TIME FOR CHANGE
On this historic day, with the inauguration of our new president, we're all aware of the theme he carried throughout the campaign: "Change." I'd like to suggest a specific change you and I can pursue this year that will revolutionize our lives for the good.
Martin Luther King, Jr had a dream that his four children would grow up in a world where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. What if we focused on developing a deeper personal experience of that classic Christian virtue known as "Chastity." Chastity is a virtue that helps to build us in spirit, so we can look past a person's skin and into her or his character, insight and depth. Chastity leads us to know the God who is the source of the lovely things in this creation.
Simply put, chastity is the opposite of lust. Chastity recognizes that, though sexuality is part of everyone's being, we are all also spiritual beings. Because we are all created by God we must treat our self and others with respect and dignity. If lust leads to using people for our pleasure, then true chastity, as an attitude of heart, leads to protecting people for the sake of their wholeness and wellbeing.
Lust is deceptive because it looks and feels like intimacy. It can be tempting to accept this substitute intimacy, because meaningful intimacy requires hard work. True intimacy requires that we listen, respect, forgive, encourage, support, affirm, accept, and give unselfishly for the good of the other. Intimacy also requires that we learn humility, patience and perseverance.
Healthy relationships shape us into healthy people! The virtue of chastity makes rich and satisfying relationships possible.
St. Paul warned us that in our fallen state, we are tempted to worship the created rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). While ancient societies worshipped the stars and the moon, in our culture there is commonly the worship of washboard abdomens, tight derrieres, and shapely legs. Becoming captivated by fleshly realities is a form of idolatry. When we lack inner spiritual strength, our natural appreciation of beauty can descend into destructive obsession with external physical realities.
Thomas Aquinas in his Summa pointed out that "those who find no joy in spiritual pleasures turn to the pleasures of the body." Aquinas also noted that an aversion to sex is a vice, not a virtue. So we should never confuse chastity with a prudish attitude that holds sex to be distasteful or dirty. The Biblical book, Song of Songs, celebrates the near intoxication of physical passion. Sexual enjoyment and celebration is not the same as the misdirected fire of lust. Lust is an emotionally violent act that degrades and reduces another persons' value. Lust is a shortcut that leads to the destruction of intimacy and the destruction of self.
We will begin to experience the freedom of chastity as we cultivate an awareness and thirst for the loving, holy presence of God. Let's get to the core of the matter--we need a passionate and heart-enriching relationship of intimacy with God.
Freedom is found when we cultivate a taste for the long-term meaning God gives our lives, as opposed to the short-term excitements gained through pursuit of bodily pleasures. Most of us are aware that sin has a tendency to over-promise and under-deliver. Gary Thomas suggests we try the following experiment: "Compare the twenty-four hours after making a holy choice with the twenty-four hours after the last time you gave in to lust." There's no comparison! The peace and dignity we feel after re-directing our desire is part of the empowering experience of God giving us our life back.
Chastity offers a deep, quiet, peaceful stability to replace the empty, restless personality that is always looking for the next high.
Learning to change our lives away from lust and toward chastity requires that we begin to consider others--not that we just become a little more thoughtful, but we ask God to grow in us a respectful reverence for the people he has made. We must ask God to change our heart, releasing us from the desire to control and use others.
As we change from being a person driven by lust, to a person who lives the discipline of chastity, we'll make the joyful discovery that living a life that reverences others has fewer regrets, deeper friendships, and ultimately much more satisfaction.
Don't we really want a deep, quiet love with God and many strong, healthy relationiships with others? Will you join me in a renewed quest for the interior strength of chastity? In this quest, God will change and grow us in the direction of becoming the person we truly want to be. We will be men and women who are building healthy, mature, and respectful relationships with God, our self, and the people God has placed in our life.
"God is such a stickler about morality, not because he wants to control our behavior, but because he wants us to become the kind of people who can see him and thus experience infinite joy" (Peter Kreeft).
May God change our hearts so that lust gives way to chastity. In this process, we will celebrate beauty without worshiping it. We will be transformed away from domination into respecful self-givers as we begin to live a beautiful, immensely meaningful life.
