The Conflict – June 6th, 2005
D-Day
June 6, 1944, is remembered for D-Day and the invasion of France. That day marked the convergence of two hemispheres, the battle of two lifestyles, and a clash between two kinds of men. It was a triumph from years of experience, building up an army, planning and preparation. The bold attack was also an attempt to end a huge conflict. Ultimately it succeeded because of the individual soldiers’ conviction in combat. This was a deciding moment in our history. The memorable conflict was the beginning of the end of the whole war.
Sixty-one years later to the day, June 6, 2005, another clash…. of hemispheres, lifestyles and men… the theater of war was a sidewalk and passionate words were the ammunition of the day. The megaphone seemed as loud as the cannons on Omaha beach. The army was a collection of people with hearts filled with a desire to end something they believed to be wrong. Personal convictions clashed while fighting for what they felt was right. From the broad brush strokes of protesting signs, loud voices and a disruption of life, there were two men in combat.
These were two cultures fighting for control, batting over issues, separated by an ocean of confusion. This was an invasion as well, an invasion of territory. It was a beachhead seeking control of someone’s life that appeared to be hanging in the lurch.
It was as though one nation was against another, similar to our “D-Day” battle. These two men were not communicating with each other. It almost appeared as one was speaking French and the other English. They really didn’t know what the other was like other than the issues that each of them thought to be so significant that a battle surfaced as a fulcrum in the balance of these two worlds.
Culture wars!
It seems that most battles have always been about shifts in culture or between people who perceive cultural changes will negatively impact their very foundation of life. This battle wasn’t any different.
A new beginning! A fresh start. It was the very first day one group had been in their new building. The vision of a new place to work was so fresh in their mind when they had arrived early that morning. They were excited to be there and enjoy the culmination of a plan they had seen come to fruition. About an hour after the Director had arrived he heard his name loudly announced over a megaphone as though someone would soon crash into his private space. In his mind, the plan was to quietly move into the new facility. John Smid! Where are you John? He didn’t even want to place the name of the organization on a sign out front when they moved in so as to not draw attention to their presence. In his words John just “wanted to be a neighbor” not an issue. With the quiet joy violently interrupted he felt embarrassed by the public display and fearful that the neighbors would become upset by the interruption of their lives too. This was a conservative older neighborhood after all.
Down on the street in front of a large church like campus was a stream of people. Holding colorful flags and signs with passionate expressions they moved with strong conviction that something had gone terribly wrong. One man holding a video camera seemed to be organizing them as he recorded their every move. The camera man was wearing a head scarf and looked like he was on the fringe considering the mid-southern culture. He seemed to believe that the event needed to be recorded and was making sure that occurred.
In 1944 the invasion was one of bombs, guns, army troupes marching into the world of many private citizens as well. But there was a battle to be fought and won! Each side wanted desperately to win the war. As boats landed and army men combed onto the beach, it was similar that fateful morning outside the church as people parked their cars to join into the battle.
John, the visionary desirous of a fresh start, shuddered with confusion and questions. “Why were all of these people here? What do they want with me?” He had no idea as to what had inspired them to gather for such a passionate show of conviction. The shock of what he was faced with upset his entire world that day almost as though a bomb had gone off right in the middle of the building.
They were yelling out a young man’s name from the street. They were saying things like; “We’re here for you” “You’re not alone”. It was extremely odd all the way around. It was as though someone needed to be rescued from some terrible impending harm!
“There are protestors outside!”
Unprepared for this attack, inside the building another army was scurrying around in an attempt to find out more about what was happening on the street. The phones began to ring from news stations, the national media, and emails started to come in like a flood. Much like in 1944 when radios reported the break out of D-day, the internet ran hot with reactions to the events on the street corner in 2005.
What could have possibly been that important? What kind of things were going on that would cause an entire nation, the world even, to respond to the American conflict of June 6, 2005?
Freedom. It was a battle over freedom. Freedom to do what? Or Freedom from what? The battle in 1944 was about freedom as well. The man with the signature head scarf wanted freedom for the young man inside. The leader of the other army also wanted to defend young man’s freedom. So, what were they fighting about? Didn’t they want the same thing for him, and others?
