by REVEREND WILLIAM ALBERTS
PHOTO/Riley Kaminer
For many Christians, religion is about correct belief, not right behavior. For them, The Bible’s overriding appeal is the authority it proclaims, not the empathy it inspires. It is about meeting the believer’s quest for certainty, not an oppressed person’s need for compassion – and justice . The primary goal is personal salvation, not interpersonal solidarity – unless the solidarity is with those of like-minded belief, or with those designated to be “harvested,” or with those whose destitution serves to reinforce the superiority of the good doers. It is about obtaining immortality for one’s own soul, far more than demanding morality in human affairs
In fact, for many Christians, correct Biblical belief is often used to rationalize, justify and accommodate immoral behavior toward those The Bible has condemned as “enslaveable” or “abominable” or “unredeemable” and thus exploitable. The psychic insecurity of these Christians and their corresponding need for certainty, require them to not only possess, but to propagate, their one true belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and savior of the world — which prevents them from participating as equals in the democratic process. Instead, they seek to exploit the political process to impose their beliefs on to others, rather than as a way to empower everyone rights and well-being. Politics is about gaining the upper hand, rather than everyone lending a hand.
Christians certainly have a right to their own religious pathway to salvation – for themselves. But, tragically, the salvation of biblically-bounded Christians depends on, is intrinsically linked to, the damnation – or subservience — of whole groups of people condemned by these Christians’ inerrant Biblically-based beliefs.
The United Methodist Church, the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., demonstrates how The Bible can become the root of evil. At this moment, United Methodism is threatened with a schism over its discriminatory positions on homosexuality. An issue that has dogged the denomination for decades. Which leaders have evaded by the repeated creation of diversionary committees to study homosexuality and report back four years later to The Church’s quadrennial General Conference.
But its contradictions have final caught up with The United Methodist Church. At last year’s General Conference, some 864 delegates were faced with over 100 petitions on “human sexuality” – which, for official United Methodism, is the theologically correct way of categorizing its discriminatory policies against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer persons. A growing number of delegates submitted petitions calling for the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons into the life of The United Methodist Church: ordaining them as ministers, recognizing same-sex marriage and the right of ministers to perform these marriages in their churches, and removing The Church’s Book of Discipline’s discriminatory references to homosexuality. (‘GENERAL CONFERENCE HISTORY WITH LGBTQ,’ By Kathy L. Gilbert, www.umc.org, Apr. 27, 2016)
Conversely, the petitions of many other General Conference delegates demanded that the Book of Discipline’s “biblically-guided” exclusionary language on homosexuality not be changed. (Ibid) Not even the Supreme Court’s legalizing of same-sex marriage in 2015 could influence these delegates’ biblical mind-set. In the words of Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, a leader of Good News, a biblically-based United Methodist advocacy group, “Our commitment to biblical truth does not depend upon judicial affirmation by the Supreme Court of this or any other nation.” (“Same-sex marriage ruling adds to church debate,” By Heather Hahn, www.umc.org, June 26, 2015)
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