Here's to a year of beautiful CHANGE!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Time For Change
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thoughts at Thanksgiving Time
Dear Friends,
This week we will celebrate a most wonderful holiday that reminds us to value thankfulness. It has been pointed out by others that Thanksgiving is special in part because it has not been overrun by consumerism and commercialization--these sort of go against the spirit of the day!
My hope is that each of us will remember God's endless goodness and respond with gratitude.
In a little prayer book published by the General Conference of American Rabbis, I discovered the following: "Let man see how abundant is God's goodness, and his soul will be filled with the light of genial kindness. He will discover that the motive law of life is not selfish grasping, but generous blessing. The warming sun, the fruitful rain, the abundant earth and the magic seed, are God's messengers, carrying gifts to the children of man. The very will of man, his persistence of purpose, the energy to toil, all come unearned from the Beneficent One. Man indeed labors--that is his destiny, but without God's gifts, he would not have the power to work, nor would his work bring blessing. Let man think of God's endless goodness and be aware of the constant debt he bears his heavenly Father."
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, may the words of the Psalmist be in our hearts: "How can I repay the Lord for all his generous dealings with me?" While we can never begin to repay God's bountiful gifts on our behalf, we can bring him our offering of authentic gratitude. We can express our gratitude by living lives that are good, kind, encouraging, helpful, happy, loving and generous. Our hearts and lifestyle can reflect God's endless bounty.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Duff
This week we will celebrate a most wonderful holiday that reminds us to value thankfulness. It has been pointed out by others that Thanksgiving is special in part because it has not been overrun by consumerism and commercialization--these sort of go against the spirit of the day!
My hope is that each of us will remember God's endless goodness and respond with gratitude.
In a little prayer book published by the General Conference of American Rabbis, I discovered the following: "Let man see how abundant is God's goodness, and his soul will be filled with the light of genial kindness. He will discover that the motive law of life is not selfish grasping, but generous blessing. The warming sun, the fruitful rain, the abundant earth and the magic seed, are God's messengers, carrying gifts to the children of man. The very will of man, his persistence of purpose, the energy to toil, all come unearned from the Beneficent One. Man indeed labors--that is his destiny, but without God's gifts, he would not have the power to work, nor would his work bring blessing. Let man think of God's endless goodness and be aware of the constant debt he bears his heavenly Father."
As we celebrate Thanksgiving, may the words of the Psalmist be in our hearts: "How can I repay the Lord for all his generous dealings with me?" While we can never begin to repay God's bountiful gifts on our behalf, we can bring him our offering of authentic gratitude. We can express our gratitude by living lives that are good, kind, encouraging, helpful, happy, loving and generous. Our hearts and lifestyle can reflect God's endless bounty.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Duff
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Grace of Humility
In Luke 14:7-11 Jesus tells a parable about how guests often tend to choose the places of honor at the banquet table. Jesus counsels us: "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor....But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'....For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was educated in Cambridge, England and gained fame as an outstanding scholar. He was ordained in 1633 and became the chaplain to Charles 1. Later in his illustrious career, he was consecrated bishop of Down and Connor, Ireland. Taylor was a prolific writer with deep insights into human behavior. In this blog I am drawing heavily on excerpts from his book: "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living."
Christ calls us to learn to live our lives in humility. Humility is a grace with which God gifts our hearts. This grace must become our habit of life. We can live the grace of humility in the following ways:
1. Maintain a realistic opinion of ourself. This means recognizing that we are spiritually unworthy persons. This suggests we should not judge ourselves according to outward circumstances or what happens to us. All the goodness we experience is God's gracious gifting for our benefit and for the benefit of others. We are merely human--and fallen humans at that. The only thing we can offer that merits worth is our making good choices. But we are not the source--we continue to be hungry when we go without food. When we accept that we are flawed and not fully wise, we should not be angry if someone else agrees! When we know we are unworthy, no one can undervalue or hurt us.
2. Do good things in secret. We will find great satisfaction in being content to go without praise. Let's nurture a love of doing good things in secret. Goodness is its own reward!
3. Never be ashamed. There is no shame regarding our parents, our occupation or present employment, or any reality of our life. Do not be shy about who you really are--speak openly the truth with an indifference to what others might think of you. It is said that Primislaus, the first king of Bohemia kept his old work shoes by his side so that he would always remember his humble upbringing. Do not let praise for yourself be the design of your conversations.
