I stepped into a large
church, the largest in the world. It had many places of worship with a
full frame of the paintings of the saints where the pilgrims would bow
down to worship. There was a certain sense of emptiness. Where was the
Holy Spirit? at the gate of the church, not coming in.
During this Halloween, the Protestant church is becoming increasingly haunted by the
"nones" a grouping of ex-mainline and evangelical christians who has
become unaffliated.
The few "nones" I met
are gay christians who have left the mega churches, yet unsatisfied with
the more progresive/liberal churches.
The Pew Forum released
data to show that for the first time in US modern history, that the Protestants fell
as the majority of the population at 48%. This coincided with the rise of a
grouping without any religious affliations, also called "the nones" or
the unaffliated at 20%.
Progressive Christians
such as Brian McLaren's who wrote a "New Kind of Christianity" said that
how we treat the other with hostility instead of being inclusive is the cause of the fall
particularly amongst the young evangelicals. The exclusive nature of
evangelical christianity as the only way to God and their anti-gay
aggenda was to be blamed.
McLaren's insight is
profound for certainly many young evangelicals are getting dismayed at
how the church has been exclusive and anti-gay in an increasingly
liberal trend of the younger generation. For many in the "Y" and "Z" generation, the reason
for leaving the evangelical church was due to the anti-gay perception of
the church.
The attempted
generalisation by McLaren to link the treatment of gays with that of other
faiths is not sensible. For the evangelical church has insisted on
limiting any gay rights, whilst peoples of other faiths are free to
marry and to practise their faith on an equal footing with Christianity.
In fact, the non
Protestants ie the Mormons (at 2%),
the Catholics (at 22%) are no less anti-gay than the evangelical
churches and could even be more exclusive. Why are the Prostestants
falling below being the majority?
It should be noted that
being inclusive and
accepting of other faiths and practising a new kind of Christianity
in the way championed by McLaren has not been a saving grace for the liberal
protestant wing of Christianity. Whilst Protestants overall are
stagnant, the more liberal Episcopals, and UCC at 1.5%
is close to a total demise.
Dr R Robert Albert
Mohler, the conservative Christian stalward and President of the
Southern Baptist theological seminary, blamed the liberals/progressive
for perpetuating a cultural and fuzzy christianity which is devoid in
the identification of Christ as Lord and Saviour.
No tangible solution
was given by Mohler apart from asserting that this "should awaken
America’s Christians and our churches to the reality of the challenge we
now face and the mission field we now serve.".
Rev Jim Wallis in his
editorial article "Young Evangelicals and the 'Nones" in Sojourners sees
it as an opportunity for the "... [nones] still find Jesus fascinating —
especially when following Jesus is applied to serving the common good".
Is Jesus a good teacher of good works only!
The irony of it all is
that as Progressive/liberal theology is being embraced by the more
evangelical churches, the young Protestants didn't shift their
allegiance to the liberal churches but instead became "the nones". The
liberal churches should have been rising exponentially instead of the
"nones" phenomena.
The Nones is a backlash against the Protestant church who has
talked too much, acted without grace, and are under judgement for their
sins of false witness and denial of rights against gays thus negating
the presence of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is leaving us yet we
know it not!
The church
is under scrutiny for using the name of God in
vain in our condemnation of others. Bearing the name of Christ demands
that the church be holy and blameless.
The Jews for example
were judged each time they departed from God to
worship other gods, because they represented God as the people of God
and called out by God. As Christians, we come in the name of God,
representing Christ the Messiah.
When
we spin half truths about gays and condemned them as sinners by our
false witness, we are effectively closing the door of heaven and of
God to this innocent tribe. As God's representative, we hold the gate to
the heavens.
The christian churches
have gone outside the walls of the church to insist
that gays be denied of all civil rights, to be put in jail, and to be barred
from relationships. Therefore, the church must likewise go out to the
world, to right the damage done.
We have not given the
gay tribe a reasonable doubt. When we use and act in the name of God
with such strict judgment and persecutions, there is no room for error. The bible is a 2,000
years old document written in a straight patriachal context with the
story line concerning the coming Messiah and the Holiness code to
prevent the Jews from straying from the One God of Israel in the midst of
pagan worshipping people of faith.
