[the gospel of Rutba]

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove tells this amazing story of embracing one's enemy:

During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Leah and I traveled with the Christian Peacemaker Teams to Baghdad, believing that the way of Jesus called us to interrupt the unjust war our country was initiating. Three days after U.S. planes bombed the hospital in Rutba, our American friends’ car hit a piece of shrapnel on the highway outside of town and landed in a side ditch. Iraqis stopped by the roadside, took our bleeding friends into their car, and drove them to a doctor in Rutba. “Three days ago your country bombed our hospital,” he said, “but we will take care of you.” He sewed up their heads and saved their lives. When we asked the doctor what we owed him for his services, he only said, “Please, go tell the world what is happening in Rutba.”

The more we told the story, the more it sounded like a modern day Good Samaritan story. A good Iraqi—a good Muslim—not only saved our friends’ lives; he also showed us what God’s love looks like. We can’t be saved apart from the stranger, even the stranger who seems to be our enemy. The gospel of Rutba is that hope lies in the “enemy.”

Read the rest of Jonathan's post about The Gospel of Rutba (on his blog)

Check out the Gospel of Rutba website and read the book.

I'm gay unless...

Can people be themselves around those of us who are Christians?

Or do they feel they have to hide part of who they are, for fear of being laughed at, rejected, or otherwise mistreated?

If the cross around my neck is there because I have chosen to follow Jesus, will I follow Him in treating other people the same way he did?

---

On a related note, a pastor in Washington State has decided to reclaim the word gay -- to take it away from those who use it in ways related to sexual orientation and use it for the original meaning of happy and joyful.

He says he is "on a mission to take back words, phrases and symbols he believes groups, such as homosexual activists and other liberal organizations, have "hijacked" from the American lexicon." (source: christian post).

While he's at it, maybe he could "take back" some of the love and acceptance that these groups have hijacked from the church, 'cuz it sure seems that they have far more of it than some churches.

I'm Christian unless...

Christians should be Christians — in other words, like Jesus — regardless of whom they are interacting with. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. With some people they are nice and civil, with others they are cold, with some they can be downright rude, hateful and completely unChristlike! And then they do indeed become a tool of satan disguised as a religous nut, pushing people away from considering Jesus, away from being in relationship with Christians (who apparently have good news for everyone), and away from churches.

Are all Christians like this? Of course not. But enough of them are – particularly some very vocal ones – as seen by a survey of 16 - 29 year olds which found that 91% of those outside of the church perceived Christians as anti-gay, and 80% of churchgoers in the same age category perceived the church as anti-gay. (Unchristian, 2007).

Is this just about being pro-gay or anti-gay? No. You can fill in the sentence any way you like: "I'm Christian unless you're ______." What will it be for you?

Shouldn't a Christian be a Christian always? and in the same way?

Shouldn't we treat others with love and respect regardless?

Who would Jesus reject?

Whom do you have trouble loving the way Jesus did?

Please take time to read an excellent article called "I'm Christian unless you're gay" written by Dan Pearce, which inspired this cartoon. Despite the title, it's not specifically about gay people -- rather, it's about love, hate, respect...

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On a related note, Red Letter Christians has an interesting article called "The Witness of the Sons of Hell", referring to Jesus calling the scribes and Pharisees "sons of hell" in Matthew 23, and discussing how we "become sons of hell when we devote our lives to locking people out of the kingdom of heaven."

[I'm sorry]

"Sorry seems to be the hardest word" – a line from one of the songs that played on the radio when I was growing up – is true of churches as well as individuals. But there are exceptions....

Here's an exciting story about Christians in Winnipeg stepping forward to say sorry to those they have hurt:

"On Sunday, June 3, a group of Christians from Little Flowers Community and Hope Mennonite Church said sorry to the lgbt people who have been hurt by the hatred and discrimination they've experienced from Christians and churches over the years. They went to Winnipeg's Pride Parade to "offer an unqualified, sincere apology."