4. Reflect it back to God. Always give God thanks for making you an instrument of his glory for the benefit of others. Be like Moses, whose face shined brightly for others to see, but he did not make it a looking-glass for himself.
5. Focus on the strengths of others. Never compare yourself with others unless it advances your impression of them and appropriately adjusts your impression of yourself. St. Paul encouraged us to think more highly of others than we do of ourselves. It is healthy to focus on the strengths of those around us in order to see our own weaknesses more clearly. In this process we can work to strengthen those areas that are weaker, and we become increasingly whole. Knowing our own weaknesses helps us forgive the weaknesses of others.
6. Enjoy the success of others. It is told of Cyrus that he would never compete in any sport with his friends in which he knew himself to be superior to them. Instead, he would always compete in sports in which he was less skillful than his opponents. He did not want to prove his superiority by winning. He placed more importance on learning from those who were more skilled while at the same time sharing in the joy of their success.
7. The Grace of Humility increases with exercise. Humility always begins as a gift from God, but we can increase our use of this precious gift through exercising the development of a habit of humility. The habit of humility is strengthened through exercise. This exercise includes confessing our sins often to God. This exercise recognizes our impatience, anger, lust and pride as not an occasionally scattered offense in the course of our long life, but rather as one continuous representation of our fallen state. If all our faults and failings were placed next to one another (rather than spaced throughout our long life) we would clearly see the vicious misery of our natural self. This awareness can help when applied as an exercise to the soul, to increase our habit of living the grace of humility.
Our world today hungers for the presence of people who are genuinely humble, because a genuinely humble person is a genuine person! To be humble is to be real. As we learn the habit of living the grace of humility our relationships will become more constructive, healthy, and positive as we interact with one another in a new way of beautiful, life-giving holiness.
With love,
Duff Gorle
Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was educated in Cambridge, England and gained fame as an outstanding scholar. He was ordained in 1633 and became the chaplain to Charles 1. Later in his illustrious career, he was consecrated bishop of Down and Connor, Ireland. Taylor was a prolific writer with deep insights into human behavior. In this blog I am drawing heavily on excerpts from his book: "The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living."
Christ calls us to learn to live our lives in humility. Humility is a grace with which God gifts our hearts. This grace must become our habit of life. We can live the grace of humility in the following ways:
1. Maintain a realistic opinion of ourself. This means recognizing that we are spiritually unworthy persons. This suggests we should not judge ourselves according to outward circumstances or what happens to us. All the goodness we experience is God's gracious gifting for our benefit and for the benefit of others. We are merely human--and fallen humans at that. The only thing we can offer that merits worth is our making good choices. But we are not the source--we continue to be hungry when we go without food. When we accept that we are flawed and not fully wise, we should not be angry if someone else agrees! When we know we are unworthy, no one can undervalue or hurt us.
2. Do good things in secret. We will find great satisfaction in being content to go without praise. Let's nurture a love of doing good things in secret. Goodness is its own reward!
3. Never be ashamed. There is no shame regarding our parents, our occupation or present employment, or any reality of our life. Do not be shy about who you really are--speak openly the truth with an indifference to what others might think of you. It is said that Primislaus, the first king of Bohemia kept his old work shoes by his side so that he would always remember his humble upbringing. Do not let praise for yourself be the design of your conversations.
4. Reflect it back to God. Always give God thanks for making you an instrument of his glory for the benefit of others. Be like Moses, whose face shined brightly for others to see, but he did not make it a looking-glass for himself.
5. Focus on the strengths of others. Never compare yourself with others unless it advances your impression of them and appropriately adjusts your impression of yourself. St. Paul encouraged us to think more highly of others than we do of ourselves. It is healthy to focus on the strengths of those around us in order to see our own weaknesses more clearly. In this process we can work to strengthen those areas that are weaker, and we become increasingly whole. Knowing our own weaknesses helps us forgive the weaknesses of others.
6. Enjoy the success of others. It is told of Cyrus that he would never compete in any sport with his friends in which he knew himself to be superior to them. Instead, he would always compete in sports in which he was less skillful than his opponents. He did not want to prove his superiority by winning. He placed more importance on learning from those who were more skilled while at the same time sharing in the joy of their success.