The context was not
homosexuality and gays although not openly accepted were considered as
natural Eunuchs born as such from their mother's womb as compared to
those who were castrated as slaves or for their religious faiths, for
pagan priests routinely castrate themselves as Paul noted to exchange
their nature from men to women to play their religious role.
The abomination of anal
sex was used in pagan faith worship to join oneself with the demons
unnaturally is itself a very strong basis of doubt that the bible was
not talking about same sex attraction but about religious faith
practices and the abomination of worshipping other deities.
The lies and
spinning of truths that the evangelical church has spoken against the gay
community and the action against them to limit their rights is limiting
the presence of the Holy Spirit.
King David was so
adamant for God not to take away the presence of the Holy Spirit because
there was a tangible connection to God beyond the written
word. Faith therefore transcends our mind, to our spirit and to our
experiences with God.
When the Holy Spirit is
slowly taken away from the church, what is left is our head
knowledge and our human attempt to keep the faith and all its religious
laws. The spiritual manna is taken from us even as we seek it by reading
the bible and praying zealously.
It is the Holy Spirit
of God who works in our hearts, in the young evangelical Chrisitans to
build up their faith and connection to Jesus Christ so that they would declare their affliations to the church.
When the Holy Spirit is
pulled away from the churches, they become stagnant living
on their past annointings and revelations from God. Many of the young
christians became the "nones", their faith no longer grounded by that
firm and unshakable spiritual connection with Christ.
The christian church
is facing a crisis not because they treat the other badly in a general
sense but because there is grave sin of injustice
against the gay tribe, until we even shut the doors of heaven against
them. We can't praise and
pray the sin away, because their blood calls out to God for justice.
As we close the gate
of heaven to the gay tribe, we are closing the same gate of heaven to
the Holy Spirit to minister to us. Without the ministry of the Holy
Spirit, the young christians will be scattered in the desert becoming
to the "nones".
The "nones" are now ten times bigger than the size of
the
progressive/liberal churches. Like the living dead, they walk aimlessly
to haunt the Protestant church. The likes of Albert Mohler will blame it
on the cultural/fuzzy christianity of the progressive/liberals, and the likes
of Brian McLaren on the church needing to be more inclusive and
accepting and even droping the assertion that Jesus is the way, the
truth and the life to God.
It seems that the Holy Spirit
is gently and quietly moving away, slowly,
hesistantly but surely. They could only see the nones roaming aimelessly
looking outside from the church windows from the church buildings that
are now securely locked to prevent anymore attrition.
Parts of the Protestant
church remains vibrant with strong growth such as the Charismatic
evangelicals, but the rise of the nones will one day reach their hallowed
halls.
The time and season for
the Protestant church to be inclusive of the Gay community has
effectively passed. With society changing and gay rights coming soon,
the church will one day catch up with society. It doesn't matter any
more, the churches objections to gays.
This is a spiritual and moral void due to the blood of the innocent being spilled
in the name of God and Jesus Christ. The work of unrighteousness in the
name of Jesus requires the forgiveness of those who were harmed. There
can be no forgiveness without recompense and grace.
Being inclusive alone
is no longer enough, for unless the church steps out of her walls and
venture into the gay community and brings along physical, emotional, and
spiritual salvation and healing through redemptive works within the Gay
community, the emptiness remains.
Where there is hunger
and despair by the gay street kids kicked out by their parents, the
church is responsible to feed, cloth and shelter. Where there is
sickness, the church is responsible for all the medical costs. Where
there is loneliness due to the church insistence that gays be denied of
relationships, the church has to provide comfort and friendship.
When the sword is taken
out from the sheath to kill the innocent, there can be no redemption
until grace is given. Because gays have been so delibrately harmed by
the church, the healing and redemption for the church starts within this
community which often lies in the center of our cities waiting to be
reached for Christ.
O Lord,
create in us a clean heart. Forgive us when we cause harm, kill, and
steal from the weak of their lives and dignity. Teach us in Your grace,
the path to redemption, for grave is our sins, but greater is Your love,
grace and mercy.