These men were very invested in their views of freedom. The crowd wanted to fight for the young man’s rights to live as he sees fit. They perceived that the folks under the steeple were brain washing, controlling and holding individuals captive.
But the youth focused on here were only 16 and 17 years old! Their parents had brought them here desiring to help them. They thought they might have been harmful to themselves if they continued down a path of social or relational connections they believed to be wrong. John was there to help too. He believed in freedom to choose as well. But, he also believed that in order to make healthy choices in life these young people needed to experience some things that might help them make those choices.
Morgan Fox was the man with the camera in hand and wore the head scarf. He appeared to be directing the crowd. He and John had never met. They had never had a conversation, nor had they ever been in the same room at the same time. The relationship gap was huge. There had been no communication between them to listen, to hear or understand what was really happening that day. The streets ran wild with honking cars and trucks, cameras, newsmen, and protestors. The driveways to the church were crowded with people who had gathered along with Morgan. They truly believed a young man’s life was in danger. The intensity was huge and no one had any clarity about what was at the root of all of the mayhem.
The young teens were in a daytime program that was scheduled to meet for two weeks. A decision was made that day that the street people would return with the cameras in hand each morning and evening while the young teen would come and leave from the building each day. That information came into the building and more reactions surfaced. What do we do now? How can we manage this outcry for social justice? We love these kids and know there is hope for their freedom.
Morgan and the crowd believed they were right too. Certainly they believed they could help this young man find freedom from oppression of religion. We believed we could help him to know the freedom we had found from hormones and lusts that had gotten to a place of harmfulness. The tug of war was huge for the rights of this young man in the building.
It was a battle over homosexuality. The rights and wrongs of this issue have drawn culture wars for years. These two men were on two sides of the fence in passionate response to the same issue. Their definitions of freedom were dramatically different; or were they? They didn’t know the answer to that question because they had never talked. They had never heard each other’s hearts. They had never communicated.
Introduced to each other through an emotional crowd with a megaphone there was no place that day to listen. It didn’t appear that any agreement would be reached any time soon! John and Morgan needed a map, a path to each other’s hearts but how would they find that in the middle of the battle of June 6, 2005.
March 23rd, 2012 at 3:00 pm
John, I love you brother, and you are a prolific writer, and The Issue is over Freedom, but not the kind of freedom you have been promoting lately!! You have, and are playing directly into the enemies’ hands! You are confusing The Real Issue, and turning your back on what God Calls “Sin”, and accepting The Truth of what the Bible says! Only through accepting Jesus into your hearts, and living for Him on a daily basis as guidelines from His Word to us so plainly set forth, can we find True Freedom!! There is freedom in serving Jesus, and forming an intimate relationship with Him!! I know, I live for Him every moment of every day!! His Holy Spirit lives within me, and He guides me in attempting to live a sin-free life!
I know when satan tempts me with doing something wrong, and sinning against what I know is right, and since I have stumbled before, and have been restored through Gods’ Grace, and have experienced first-hand the redemptive love of Gods’ Forgiveness, I try “to go and sin no more”!! Glamorizing sin is not what God wants!! He wants us, and expects us to flee from it! Staying with-in its’ clutches plays right into what the evil one wants us to do!!
John, you need to start writing about how we can defeat satan and his attempts at corrupting us. Tell us how we need to begin committing to a daily Scriptural walk, developing a powerful prayer time that will restore us all and build us up! I’m sure your Board of Directors would approve of something as dramatic and encouraging as that!! I would love for you to start spending more time talking and writing about the present and the future instead of lingering in the past! Let’s make a difference in peoples lives, and get more people saved from the future of going into eternity without God, which is the path so many individuals are following now! God is Good, and He is Full Of Love and Grace for those who accept Him, and turn from the evil path they are following now!
John, I challenge you to make a difference, and start leading us in the way that you Know is right!! This life we lead here on Earth is very short, and it is preparing us for what comes next; and that is ETERNITY!!! The choice is ours to make; either With God, or without Him!!! and I can’t even imagine an eternity without God, in total darkness, forever and ever! That’s a Long, Long Time!!! Shalom!
March 23rd, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Dan, God made some small percentage of all kinds of animals homosexual,including humans. The problem is not with God or with John, it is with those who assume that the bible deals with sexual orientation when it does not. Even the word “homosexual” is a modern medical term.