7. The Grace of Humility increases with exercise. Humility always begins as a gift from God, but we can increase our use of this precious gift through exercising the development of a habit of humility. The habit of humility is strengthened through exercise. This exercise includes confessing our sins often to God. This exercise recognizes our impatience, anger, lust and pride as not an occasionally scattered offense in the course of our long life, but rather as one continuous representation of our fallen state. If all our faults and failings were placed next to one another (rather than spaced throughout our long life) we would clearly see the vicious misery of our natural self. This awareness can help when applied as an exercise to the soul, to increase our habit of living the grace of humility.
Our world today hungers for the presence of people who are genuinely humble, because a genuinely humble person is a genuine person! To be humble is to be real. As we learn the habit of living the grace of humility our relationships will become more constructive, healthy, and positive as we interact with one another in a new way of beautiful, life-giving holiness.
With love,
Duff Gorle
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Adoring Our Lord
One of my favorite spiritual mentors over the past twenty years has been Henri Nouwen. Unfortunately, I never had the privilege of knowing him in person, but his writings have provided Spiritual Direction and encouragement for my heart journey.
Dr. Nouwen writes of an opportunity he had to meet with Mother Theresa of Calcutta. He was struggling with many things at the time and decided to use this occasion to ask Mother Theresa's advice. He sat down with her and began immediately to explain all his problems and difficulties, trying to convince her of how complicated it all was.
When, after ten minutes or so of elaborate explanation, he finally became quiet, Mother Theresa looked at him and gently said, "Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything that you know is wrong...you will be fine!"
Nouwen writes: "When she said this, I realized, suddenly, that she had punctured my big balloon of complex self-complaints and pointed me far beyond myself to the place of real healing."
So much of the time we tend to respond to questions from below with answers from below. Mother Theresa's answer was a brilliant flash of light in the darkness of such a futile approach. Nouwen had asked some questions from below, and Mother Theresa gave him an answer from above--from God's place rather than from our human place.
In our humanity we might be susceptible to a superficial search for easy answers and shallow meaning. It is important to remember that God's Spirit is ultimately the sole source of spiritual guidance, comfort and knowing.
Sometimes, in living the questions, answers are found. More often, as our questions and issues are tested and matured in context of our practicing the disciplines of solitude and worshipful adoration of our Lord, the questions simply dissolve.
In our spiritual journeying, let us move forward with a continual openness to the disclosure of the transcendent mystery of God, before whom all questions cease. When we "adore our Lord and never do anything we know is wrong," we will be fine!
Dr. Nouwen writes of an opportunity he had to meet with Mother Theresa of Calcutta. He was struggling with many things at the time and decided to use this occasion to ask Mother Theresa's advice. He sat down with her and began immediately to explain all his problems and difficulties, trying to convince her of how complicated it all was.
When, after ten minutes or so of elaborate explanation, he finally became quiet, Mother Theresa looked at him and gently said, "Well, when you spend one hour a day adoring your Lord and never do anything that you know is wrong...you will be fine!"
Nouwen writes: "When she said this, I realized, suddenly, that she had punctured my big balloon of complex self-complaints and pointed me far beyond myself to the place of real healing."
So much of the time we tend to respond to questions from below with answers from below. Mother Theresa's answer was a brilliant flash of light in the darkness of such a futile approach. Nouwen had asked some questions from below, and Mother Theresa gave him an answer from above--from God's place rather than from our human place.
In our humanity we might be susceptible to a superficial search for easy answers and shallow meaning. It is important to remember that God's Spirit is ultimately the sole source of spiritual guidance, comfort and knowing.
Sometimes, in living the questions, answers are found. More often, as our questions and issues are tested and matured in context of our practicing the disciplines of solitude and worshipful adoration of our Lord, the questions simply dissolve.
In our spiritual journeying, let us move forward with a continual openness to the disclosure of the transcendent mystery of God, before whom all questions cease. When we "adore our Lord and never do anything we know is wrong," we will be fine!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Seeing Into The Realm Of The Real
Unless we call our attention to what passes beyond what is right before our eyes, we simply won't see it. Sometimes seeing in the realm of the real requires letting go of the ever-present, dominating tyrrany of the tangible. Annie Dillard writes of seeing reality by letting go as becoming "transfixed and emptied"--seeing as "an unscrupulous observer."