The response was humbling. Hundreds of people marching in the parade stopped to thank us, hug us, take pictures and ask questions. However, most moving for me was the people who shouted out, “We forgive you!”. We were a small group and did not try to bring too much attention to ourselves (as the day was not about us), but made an intentional effort to let these neighbours know that we know we have done poorly and seek their forgiveness. That message seemed to be well received."

Read more about this, including concerns that some Christian communities expressed about participating and why saying sorry isn't enough, in the full post Why We're Sorry and Why It's Not Enough by Jamie Arpin-Ricci, "an urban missionary, pastor, church planter and writer living in Winnipeg’s inner city West End neighbourhood."

How often do we say sorry to one another?

How rarely do we see institutions such as churches and governments admitting wrong and saying sorry? Can you remember a time? The one that comes to my mind is when in 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a formal public apology to former students of the native residential schools. Perhaps you know of some?

the Lord be with you

Amazing that the pastor is still in the pulpit. In the typical elder-ruled or vestry-run church, he'd be long gone, dismissed via a secret meeting to which he was not invited. After all, he confessed his sin publicly, didn't he?

But somehow, here he is, albeit unsure of himself and of what to say, the Sunday after having inadvertantly outed himself in front of the entire congregation. And it is reasonable for him to be unsure. Many of his previous sermons had an anti-gay tone or message. He hasn't been fired ... yet. And now he finds himself at the mercy of the congregation. Well, at the mercy of those who have stayed, anyway.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I Peter 2:9 NIV

And here we have this verse played out, with a parishioner initiating the greeting with which a priest usually starts the eucharist (Lord's supper) in many liturgical churches. How fitting... a parishioner taking seriously hir role as a royal priest, using a phrase from the Lord's table at which all are welcome, the table of the Lord Jesus who broke stigmas and social rules and generally made the religious people of his day angry.

The Lord be with you.

televangelesus

Jesus didn't care about his reputation. He acted Christ-like regardless of who was around him and regardless of what the religious leaders thought about it.

Philip's reply was prophetic: while we don't hide passages where Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, or was called a glutton and a drunkard, we downplay the significant ways in which Jesus broke the stigma and social mores of his time to reach out to those on the margins.

How about you and me? Do we love people like Jesus did? Or do we let cultural and social rules determine whom and how we love?

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Note to readers: after reading this cartoon, one of my friends commented that it really should have been Philip who was concerned with Jesus' reputation, and Jesus replying this his disciples will ignore the significance of this in the future. This makes good sense in general, except that this is the "western jesus."

Who is that, you ask? It is a Jesus who acts the way that contemporary North American Christians tend to. This idea and theme came out of reading Richard Beck's book unclean, taking some of the concepts from it and applying them to Jesus. In other words, if Jesus was the way we tend to be, how would he have acted in the situations he found himself in?

I realize after his question that this is not so obvious in this particular cartoon, so I am pointing it out here.

See all western jesus cartoons.

[vineyard memorial garden for lost women]

Winnipeg.

A city where nearly 50 missing women, children and transgender Winnipeg sex-trade workers had been murdered or gone missing over the previous 26 years.

Most of them aboriginal.

Word has it that there has been a serial killer at work, and on Monday, June 25, 2012, police charged a man with three of these killings.

In Winnipeg's inner city is Vineyard Church,

located in a century-old warehouse at Main and Sutherland, which backs onto the memorial garden.

The Vineyard Memorial Garden, as it is formally called. Rieger [one of the pastoral staff at the church] and some friends started it to remember first 20, and now 24, murdered and missing neighbourhood women. At first, Rieger recalled Monday, it was murdered sex-trade workers who were memorialized; now it's any woman from the area who dies violently.

It was living sex-trade workers who inspired Rieger because they kept coming to him and asking if he could drive them to cemeteries where their friends were buried. And it was these same women -- women like Jane -- who helped build the memorial garden.

Stone by stone. Name by name. Tear after tear.

It was built in way that also honoured aboriginal tradition, and in a manner that allowed families and friends to have a place close by to grieve. The plaques to each woman still have to be put in place. So I asked Rieger when it would be finished.

