Posted by Doug Showalter on April 16, 1998 at 00:20:02:
In Reply to: he who is with out sin? posted by connie on April 14, 1998 at 20:28:20:
Dear Connie,
There's a quotation about Christians and the Church which has meant a lot to me through the years. The author was A. Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. Although not phrased in today's inclusive language, I'm certain Ramsey was speaking of both male and female Christians.
"The secret of a Christian is not that he is always in the right and puts other people in the right, but that he is a forgiven man. That is the secret of a Christian's humility, and his liberation to love God and his fellows with a new impulse. So the strength of the Church is not the strength of its members, but the strength of Christ who forgives them, humbles them, and can do something with them. So no one is excluded who is ready to say, ‘I am sorry. God help me, a sinner.' In the final crisis all that St. Peter could say was ‘I am sorry,' and Christ made him the rock man of the Church."
I hope your daughter and you hold your heads high in the weeks, months, and years ahead. Of course, your daughter and her baby-to-be deserve a shower, and all the love people can give them, to help them get a good start in their new life together. People make mistakes. We ALL make mistakes. The fact is [as implied in the above quote] the Church of Jesus Christ is called to be a FORGIVING community, just as the people in that community have been [and are being] FORGIVEN by God for their mistakes.
If people in your church would deny your daughter a shower now, how will they treat her baby in the future? Will they stigmatize her and her baby? Will they withhold baptism from her baby, or otherwise make her feel like a "second class citizen"?
Such hard-heartedness! Someone once said that the proof of the Church's divine origin is that it still survives, despite all the sins and failings of its members down through the centuries. As both a Christian and a Christian minister, I don't like hearing that. But even so, I can well believe it. I am always saddened when I hear that Christians can be so unloving in judging and rejecting others--as you depict in your message. To my mind, such judgment is not the way of Christ, but the same kind of pious, self-righteous hard-heartness which Jesus struggled against so much during his earthly ministry.
Also, as biblical scholars will tell you, Jesus was much more critical of and concerned about spiritual hard-heartedness [which he encountered plenty of], than about sins of the flesh.
What would I do if I were in your situation?
--I think I would try, as time goes by, to find it in my heart to forgive the individuals in my present church for their failure to live up to the Christian gospel. Apparently, they "know not what they do."
--Also, I would now begin looking for a new church fellowship, where the people care less about self-righteous attempts at judging, and more about Christ's compassion, love, and forgiveness.
I hope this is helpful. Frankly, I have strong feelings about such Christian hard-heartedness, and the damage it ultimately does to the cause of Christ.
Doug Showalter