The Gay Marriage Debate and the Homeless Neighbor

I find myself at a loss for words in discussing the gay marriage debate. While I want to respect both sides of the argument, I'm beginning to see a strong shift from ambiguity to clearly defined and polarized sides of the issue. As a follower of Jesus, I walk a fine line between wanting to see the LGBTQ community treated as equals without qualifiers or stipulations, but I also want to maintain a level of theological integrity in the message I preach. Having heated and peaceful debates with both liberals and conservatives on the issue of gay marriage, I would like to point out what I'm thinking and feeling.

I'm so frustrated with more conservative Christians who, in their naive ignorance of the deep pain we've caused, think they can simply decide how best to compromise on the issue of gay marriage. The issue becomes further complicated by the perverse intertwining of political and spiritual narratives which is so pervasive among the conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists. The distinction between political and Church doctrine become so blurred that address either aspect inspires the ire of many saints. They build mega-churches and have high-quality worship productions that could lead you to believe you were at a rock concert, but when it comes time to put head to the plow there's a lackluster performance in the follow-through. They have the righteousness concept refined to near legalism, but are completely missing the justice aspect of G-d's character. The evangelical and fundamentalist conservatives tend to be more individualistic and therefore do not conceive of salvation as something beyond the personal prayer made at the point of conversion. The question for them is, "who is your neighbor and what limit does Jesus put on loving them?"

The liberal Christians have no more satisfactory answers than their conservative siblings in the faith. Their watered-down theology lacks any sort of moral backbone that they end up rendering the Gospel nothing short of a limp noodle, useful for good feelings and tingles when the glossy messages of "love" come from the pulpit, but are wholly lacking in a message of G-d's call to live a new way. They have the concept of justice down to a well-oiled machine, yet they lack the righteousness that goes with it. These followers of Jesus run the risk of becoming like the salt without flavor, to be scattered among the ground and trampled on. The question for them is, "which do you love more, Jesus or social justice?"

When speaking to my conservative brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, the best I have seen thus far is the concession that the LGBTQ community should have equal marriage rights, but they want to see  a separate legal precedent established to make this possible. In doing this, they reject the reality that doing so establishes a government-sanctioned act of discrimination and bigotry towards gays and lesbians. They also can't seem to understand that vast difference between a G-d-ordained marriage and a legal marriage. No matter how many times I try to explain that legalizing gay marriage on a federal level would not be a threat to G-d-ordained marriages, it falls back on twisted political rhetoric that somehow G-d wants us to protect legal marriage as if it were one-and-the-same with G-d's holy unions. The most foul and evil corruption in the Church is the lie that our American political establishments are the same as G-d's most holy rites.

When speaking to my liberal brothers and sisters on the issue of gay marriage, they demonize their conservative siblings for being intolerant. The "Us vs. Them" mentality begins to create a cyclical call and response. When the conservatives come down on an issue, the liberals respond by opening their arms wide with an ever-embracing message of G-d's love and a swift back-hand to the conservatives for their "backwards thinking ways". Even I can't escape their fiery message of anti-judgmentalism (which ironically reeks of judgmentalism), and for what is my crime? I only want the Gospel preached as it in the Bible. You know the parts where Jesus tells the prostitute to "go and sin no more" or of forgiving a brother seventy times seven. Again, the wicked and idolatrous political polarization happens here with liberals always trying to be the exact opposite of their conservative siblings. It's like twins who are sicking of being mixed up trying to be so different from each other that they both end up looking like freaks.

And now I turn your attention to another matter entirely, but one of both personal and social nature. On 33rd and State on any given weekday you can be sure to find a scruffy-looking man asking for change. I've seen this man on multiple occasions over the past two and half years I've been in Chicago and asked him about his life. He told me about his family and how the internal strife and some poor choices led to being kicked out. First time I saw him I gave him some money so he could use the CTA to get into a shelter (it was February). The next time I saw him I bought him some hot chocolate and (I tried to get him to eat a banana) an oatmeal cookie at Starbucks. The third time I saw him I was a little miffed because I wanted to help him, but wasn't about to just hand him my bank account if only to see him come crawling back to me for more in a couple weeks. He told me he needed money for the CTA, so this time I gave him my farecard since I was armed with a second one which I could fall back on. Not more than two days later, I saw him again at the Jimmy John's begging for some food: whining and crying that he was hungry. I watched, utterly flabbergasted as a gentleman had the gumption to say something to the effect, "Get off my street and don't come begging here no more. This is my street, I pay my taxes, now go take your begging somewhere else..." The exchange had an even more interesting dynamic seeing as how the angry gentleman was black and the scruffy beggar is white. Would this black man be so callously dismissive if the beggar had been a black man?

Every time I see this scruffy homeless man, I can't help but feel guilty because I haven't done enough to help him. Another side of me thinks that this man is just leeching off of my generosity. How do I discern what my next step should be? Should I be trying to find him a place to stay that will help him transition from homelessness to a more stable life? Would that be too much of "rich privileged white college kid saving the day" for it to be a practical solution that respects his dignity as a human being to choose? I can't seem to make sense of the complicated nature of homelessness. The fact is that what I've been doing isn't working, but not doing anything is completely against everything I believe Christ taught me to do. Over the summer, I learned about lamenting the things I cannot change, and so now I lament the fact that I cannot find a simple solution to this man's situation. There's no magic potion, no flow chart to follow in dealing with this brokenness. Worse still, there are millions like him...

Oh LORD how long, LORD?
James