Brother Fire

Dan Savage, creator of the It Gets Better Project in response to GLBT teen suicides, has created a new endeavor called Not All Like That (NALT) Christians Project.   This new project encourages Christians who support Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered people to "come out" on video to remind GLBT people, their allies and Christians that not all Christians are like some of the big-name right-wing Christians who rail against LGBT people and seem to get mainstream media attention whenever it comes to the "religious point of view" on GLBT rights issues. Here is my effort in response to this call:

I am so tired. Tired of Christians who seem to have lost the meaning of what it is to be Christian. I know -- I'm opening up a can of worms here (who am I to make such judgments as to who is and who isn't Christian?), but it's getting very old to watch folks who call themselves Christians acting in a way that is so un-Christ like, AND doing it in the name of Jesus. It is simply disheartening. I've been so dismayed by others who claim to love Jesus yet have forgotten how forgiving and loving Jesus is with all of us, and that Christ calls us to behave like Him. They seem not to know how to forgive or to tolerate others. They may call themselves sinners seeking forgiveness, yet forget that their brothers and sisters are also sinners deserving forgiveness. I'm sure many of my Christian friends -- conservative and progressive alike -- have experienced this frustration. As it happens with many of us in the Social Networking world, my list of 'friends' on Face...

Yesterday Pat Robertson stated that the earthquake in Haiti was the result of Haiti making a pact with the devil during their revolution. It became clear long ago that Robertson does not speak for Christians, yet the media often presents him as a leader in the Church. Pat Robertson has become a source of ridicule for non-believers, and justifiably so. I believe that he is flirting with peril every time he makes such statements -- especially when he speaks in the name of Jesus Christ. I will pray for him and for those who give Pat Robertson the vehicle to be heard in such a big way.

I have tried to live a missional life as long as I can remember. I think that I've tried to live a missional life longer than I've known what it means to live a missional life. Some might say that I live an alternative lifestyle. Others might say that I've made some poor decisions when choosing the direction of my life: "Don't go into the helping professions -- you'll never make any money." And one of my favorite comments: "If you got paid for half the volunteer work you've done, you'd be rich!" I see these observations as a sure sign that I'm living missionally. When I say that I live a missional life, it means that I live as though I've been sent to proclaim the Word not only through traditional means (i.e. leading a faith community), but rather living the Gospel in my life's work by modeling Christian living in my day-to-day activities, living the Great Commission -- Missio Dei, everyday! To me, missional is not a technique...

Recently, I was speaking to my dear friend Virginia Walsh about how disturbing it is that Christians go after each other in the name of Jesus. The irony is that His greatest commandment is to love each other, yet we act as if Jesus' words have no meaning. I asked Virginia to write for my blog about an idea that she has to address the anger and disdain that opposing Christian camps have for one another. She sent an email introducing the post and I thought the email was as powerful as the post itself so I'm sharing it here: I'm deeply troubled, as I'm sure we all are, by the hurtful, sniping, name-calling, and generally disrespectful "dialogue" in civil society. In many ways, I believe that those behaviors have infected the Church. Does the following paragraph sound familiar? They're out to undermine our nation. They call themselves Christians, but they have no real understanding of God or morality. They pray, but they don't actually have a living relati...