Spiritual masters have repeatedly spoken of the mind's polluted river--a seemingly ceaseless flow of trivia and trash that we desperately try to dam-up, but to no avail. We must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness, acknowledging its presence without particular interest while we raise our sights and gaze beyond it to the realm of the real, the pure, the silent, the beautiful! "Launch into the deep," says Jacques Ellul, "and you shall see."
The secret of seeing is the pearl of great price.
Think for a moment on Jesus' famous words that "they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not...But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:13, 16, KJV). How frequently I fall into the trap of looking only with the eyes, listening only with the ears, and fail to look and to listen with the heart. My seeing is too often limited, fragmented, and partial.
I pray to learn to see God's reality ever more truly, ever more fully. May I--may we--SEE, in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, that "The world is charged with the grandeur of God."
Duff Gorle
Spiritual masters have repeatedly spoken of the mind's polluted river--a seemingly ceaseless flow of trivia and trash that we desperately try to dam-up, but to no avail. We must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness, acknowledging its presence without particular interest while we raise our sights and gaze beyond it to the realm of the real, the pure, the silent, the beautiful! "Launch into the deep," says Jacques Ellul, "and you shall see."
The secret of seeing is the pearl of great price.
Think for a moment on Jesus' famous words that "they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not...But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:13, 16, KJV). How frequently I fall into the trap of looking only with the eyes, listening only with the ears, and fail to look and to listen with the heart. My seeing is too often limited, fragmented, and partial.
I pray to learn to see God's reality ever more truly, ever more fully. May I--may we--SEE, in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins, that "The world is charged with the grandeur of God."
Duff Gorle
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Growing In Love
Dear Friend,
Early morning reading today invigorated my heart through the contemplation of St. John's life of growing in love.
The one theme that constantly runs through John's writings is the theme of LOVE. John sums it all up by telling us that Jesus gave to his followers a "new" commandment, and it was to "love one another." (It was "new" because Jesus added the "love others" line to the Shema of Judaism).
But John's own "story of love" is not completely pretty. It appears that John did not learn very much about love from his biological family. He learned love from Jesus!
As a young man, John was crusty and cranky. The gospels tell the truth of at least three significant "love failures" in the life of St. John:
1. John and his brother James (scholars believe they could have been Jesus' cousins) request: "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." If love is service, as Jesus explained it, then John fails in love.
2. John's love for others is tested when he doesn't recognize the validity of someone exorcising demons in Jesus' name. John tries to stop the person from doing miracles and reports him to Jesus. Jesus' loving heart would never denounce someone who is breaking down demonic strongholds. He responds to John: "Whoever is not against us is for us." John failed in extending Christ's love to others--in this case, someone who was doing God's work.
3. John hears that some Samaritans refuse hospitality to Jesus "because he was heading for Jerusalem." John's response is: "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" Ouch! This "disciple of love" prays for hell to fall on these people. Jesus explains to his followers that they are not to think of Sodom and Gomorrah, to call for "ash in a flash," (Scot McNight's words) every time they encounter someone who doesn't respond properly! John's love for the Samaritans is tested, and he fails.
How does John grow into the apostle of love? Even though, when tested, he goes belly-up, the love he experiences in his relationship with Jesus eventually transforms John's story from Thunderbolt to an apostle of love. The would-be MVP becomes the anonymous loved one. Then he writes for us a theology of love.
Nothing is more important for the development of love than being loved. We may be taught the importance of love, but to experience it is to know it. John spent plenty of time with Jesus and in the context of this relationship, he comes to know what it is to be loved. John begins to refer to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
Like John, you and I can grow into "apostles of love." I'll close today's entry with Henri Nouwen's powerful, practical challenge: "Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do....As long as 'being the Beloved' is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence...."
It is said that, as an old man, all John wanted to talk about was love. His own students were amazed at how loving he was. He would have been the first to remind them "it was not always so."
Your becoming loving friend!
Duff
Early morning reading today invigorated my heart through the contemplation of St. John's life of growing in love.
