No donations to Billy Graham
After watching the Billy Graham TV special today, I considered donating to their ministry. Before doing so, I had to be sure that it was truly a Christian organization–one that believes as Christ taught, that all are accepted and welcomed under God’s love. I wrote this letter after searching their site and finding disturbing statements…
Your organization’s alignment with the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) signifies that you do not truly love your neighbors, because you support segregation and discrimination between God’s children.
The Bible was written in a time when slavery, polygyny, and other archaic ideas were not only accepted, but endorsed within the Bible. There was no healthy, loving example of love between two men or two women. Homosexual acts discussed within the Bible are clearly more to do with rape than with love.
Additionally, the “abomination” of homosexuality was not to do with marriage, but with society’s view of propriety. In Biblical times, it was acceptable for a man to breed with a woman, servant, even a close female family member, or basically anyone of lower status than the man. In those times, homosexuality was viewed as an abominable change in that status quo… two men, of equal status, one of whom deliberately chooses to lower himself to the level of a woman (i.e., to become property of another man) defied all social norms and conventions of the time.
Another issue that influences the prejudicial prohibitions against homosexual relationships is the two most commonly cited stories involving homosexual sex (i.e. rape) are actually more to do with the Jewish concept of hospitality. In each case, a visitor was accepted into the home, and the guest was threatened with rape (not a consensual relationship between loving partners). In those times, it would be an abomination to allow harm come to a guest in your house. So rather than allow that to happen, virgin daughters (i.e. property) were offered for rape in exchange for not harming the guest. While I understand the values of the time, to me such action is unconscionable, yet those are the same passages used by religious conservatives as the ideal by which to judge gay marriage as wrong.
There are so many other passages in the Bible that set a clear example for permitting gay marriage, even though they do not address the matter directly.
The best example comes from Christ’s own life. In all cases, he welcomed the outcast, the sinner, and the foreigners. He not only welcomed them, he used them as examples within his teachings as the very best models of how people should behave. We are told to love one another; there were no exemptions or limitations on that.
There are so many things from the Bible that we recognize as outdated, even unethical today (genocide against non-believers, stoning, many of the purity laws, slavery, and many other atrocities), that they are ignored completely and preached against in churches throughout the world. Yet, right alongside those same passages, there are a few similar statements about male rape, and those are held by many to be inviolate and still applicable in a modern society that is nothing like the one from which they originate.
Compare the commonly accepted matter of divorce, which Christ specifically forbade and which much of the Bible clearly states is wrong, with loving homosexual relationships (of which there is perhaps one or two total passages in the New Testament and zero in the Old Testament). There is no logical reason for such disparity in attitudes, except for bigotry and a general uncomfortableness by heterosexuals with the concept of homosexuality.
It is up to each religious organization to determine for itself whom it will allow to marry or not. That is a right I defend. However, no church has the right to tell two people in love that they should not be able to get married in a civil ceremony or by a religious organization that does not hold those same opinions. Separation of church and state is a fundamental part of the U.S. Constitution, and I will defend it staunchly, too. Moreover, I will defend the right of people in loving relationships to decide for themselves if they should marry or not.
Because of your outdated, divisive, and homophobic stand on this issue, in defiance of Christ’s own example and the other examples throughout the Bible, I have chosen not to make any donations to your organization. Additionally, I will recommend the same to everyone I know.
Justice, tolerance, and Christ’s love will eventually prevail, but it is a shame that your organization has chosen to oppose that which is right in Christ’s eyes. While I respect and value the work you do helping people around the world, I cannot support an organization that encourages discrimination and codifying revocation of fundamental human civil rights into our nation’s most important legal document.
May God bless you with the wisdom to see more clearly and to align yourself with Christ’s vision of love and acceptance. Amen.
Tags: Billy Graham, Christian Wrong, gay marriage, religion
