We Have A Problem
The past few weeks there has been one particular athlete making headlines and filling social media. At the risk of further polarization, we need to admit there is a problem.
Before we get too into that, I want to tell you about one of my college roommates. We’ll call him “Carl”. Carl was a bit of an odd duck. He had hair down to his waist, wore dog collars and JNCO jeans, played the tin whistle, and learned several languages just in case he visited that country in the future. Beyond all of that, he loved God deeply and loved the least of these. He was a Theology and Ministry major who interned at one of the poorest, most mission minded churches in Oklahoma where he would regularly have to deal with drug addicts, homeless, mentally unstable, and even violent people.
After we graduated, he went on to seminary to get his Masters of Divinity. Halfway through his masters, he sent an email to several of his friends to tell them about a big change in his life. Carl was a hermaphrodite (and while this is a potentially offense term, it also refers to Carl’s real medical condition of being born with both male and female genitalia). Only two people knew outside his family, and after consulting with his therapist and several other medical professionals, he was going to stop taking the testosterone supplements that he had been forced to take his whole life and transition to living life as “female”. “Carl” became “Carla”. She had already talked to his seminary professors, and they were supportive. Carla finished her masters and graduated near the top of her class. However, during the ordination process, not only did the church prevent her from becoming an ordained pastor, but they also essentially excommunicated her because she was trans.
Like I said we have a problem. However, the problem I’m referring to has nothing to do with NCAA rules and regulations or defining genders. The problem that is persistently in everyone’s face is the church’s failure to love. The past few weeks has given the world thousands of glimpses of Christians judging, name calling, condemning, and ostracizing, not only an individual, but a population group. How many people or instances can you point to where someone tried to build an agape (an unconditional love) relationship with a trans person?
That’s the part that we keep missing. Yes, Jesus would call out sin, but he always did it after he treated them with love. In his encounter with the woman at the well, he broke cultural barriers just to talk to her and treated her better than anyone in society would have accepted. With Zaccheus, he embraced him gladly and went to his house (and out of that love Zaccheus decided on his own to repay what he had cheated). Jesus was known for eating with sinners, which for most people back then was just as controversial as it would be for us to do it today.
We are not called to save people from their sins, or even really to point out all their sins. We are called to love people as Jesus would love them. Even if the world doesn’t know all the ins and outs of the Bible or theology, they know that love is one of the most defining attributes of a Christ follower. But until we do better, thousands of people will have the same opinion as Gandi who said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”