How Christians Are Killing Christianity
A Washington Times op-ed points out how faith is necessary for our nation to work well. Agreed. But sometimes those of us of faith are our own worst enemies.
This Free Press piece is long and painful. It is about the evils of “conversion therapy” – efforts to help gay people not be gay – faith-based efforts. Let’s start with a simple premise – Christianity holds that homosexual practice is sinful – as is heterosexual practice outside the bonds of marriage. I add that last clause to point out that all of us, every last one of us, harbors desires that are, in Christian parlance, “sinful.” The question is not, and never has been about desire – it is about practice – how you deal with your desires. Sinful desires are a part of our, again in Christian parlance, “fallen” nature. Our job is not to purge those desires – that is God’s job. Our job is to control them.
What the Free Press article describes as conversion therapy is entirely wrong-headed. The so-called therapy is an effort, often shame-inducing and verbally abusive effort, to deny people’s desires. You do not tell a thief that they must purge themselves of their desire to steal, you simply tell them to stop stealing. You offer them control mechanisms to help them make sure they do not steal, but the desire is never really at issue. Efforts to talk people that struggle with a desire for same-sex encounters out of that desire are misguided, and and certainly not therapeutic. They can be abusive.
That said, Christianity is not really “therapeutic” anyway. Therapy is about disease and cure. Christianity is about sin and grace and God – very different things. Jesus was not a therapist, He was a preacher and a teacher and a Savior. Again, very different things. Christianity hurts itself when it abuses people to be sure. But it corrupts itself when it confuses itself with therapeutic practice. You need no more evidence of this corruption than the recent change in many Christian expressions declaring that homosexuality is not sinful.
Christianity routinely deals with sin in its midst – generally with grace, patience and encouragement. But grace is about forgiveness, not changing what is and is not sinful to do. Patience endures through recidivism, but still holds the standards. Encouragement supports those that struggle, but does not deny the struggle. Jesus saved His rebukes for the wrongful religious leaders of His day. The common sinner He did not rebuke, but He did hold the standard.
It seems like today, on the issue in question, we have only two choices in faith- abandon the standard, or be worthy of a rebuke from Jesus. I have to think there is a different way from either of those extremes. It is incumbent on us, Christ’s church, to find it – the stakes are very high.
The post How Christians Are Killing Christianity appeared first on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
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