One Equal Life

Nic Tall, member of C of E’s General Synod & secretary of the General Synod Gender and Sexuality Group, has published a piece on the Via Media site looking at the how conservative evangelicals have been preparing for a structural split in the Church for years. He cites various groups and causes, and of course it all comes to a head over queer people. As ever.

Do read his piece. It’s compelling.

But please, remember two things.

First: 

These terrible conservative evangelicals who are plotting to ruin everything are very much loved by Jesus. Don’t get me wrong: Do I think they are acting badly? You bet I do. Do I think they forget Jesus as they make their plans? You bet I do. Do I think they throw the Bible out with the bathwater as they plan empire and sit in boardrooms like some kind of ecclesial version of Succession? You bet I do. But do I think Jesus loves each and every one of them despite all of that? 

Count on it.

If Jesus only loves us when we get it right, we are all in a mess. That these guys have always and continue to plan to exclude me from God’s Church is not the issue. Salvation is not about me. God’s love for them is not dependent on how they treat me.

(Though I confess I do struggle to understand how anyone who knows the wonder of God’s love could plan and act so carefully to exclude others from that love… )

Second: Romans 2.1

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

There's always a risk that we inclusive Christians right now, reading Nic’s piece and some other social media responses to it, try to work out how we might do the very same thing as the conservatives have done - but you know, for us.

In the name of Jesus, let's not do that.

What these dear, misguided conservative people have done is bad. Beyond wrong. We should not look at them and wish to emulate it. Yes, they’ve been effective. Yes, they seem to be making some headway. But as my old grandmother used to tell me - two wrongs don’t make a right. How can we proclaim that what these guys have done is awful and then ourselves plot and plan and wish we’d got in there first? 

What does this do except reveal our own sinfulness?

We do not use their methods.

We do not use their subterfuge.

We do not politick in that way.

We do not speak behind closed doors in the dark conniving to create our own version of the future, building our own armies and treasure chests and forgetting Jesus.

Either we are children of the Light or we are not.

Our cause is simple:

That all people are created equal and loved equally by God, and that the human rules of exclusion and differentiation which culture and sin have placed upon us must be cast away. 

This is at the heart of the Gospel, and we can only achieve a godly end by godly means.

I have no ulterior motives.

I have nothing to hide.

I seek one thing and one thing only - that every person be treated as a fully human being. 

This is how Jesus calls me to live, and as we approach a New Year, tempting as it is to follow the apparently 'successful' path of others, I do my (at times stuttering) best to follow this call day by day, and absolutely commend it to all.