defining hate

Would you believe the slave owner who says that he does not hate his slaves? Would you even need to ask the slaves their opinion on this question? Or would you say that owning someone is inherently hateful regardless of whether you "take good care of them" or not?

Who defines hate - the powerless or the powerful?

enlightning

I doubt that when making his point, Pastor Stickman expected to have it illustrated so immediately or so aptly. Not only is god taking care of the sin, but the pastor is not exempted from being included as one of the sinners who should be loved.

Granted, perhaps his view of how god takes care of sin has been heavily influenced by Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5) and needs some adjusting to reflect more of the example of Jesus.

love covers

Once in a while, Pastor Stickman gets it right, and this is one of those times.

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins". I Peter 4:8.

hellooo

It's easy to "love" people from a distance. But do they feel the love?

 It's also easy to label people from a distance, a distance that lets us think that we (whoever we are) are somehow different, normal, better, right, a distance that hides our common humanity.

opposite sunday

What we do and what we say are often not in sync, and it seems that "opposite Sunday" has made this apparent to this pastor. Not that the "unopposited" saying "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is a good saying to start with, but if a person says it and then is actively doing the opposite....

family friendly

Two things stand out for me about this cartoon. First, when the preacher says "God loves everyone!" and expands on it by saying "Gay, lesbian, bi, transgender" without including "straight", he is speaking from a place of privilege. Privilege here assumes that "of course God loves heterosexuals; what is not clear is whether or not God loves those who are non-heterosexual." Inherent in this type of privilege is the assumption that the privileged majority is included, is right, is best, and so on, and usually those who are part of it never question or even think about such things.

Secondly, are gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender people not from families? Do they not have families? And are there not families in the church who have gay sons and lesbian sisters and bisexual cousins and transgender partners? So the not-yet-spoken implication by the pastor that "because this is a family-friendly church we can't have LGBT people running around", is actually counter-family, or family-unfriendly.

If Jesus had been as picky as we often are about whom we associate with, he would have avoided the lepers, the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the woman who had been bleeding for years and years, the beggars on the street, the man who was demon-possessed, Zaccheus and other tax collectors, prostitutes, and general sinners of all sorts. He would have spent his time with nice religious people, reading the Torah, and looking good. And with all of that he wouldn't be Jesus anymore ... he'd be a Christian*.

* north american variety. And yes, I realize this is a grand generalization which is not fair to the many north america-based followers of Jesus who do get it. However, this is what the majority of non-Christians perceive when they think of Christians.

frankly

Another cartoon in the "we're not anti-gay" series. Did you know that sitting on the fence can have adverse effects on key parts of the body?

pew warmers

What does it mean to "not be anti-gay?" Is this similar to "not being anti-black" or "not being anti-men"?

Or perhaps, using the standard rule that two negatives cancel each other out, does being "not anti-gay" equal being gay? Or if two negatives equal a positive, would being "not anti-gay" equal being pro-gay?

At a broader level, do you feel welcome to sit in the pews of your church (or a church)? Are you looking to do more than just sit in the pew?

This cartoon was inspired by events in the summer of 2011 when, in response to online protests, Howard Schulz, the CEO and Chairman of Starbucks, pulled out of speaking at a large event sponsored by a large church. The pastor responded very graciously toward Howard, encouraging people to buy his book, get coffee there, and so on. However, some of what he said in response to the accusations made by the protesters was interesting in terms of language. For more on this, see the post anti-gay on redletterchristians.org.