so that they would have grounds to accuse and proceed against him.
But Jesus stooped down and started writing in the ground as if he didn’t hear. When they continued to ask, he stood up and said, “Whichever one of you is not a sinner, throw the first stone.” And then he stooped down and carried on writing in the ground.
And everyone present, after giving this some thought, put down their stones and went away, leaving Jesus alone with the woman.
He said to her, “Where are your accusers? Has any man condemned you?”
She said, “No, Lord. No man.”
He said, “I won’t condemn you either. Go, and don’t sin anymore.”
I've always loved the Monty Pythonesque aspect of this story. It's really much funnier than the stoning scene in Life of Brian. I love the story of Jesus writing or drawing on the ground when they asked him what they should do and then zinging them with one of the greatest one-liners in human history. Then there is the hilarious picture of them standing there, stopped in their tracks, and then one by one by one walking off, till there is no one left but Jesus and the adulteress---who he himself refused to condemn.
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6:44:58 AM 
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