"Never," he said.

Quotes from Gordon Sinclair Jr.'s full article at Winnipeg Free Press.

For more, read the Vineyard Church's story about the garden.

---

Christine Pohl tells this related story:

A very moving example of hospitality caught me by surprise as I visited one of the communities. Jubilee Partners has set aside a beautiful spot on its property for a graveyard. In it are buried several people who had been homeless before they died, a couple of refugees who became ill and died after they had come to the United States, and two men who had been convicted of capital crimes and were executed by the state. The quiet beauty of the place offered a poignant recognition of the humanity of people who were in many ways society’s castoffs. Their lives had been acknowledged with a simple funeral service and grave marker, arranged by a community who noticed, and cared about, their passing. This dimension of hospitality has very ancient connections. The early church took responsibility for burying strangers, especially indigent ones.

From Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, p. 167.

Added January 3, 2013.

[understanding the cartoons on this blog]

First of all, if all you are looking for is a good laugh, you've come to the wrong place.

So sorry about that. This is a social commentary blog, and the majority of cartoons are involved in making comments about society and culture, especially the Christian subculture. Think of the editorial cartoons in major newspapers, with a Christian angle to them and without all the politics. The sidebar list of labels will give you a sense of the range of social, cultural and justice topics which are being addressed here. You can also check out about this blog to read more about my goals and vision.

Now about the cartoons. Most of the cartoons are a springboard to the discussion and questions contained in the text before and after the cartoon. It is thus important to read the surrounding text to understand the point of the cartoons. If you read only the cartoon and it does not make sense to you, read the rest of the post. If it still does not make sense, please post a comment with your questions or thoughts. (If it does make sense, I'd still love to hear from you).

A number of the cartoons use a pastor figure as the mouthpiece for negative views. No, I don't hate pastors. My dad is a pastor and I love and respect him. So why the pastor figure? Two reasons: first, pastors are often the public mouthpiece for the views of the church, and often the primary mouthpiece that tells the congregation how and what to think. Secondly, I'm not a great artist and so if I had to come up with a different drawing each time of different average people saying these things, I would be quite exhausted. This way, I can reuse the same basic layout which is easier. That having been said, the pastor cartoons will be evolving now that he has inadvertantly outed himself. Stay tuned for more on that.

Types of Humour

This blog deploys various literary devices and types of humour to get its points across in the cartoons and in the related text. These should be taken into account when trying to understand the content of the cartoons. Here are some examples:

1. Tongue in cheek
2. Hyperbole (exaggerating)
3. Irony
4. Inversion (saying the opposite)
5. Taking something out of its normal context
6. Caricature (this is particularly the case with the 'western jesus' cartoons, which recast jesus in the style of a contemporary north american christian)
7.  etc.

Thus, do I always exactly mean what the cartoon is saying? No. Do I always mean what the text is saying? No. But I do mean the cartoon and text to make the point that it is making, using whatever literary and humorous devices it's using. That having been said, you won't find me saying offensive things and then excusing them with the line, "I was just kidding." If something seems offensive, it's often either because you haven't read the text and understood the context, or because it's pointing out something that is not popular to point out and which the reader may not want to acknowledge.

Types of Cartoons

There are a variety of cartoons on this blog and I will describe some of the types here:

1. Purely funny with no deeper meaning. Simply a good laugh in the middle of the seriousness of this blog [example: chicken soup for everyone]. Because this is a social commentary blog, you won't find a lot of these, but there are some.
    