The concept we know today as “homosexuality” means a lifelong attraction to members of one’s own gender. A person can no more turn himself from gay to straight than he can turn himself from black to white. Google Exodus admits gays can’t change. See for yourself that the most sincerely dedicated person cannot pray away the gay or use willpower to make it change. Some can live celibate lives (www.gaychristian.net) but nobody has ever been turned by God from a homosexual to a heterosexual. Every medical assn concurs.
March 24th, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Hi John, thanks for being willing to move past the conflict between the two opposing cultures of christendom and gay culture and to enter into conversation and relationship even with those who hold different and antagonistic values.
I think of Jesus’ example of the Good Samaritan as an example of who our neighbor truly is. Samaritan’s were certainly not orthodox, but the Gospel of Jesus calls us to receive blessing even from those who differ and to bless those who curse us.
Methinks it is time for Christian brothers and sisters to start being willing to bless and serve even those who would wish to rob us of all that we might hold sacred. Jesus preferred to die on a cross than to call down armies from heaven to evidence his humble love for a sinful and willfully antagonistic humanity. May the American church be known for its willingness to die and be spat on over and above its desire to protect itself and its ‘rights’ over and against those in the gay scene. Yes, salvation, freedom and truth are definitely at issue, but not in the way defined for too long by those unwilling to join Jesus in self-giving path of the cross.
Yes, I too am convinced that salvation and freedom will never be found in any ideology, be it gay or straight. Likewise I am convinced that salvation will never be found in Christian ideology. It is found in a person, Jesus, who alone is Truth and Salvation.
God Bless
Andrew
March 28th, 2012 at 8:57 am
In a general response to “WriterJerome”; What God created was Perfect in every way! Man sinned in the Garden of Eden, and brought the curse of sin down on us all. God did not create men and women to be “homosexuals”, man chose to follow what he knew was not right in Gods’ Eyes, and to follow his own sinful heart. I disagree too; the bible does talk about sexual orientation throughout its pages, cover to cover! What man overlooks or misinterprets, is only justification for his own behavior.
The bible says, “with God ALL things are possible” I tend to believe and trust what God has said!! It is Real Truth!!
March 29th, 2012 at 1:04 am
John,
I said this to a degree a couple of times in past replies, but there is something that got my attention about the recent GCN Panel Discussion which you participated in.
It was Alan Manning Chamber’s call for a “longer conversation” going beyond apologies and conflict resolution, going beyond merely getting along and the “agree to disagree” stance.
Because I really think it should go beyond all of that. It might even afford us some honest debate.
I think what Dan Hoeksema is arguing for is a firmer stance. He’s made some excellent points. God’s redemption through Christ. Man’s fall isn’t the end of the story. Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ. Thank you, Dan. I’d love to hear more.
“Do two walk together unless they have agreed?” –Amos 3:3.
It’s easy to fall into the “bits and pieces of a shouting match” or the emergent “generous orthodoxy” leading to more confusion. Or that other crude position: just ignore the crisis and hope it will go away.
Above, writerjerome recommended the online search for Exodus and change–I don’t even have to search to know what Exodus has been talking about. I have a working knowledge of what’s been said through the years. In a word: sanctification. In a word: holiness. I think writerjerome had something else in mind.
Hearing the word “change” is causing some sort of short circuit outage in our brains. Or it’s falling on deaf ears.
But the search led to a YouTube segment of “N.T. Wright on Debate about Homosexuality 4″–highly recommended. He makes some interesting statements. And backs them up. We’ve lost our sense of the authority of Scripture. We’ve lost our sense of the authority of the Church. We’ve lost our way.
I was reminded, after hearing N.T. Wright, of what I said at least on one occasion: if only I were strong enough to have remained in the Episcopal church! And, on that one occasion, the friend I was speaking with, replied: if only the Episcopal church were strong enough for you!
That same friend went on to say: “Calls for further dialogue are often just a quieter form of coercion. What denomination that has undergone such dialogues or 3 years of listening before closing the issue on homosexuality and/or openly/active homosexual pastors/priests etc. has ever held fast to biblical standards of morality?”
He’s got a point. They always find a way to circumvent the givens of Scripture.
