June 29, 2008

with permission...

David,

So, it's Sunday and I'm home channel surfing. I landed on KQED. The show was dubed a California Documentary. So, I was interested. It was about Lonnie Frisbie. I had never heard of him. Turns out he was a hippie turned Christian who was piviatal in the growth of the Vineyard Church. He was also a closet or not no closet at times homosexual. Apparently his work in the growth of the Vineyard has been down played or erased because of his sexual orientation. I wondered if you had heard of him.

This weekend is Gay Pride weekend in San Francisco. The significance that Gay Pride is celebrated the weekend before 4th of July is not lost on me. We all long for freedom when we feel trapped. We also forget that with freedom comes it's friend, responsibility.

I'll be the first to admit that since my babtism I have fallen away from going to church and walking with Jesus. I decided that "it" really wasn't for me. I became turned off by the notion that the only way to God was through Jesus. Is that what we are to believe? I guess now that I am baptized I am now a hypocrite since I do not walk the walk. Prior to baptism I could walk through my life guilt free. Now I get to wonder about my sins. Is the wonder and/or concern simply Jesus calling?

According to the documentary I just watched the church is really concerned with our sexual sins. If that's the case, then I guess I'll be burning in hell. Ha! All joking aside, I wonder what your thoughts are on the passing of gay marriage in our state. I'm finding that I have a problem with it, which is causing a problem for me. I have always considered myself a open minded Liberal. But, I take issue with the idea that homosexuals can legally marry in our state. I read an article that the state was changing the marriage form from Bride and Groom to Party A and Party B because Bride and Groom suggests woman and man. That pisses me off. When I marry, I want it to be known that I am a woman about to marry a man.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with all this (so many topics in one email), but the documentary touched a cord. Thoughts?

3 comments:

Caleb said...

WOW!!! I can really respect someone who can just throw themselves out there like that and it says a lot for their relationship with you and how much they trust and respect your thoughts on such matters. I believe that by posting this you are in turn asking for mine so here it goes.

Please keep in mind that I am very young in my walk with God. In the paragraph about her baptism she spoke of sins and feeling guilt for them. I know that I do have more conviction on them than when I was doing my self centered secular walk. I did still have it there a bit then. Sometimes it was very small and almost unrecognizable but I still knew the difference between sin and not sin even if I wasn't attaching the word sin to it. As I look back at it I realize that He was so faithful to me even then, when I had no faith in Him. I guess you could say that it is "Jesus Calling" but I think that it is also very important to realize that we weren't meant to live out our days with God in guilt over the past but to embrace His purpose in our presence. Guilt holds us back so much and leads to so many other things that build up a wall between them and God. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we should just let all of our sins go without a second thought. We should repent and learn from them and use them in that way not as an anchor that just tethers us down to our earthly ways.

As far as the gay marriage thing goes. This is something that I just turn to God on. I have a couple of great friends that are gay and I love them no less for it. I wouldn't want that life style for myself and one of them even told me that he would never want that for himself but it is what it is. I'm a very judgemental person and I have really been working on that but as far as gays go.....they are no less human than me and no less my brother or sister. Their sexual orientation has no effect on me so I will just love them. I feel that this is made into a much bigger thing than it should be and I fear that it is made into such a thing because they are "different" like the blacks were. This can be fear and prejudice and nothing good can come from it.

So there you have it. My very opinionated narrative. I would like to see the word "man" on my marriage paperwork as well though (should it ever happen). I'm not much of an A party or a B party. I don't even know wich one I'm supposed to be....this could turn into an equal rights thing where someone decides that "A" is the Alpha in the relationship and sues because they had to be the "B" and that makes them unequal ;)

Be blessed
Caleb

WTF?! said...

Well...

It ticks me off that the church would be scared to take on an issue publicly with an eye for both truth and compassion. ...but that sure does sound like the typical way Christians respond.

Conservative Christians either bash on gays, or ignore the issue; liberal Christians just endorse a lifestyle of self-indulgence...

...neither shows the profound wisdom to be found in the person of Jesus.

I don't know the particulars of Frisbee's life and ministry (I am familiar with some of the accounts, but there is controversy, and I have never really delved into it deeply...), but I would hope that the association that I am currently affiliated with had handled itself in an appropriate manner.

But the real issue is closer to home...

As touches on sexual sin, God couldn't give a rip about our 'purity' as such. God's goal for our life isn't simply that we avoid sexual contact with members of the same sex!!!

Sexuality is just one of many facets of human life in which the central issue of trusting God gets to play itself out...

But make no mistake, the central issue is an active and receptive trust in God. This is where Jesus comes in:

Do we trust that He is offering true wisdom (set aside for the moment the exclusivity of faith in Christ), if so, it will be evident in our lives...

The real issue in someone walking away from the teachings of Jesus is that it reveals that His teachings aren't viewed as 'wisdom.' If they were, they would be incorporated into life...

This is where the exclusivity comes in to play. If Jesus isn't the source of wisdom, who is? Who are we going to trust? ...politicians? ...religious leaders? ...educators? ...sports heroes? ...ourselves?

If wisdom exists, then to ignore it is ignorance... When Jesus and Mohammed, Jesus and Dobson, or Jesus and Dawkins (more likely Jesus and myself!) conflict with each other, whom do I choose to trust? Why? What criteria am I using with which to make such a judgment?

David said...

So what is the topic? Does walking away from the teaching’s of Jesus reflect on the idea of either wisdom. or guilt? Good topic to be sure. But are we missing the point? So often I’d say we are. But within the distractions there are the new shiny objects of our Christian lives that claim our focus.

How did you begin your walk?

What were the concerns of the day?

Were you invited and then loved? Or loved, as we are, by Jesus and then invited….?
This is the point.

The question is not the particular struggle, as we will always have struggle. It is simply not circumstance…as it is ever present. Are we loved? Yes we are, and often we don’t see it in the faces of those near us in times of decision and reflection. We, you and I, are the Church, and we so often invite and then come to love (and yes, I’ve told on my self).

It is so much like belonging before you believe. A dialectic process, traveling in a fashion of dance in both directions. Entrance, inclusion and the offering of community….with condition...or through the love offered to us as dirty rotten sinners? That is the point.

How did I come to Jesus? I was broken.
What were my concerns of the day? I didn’t want to die.
I was loved (roughly to be sure) and then invited. Thank you so much.

I can only pray to have the opportunity to do the same for those in the long lines of challenge and disparity.

God loves you right where you are at. He is thrilled with you, and your potential.