2. Funny with a deeper meaning. [example: man's best friend]
    
3. Possibly funny, but giving a twist to a familiar Bible story or passage, with a deeper point being made. [example: lost sheep]
    
4. Probably funny, and relating to a broader theme or exploration. For example, there are a number of cartoons labeled "western jesus" and "unclean". The "unclean" label is because this cartoon relates to my reading of (and quoting from) Richard Beck's book unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality and Mortality. The "western jesus" label is because Jesus is portrayed in these cartoons as responding as modern-day westerners might respond in similar situations. [example: jesus febrezus]
    
5. Maybe funny or not, and relating to a broader theme or exploration. This is similar to the previous item. For example, there are a number of cartoons labeled "love the sinner, hate the sin." After hearing this one day, I came up with a number of cartoons which are meant to deconstruct this saying, to point out what it is about, how other people hear it and how it can impact others. [example: third row] Similar themes would be "not anti-gay" which explores what it means to be or not be anti-gay, and "defining" which looks at how words are defined and who gets to decide what their definition is.
    
6. Not funny, and with a serious point. Essentially, the cartoon here is a pictoral way of introducing a topic. [example: the christian agenda]
    
7. Horrifying with a deeper meaning. There are a few of these, and they are not funny in the slightest, neither as a cartoon nor in the point that is being made -- but the point is an important one. [example: ecclesia]

Offensive?

If a cartoon or statement seems offensive to you, take a look at the whole context including the type of humour used, to see if perhaps it is really making a valid point. And keep in mind that I in no way mean that all Christians or all churches are a certain way, but that some Christians or churches are that way. Of course, it might well be that some readers will be offended — either by my perspectives and beliefs, or by the fact that I'm pointing out bad attitudes and wrong actions on the part of others. But my goal here is not to offend but to bring to light what is the case, to explore and process ideas, and to help us all move forward in loving each other as Jesus did. Again, check out about this blog.

This page is a work in progress, and may be updated from time to time.

defining enemy

Turns out that one of the Bible verses about "enemies of God" was in the church lectionary, and pastor decided to preach about it. That's fine, until he made a "real-life application" which included determining who today are the enemies of God.

His words are hurting men and women in his congregation – for themselves or for a loved one. They may even feel that they have to choose between doing what the church thinks is right and what their hearts and conscience tell them to do.

What makes him think he can know? Does he see into people's hearts and minds?

How can our words and actions welcome others, and help them move closer to God?

[the last supper for everyone]

A diverse collection of last supper images showing the width and breadth of God's love for everyone.


Jesus is my homeboy by David LaChapelle

David LaChapelle's Website

oops

Some members of the congregation absorbed the pastor's previous messages well – too well – and now that he has inadvertantly outed himself, they have outed themselves out of the church.

But some people have stayed. Perhaps they have not bought into his public views about homosexuality. Maybe some believe in full inclusion like the "church down the street." Perhaps they value relationships over facts and sexual orientation. Maybe some of them also understand where he's coming from. Or they've heard God's call to love one another.

How would you respond in such a situation?

unbaptized enemies

Can we agree to major on the majors? Can we focus on what really matters to the kingdom, and agree to disagree on the secondary things?

How easily we get distracted from what matters to the Kingdom of God. And surely quantity of water cannot be one of them. In this cartoon, pastor lumps the church down the street in with "enemies of God" because they baptize by sprinkling instead of immersion.

Growing up, I attended a Baptist church in Manitoba. It was part of a Baptist association which believed in baptism by immersion as an adult, and where one had to be baptized to be a member. They were completely against infant baptism. And they didn't just believe in immersion, they insisted on it.

Here's where the problem came up: when a person who had been baptized as an adult by sprinkling (in another denomination, obviously) came to the church (perhaps having gotten married to one of its members), they could not become a member unless they were baptized by immersion. Which meant that they had to be baptized again (from their perspective; from the church's perspective, it was for the first time). So really, it wasn't a matter of the person's ability to understand, or their conscious desire to be baptized, it was the quantity of water that was the problem.

One of the other churches in the denomination finally left due to such things.

If a person or a denomination feels so strongly about something, how many steps are they away from seeing the other person or church as misguided? heretical? the enemy?

How will people see the love of God for them when the churches they see are in conflict about things that are really not that important?