And it’s probably why Alan Manning Chamber’s idea of “longer conversation” got my attention. The longer conversation is more bracing. Resulting in real debate. Staying the course.
It seems to me that a lot of Christians are starting to wake up to the fact of the spirit of relativism in the Church. We’re called to test every spirit.
In Marin, I remember disbelief from some of my peers, and even you, John, over the fact that I was involved in this “dialogue”–I remember thinking, maybe reacting, wait ’til this crisis hits your church.
That is, the crisis of homosexuality hitting full force and more widely. And bringing with it a spirit of confusion. To scattered Christians suffering through a post-break-up of evangelicalism. To every denomination. Almost the perfect storm.
Except the gates of hell will not prevail.
Recently, I was talking with a friend about the false dichotomies of sexual identity labels as destructive. They hurt. They divide.
“Homosexual” is a modern medical term, as was noted above, by writerjerome. But so is “Heterosexual”–the original definitions of both words were categorically morbid. By definition, they’re two sides of the same coin.
What happened to the original sex terms: men and women?
Now we have more sexual identity labels. LGBTT2IQQ. Most people know or should know. Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Trans-Gender, Trans-Sexual, Two-Spirit, Inter-Sex, Queer, Questioning. And the list is getting longer.
But how do you justify the labels? The next thing you hear is a rumble about who is gay and who isn’t and who is straight and who isn’t. The labels are divisive.
Cynthia Nixon of “Sex and the City” was attacked for her views. She gave a speech meant to empower gays with rational thoughts about choosing to be gay. But you can’t choose to be gay, her handlers said.
The school of thought called “gay essentialism” is the only rhetoric allowed–basically, you’re born that way, end of discussion–and everything else is hate speech and unaffirming. The idea of gayness as a construct or an adaptation is too controversial.
See David F. Greenberg’s book “The Construction of Homosexuality” before it’s banned. See also Robert A. J. Gagnon’s book “The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics.”
I like the above comment from Andrew Francis: “salvation and freedom will never be found in any ideology.” But the Church’s set of doctrines and beliefs is different.
It’s why St. Paul’s astonishing conversion while traveling on the road to Damascus–the Risen Christ appearing to him as a great and blinding light and speaking to him–his fall to the ground and the resulting blindness and later the healing and his fasting and baptism was only the beginning of the story.
What follows was St. Paul’s visit to Jerusalem to “confer” with the established Church. “Private revelation” isn’t enough for the Church–it isn’t the final word–and that’s something that we all agree on.
Dreams, visions, prophecies, experiences, everything must be tested by the Word of God. We can’t add to or take away from the givens of Scripture.
Where in the givens of Scripture–especially in its grand narrative beginning and ending with marriage–does God afford us same-sex sexual unions?
It’s the same question that Alan Medinger and many others put forth many times. The Episcopal church listened but didn’t hear. They turned from the historic faith.
It’s a gut feeling for many, I think, that we can’t walk in agreement.
Mike
April 7th, 2012 at 3:17 am
Hi Dan,
The issue for Christians here is simple. If we are Christians in the true sense of the word, and if we have same sex attractions on a physical and emotional level what are we to do, how are we to live?
The Church allows for two options. Either a man or woman attempts to change, or we are encouraged to deny one of our most basic fundamental human drives or instincts, the need for intimacy, true and honest authentic connection on an emotional and physical level. These options, change or deny, present difficulties when “change” seems impossible and denial seems to be a monumental battle resulting in inner turmoil and conflict which is unique. Furthermore, this struggle is exacerbated by an unwillingness, a discomfort within the Church to actually minister to those in this battle in a way which brings successful resolution.
I have been willing to go down these paths, as have those whom I know personally and who contribute to this particular forum which John set up. But I think what is happening is that the “soldiers” in this battle are tired of fighting it and losing, always losing. And we are fatigued and tired of being dishonest about who we are. We aren’t giving up the fight, but we are looking at what’s wrong with our strategy and why it’s not working.
Tim
April 7th, 2012 at 1:23 pm
Tim,
When my strategy is not working, I find from past experience, it’s because I have not surrendered my life to the Lordship of Christ or I have taken it back. Actually when I do finally give up the fight…that’s when God’s power is made evident in me. So the change is for His Glory not mine.
Sue