The one theme that constantly runs through John's writings is the theme of LOVE. John sums it all up by telling us that Jesus gave to his followers a "new" commandment, and it was to "love one another." (It was "new" because Jesus added the "love others" line to the Shema of Judaism).
But John's own "story of love" is not completely pretty. It appears that John did not learn very much about love from his biological family. He learned love from Jesus!
As a young man, John was crusty and cranky. The gospels tell the truth of at least three significant "love failures" in the life of St. John:
1. John and his brother James (scholars believe they could have been Jesus' cousins) request: "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." If love is service, as Jesus explained it, then John fails in love.
2. John's love for others is tested when he doesn't recognize the validity of someone exorcising demons in Jesus' name. John tries to stop the person from doing miracles and reports him to Jesus. Jesus' loving heart would never denounce someone who is breaking down demonic strongholds. He responds to John: "Whoever is not against us is for us." John failed in extending Christ's love to others--in this case, someone who was doing God's work.
3. John hears that some Samaritans refuse hospitality to Jesus "because he was heading for Jerusalem." John's response is: "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" Ouch! This "disciple of love" prays for hell to fall on these people. Jesus explains to his followers that they are not to think of Sodom and Gomorrah, to call for "ash in a flash," (Scot McNight's words) every time they encounter someone who doesn't respond properly! John's love for the Samaritans is tested, and he fails.
How does John grow into the apostle of love? Even though, when tested, he goes belly-up, the love he experiences in his relationship with Jesus eventually transforms John's story from Thunderbolt to an apostle of love. The would-be MVP becomes the anonymous loved one. Then he writes for us a theology of love.
Nothing is more important for the development of love than being loved. We may be taught the importance of love, but to experience it is to know it. John spent plenty of time with Jesus and in the context of this relationship, he comes to know what it is to be loved. John begins to refer to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved."
Like John, you and I can grow into "apostles of love." I'll close today's entry with Henri Nouwen's powerful, practical challenge: "Becoming the Beloved means letting the truth of our Belovedness become enfleshed in everything we think, say, or do....As long as 'being the Beloved' is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence...."
It is said that, as an old man, all John wanted to talk about was love. His own students were amazed at how loving he was. He would have been the first to remind them "it was not always so."
Your becoming loving friend!
Duff
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Same Sex Marriage and Religious Freedom
Dear Friend,
This is shaping up to be a fascinating political year. As you undoubtedly know, for the first time the California Supreme Court recently upheld the legality of gay marriage in that state. Massachusetts was the first state to approve gay marriage.
It deserves repeating that the Bible affirms the value of human sexuality expressed in marriage between a man and a woman. We also uphold the gospel teaching that Christ died for all, and that his love is inclusive. Christ-followers do not hold hostility toward homosexuals, neither do we have a heart to tolerate unfair discrimination, intolerance, or a breach of any of the gospel principles of love to all God's children.
The issue I'm raising is the emerging reality that religious freedom has less legal protection than gay rights. The California Supreme Court held that homosexuals shall enjoy the same legal status as race--protection as a fundamental right. Yet the same court has refused to recognize that religious liberty is a fundamental right and has ruled against religious freedom interests. According to Alan J. Reinach, Esq., a religious liberty attorney, there is now a "legal imbalance" where gay rights receive maximum protection, while religious freedom is granted less protection.
Now that homosexuality is equated with race, we can expect a wide variety of challenges to religious organizations that adhere to traditional Biblical interpretations. The city of Boston required adoption agencies to serve homosexuals, and refused to accomodate the religious objections of Catholic Charities. Although Catholic Charities accounted for most of the adoptions in Boston, it closed its adoption agencies rather than compromise its religious convictions. Thousands of children are now "stuck" in foster care as the city itself has not chosen to provide adoption services to gay couples.
I read that cases have been filed against wedding photographers who refuse to film gay wedding ceremonies. Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption because its policy against interracial dating was inconsistent with public policy. Similar challenges to the tax exempt status of churches and other religious organizations are expected.
This past May, the California Supreme Court heard arguments that two doctors and a medical clinic discriminated against a lesbian couple by denying them artificial insemination services. The doctors argued that they properly referred the patients for services that they could not conscientiously provide. Lawyers for the patients insist that religion not be allowed as a defense.