Note: this cartoon  was originally published on June 29, 2012, but that puts it out of sequence, in that chronologically it should have taken place before pastor inadvertantly outed himself on Sunday, June 17th . So I republished it to have it appear before.

chicken soup for everyone

the christian agenda

So much talk in conservative Christian circles about the gay agenda, about how gay people want to destroy churches and recruit children to homosexuality and so on. What about Christians? Do they have an agenda? It seems they do, and it's easy enough to suss out if one follows the news.

This cartoon captures a snapshot over time -- the first frame being an ongoing issue faced by teens when their good kind Christian parents kick them out of the house upon finding out their son or daughter is gay (sometimes on the advice of their pastor), the second frame something that was more commonly said in the early days of AIDS, and the last frame very recent. If you don't know the context, google "pastor worley fence" (especially if you are a follower of Jesus, you need to know what kinds of things other Christians are saying in public).

What will you answer if someone asks you about Pastor Worley?

How can you make the world a safer better place for everyone by showing Jesus' love and standing up against the mistreatment of those on the margins?

[revolutionary grace]

Jay Bakker writes about the time he and his wife, Amanda, “were invited to a drag show by RuPaul, the famous drag queen (recording artist, supermodel, VH1 talk-show host) who did the voice-over for the 2000 documentary about my mom, The Eyes of Tammy Faye.”

After considering whether or not to attend, he finally decided they would go. Here’s part of what he says about the event:

The first half of the show passed without incident. Then, during intermission, I stepped outside to have a cigarette. While I was standing there, one of the drag queens—a seven-foot-tall black man in heels who was wearing a massive replica of the Eiffel Tower on his head—approached me to say that he was a preacher’s kid too and that he had grown up in the church. He went on to explain how much he loved my mom and how worried he was about her cancer.

“Please tell your mom that I’m praying for her and that I love her,” he said, Eiffel Tower bobbing as he spoke.

“Well, let’s get a picture together so I can show my mom who you are,” I said, letting my guard down a little and taking a photo with him. Stubbing out my cigarette, I went back inside for the second half of the show.

Near the end of the show, a drag queen got up on stage and began spotlighting the famous people in the crowd…. And all of a sudden he said, “Did anyone here ever watch the ministry show Praise the Lord?”

I thought, Oh, no, here it comes. But half the crowd raised their hands and cheered (and chuckled). I think they were expecting someone to come out and impersonate my mom or something. “Well, Jim and Tammy’s son, Jamie, is here,” the emcee said. And suddenly, this huge spotlight hit me.

As I blinked into the blinding light, the emcee asked teasingly, “Are you straight?”

“Yeah,” I said, blushing and pointing a thumb at my wife, Amanda.

“Lucky girl,” the emcee said….

And then the emcee got real serious. Standing there in high heels and a sparkly dress, he said: “You know, this is where Jesus would be if He were alive today. Jesus hung out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and the sinners…” He then launched into a three-minute speech about how Jesus loved everybody without judgment.

Then he looked back up at me and asked, “Jay, are you still doing your church?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Oh, that’s so wonderful, best of luck to you on that.” And everybody clapped.

So there I was, stunned, not knowing what to make of this. One minute a drag queen was making cracks about whether I’m gay, and the next minute he was saying these really amazing things about Jesus and grace. I looked over at Amanda, not knowing what to expect, and she had tears in her eyes.

“This is incredible, Jay,” she said. “A roomful of people, where you don’t know who believes what, they are talking about Jesus. They’re talking about His love and grace and how much they appreciate the fact that you, as a preacher, are here with them, that you’re willing to come out to the show and share this with them… This is where we’re supposed to be,” she said. “This is where God has sent us.”

I realized she was right.

That night, in a burlesque club in Los Angeles, I saw people hungry for the love and truth of Christ. Not the judgment and rejection they’d experienced their whole lives in the church, but the real deal: revolutionary grace.

That’s what they welcomed into their midst. That’s what grace is all about: loving one another and understanding one another and sharing in Christ together, no matter who we are or what others might think about it.

From: Fall to Grace, by Jay Bakker. Chapter “Saint Paul and RuPaul”, pp. 104 - 107

I highly recommend this book!