No matter where you or I come down on any of these issues, the point is that our long-held assumption that religious liberty enjoys a preferred status in the USA as a fundamental constitutional right is no longer necessarily true. In its 1990 peyote decision, the Supreme Court discarded the First Amendment's protection for the free exercise of religion as a "luxury that a well-ordered society can no longer afford." One legal observer noted the court has ruled against religious freedom in every case since that time. For example, in 1995, the Court held that Evelyn Smith's Presbyterian faith was not a good enough reason to refuse to rent one of her four duplex apartments to an unmarried [heterosexual] couple, despite the fact that in her city, Cal State Chico maintained hundreds of housing units exclusively for married couples.
The issue of gay marriage may be resolved this November when Californians have the opportunity to amend the state constitution to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. But this will not change the legal status of homosexuality as a fundamental right, given more protection than the right to practice one's faith.
It appears the trend in America is that religious freedom will mean the freedom to hold one's faith in private, but not to practice it publicly.
Let us pray for courage to honor Christ regardless of the cultural and legal environment we may encounter in the days ahead.
With love and hope!
Duff Gorle
This is shaping up to be a fascinating political year. As you undoubtedly know, for the first time the California Supreme Court recently upheld the legality of gay marriage in that state. Massachusetts was the first state to approve gay marriage.
It deserves repeating that the Bible affirms the value of human sexuality expressed in marriage between a man and a woman. We also uphold the gospel teaching that Christ died for all, and that his love is inclusive. Christ-followers do not hold hostility toward homosexuals, neither do we have a heart to tolerate unfair discrimination, intolerance, or a breach of any of the gospel principles of love to all God's children.
The issue I'm raising is the emerging reality that religious freedom has less legal protection than gay rights. The California Supreme Court held that homosexuals shall enjoy the same legal status as race--protection as a fundamental right. Yet the same court has refused to recognize that religious liberty is a fundamental right and has ruled against religious freedom interests. According to Alan J. Reinach, Esq., a religious liberty attorney, there is now a "legal imbalance" where gay rights receive maximum protection, while religious freedom is granted less protection.
Now that homosexuality is equated with race, we can expect a wide variety of challenges to religious organizations that adhere to traditional Biblical interpretations. The city of Boston required adoption agencies to serve homosexuals, and refused to accomodate the religious objections of Catholic Charities. Although Catholic Charities accounted for most of the adoptions in Boston, it closed its adoption agencies rather than compromise its religious convictions. Thousands of children are now "stuck" in foster care as the city itself has not chosen to provide adoption services to gay couples.
I read that cases have been filed against wedding photographers who refuse to film gay wedding ceremonies. Bob Jones University lost its tax exemption because its policy against interracial dating was inconsistent with public policy. Similar challenges to the tax exempt status of churches and other religious organizations are expected.
This past May, the California Supreme Court heard arguments that two doctors and a medical clinic discriminated against a lesbian couple by denying them artificial insemination services. The doctors argued that they properly referred the patients for services that they could not conscientiously provide. Lawyers for the patients insist that religion not be allowed as a defense.
No matter where you or I come down on any of these issues, the point is that our long-held assumption that religious liberty enjoys a preferred status in the USA as a fundamental constitutional right is no longer necessarily true. In its 1990 peyote decision, the Supreme Court discarded the First Amendment's protection for the free exercise of religion as a "luxury that a well-ordered society can no longer afford." One legal observer noted the court has ruled against religious freedom in every case since that time. For example, in 1995, the Court held that Evelyn Smith's Presbyterian faith was not a good enough reason to refuse to rent one of her four duplex apartments to an unmarried [heterosexual] couple, despite the fact that in her city, Cal State Chico maintained hundreds of housing units exclusively for married couples.
The issue of gay marriage may be resolved this November when Californians have the opportunity to amend the state constitution to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. But this will not change the legal status of homosexuality as a fundamental right, given more protection than the right to practice one's faith.
It appears the trend in America is that religious freedom will mean the freedom to hold one's faith in private, but not to practice it publicly.
Let us pray for courage to honor Christ regardless of the cultural and legal environment we may encounter in the days ahead.
With love and hope!
Duff Gorle
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