Kicking Out the Rich…along with the Gays

Jun 30th 2008
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Midnight conversations with Mom are the best. Last night’s subject: Gay Marriage (duh, duh, dum….) You can probably imagine which direction the conversation took: warnings about a mysterious, slippery slope leading to none other than rampant pedophilia mixed with exhortations to love others and provide equity for all. As typical in these conversations, I often run into the trump card sung to the tune of the familiar children’s song: The Bible Tells Me So.

Now, while I reject a completely literal reading of the Bible and strongly oppose an arrogant reading which refuses to acknowledge personal and corporate subjectivity, I want to take a minute speaking that language in order to illustrate a point. My question is this:

“Why are rich people allowed to participate fully in the life and leadership of the church?”

First, let me set the stage. Those who say that homosexuality is a sin (which I am not trying to debate in this post) base such a case on three major passages of Scripture. To be fair, I’ll highlight them here

* Genesis 13: God sends fire and sulfur on a town called Sodom because they were known for their homosexuality and wanted to rape God messengers (always a bad idea)

* Leviticus 20: The death penalty is enacted for a man who “lies with another man as one lies with a woman.”

* Romans 1: God is pissed because even the woman are “exchanging natural relations for unnatural ones.”

Three verses. Using the literal Biblical view, these three passages provide all the Biblical basis for the fervor of opposition to gay marriage. Like I said, I desire not to debate them here, but just present them in fairness to the case.

Using this logic, I will not present my argument for the exclusion of those of means from communities in faith. I certainly lack both space and time to create an exhaustive list, but here are a few pertinent Scriptures which come to mind.

* Ezekiel 16: ” ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.”

* Mark 10 or Luke 18 When asked by a rich man how to get to heaven, he responds that the man should sell everything he has and give the money to the poor. Then exclaims that it is very hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

* Luke 16: In “The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus”, it is clear that the rich man’s greed was what seperated him from the glories of heaven.

* James 5: The rich are told to “weep” and “wail” because their wealth has wasted away due to their greed.

* Revelation 3: The sin of the Laodecians (the luke warm followers) is that they have become rich and think they have “need of nothing.”

I could go on and on. I have not included most of the many prophetic exhortations against the oppression of the rich and powerful. However, you may notice that the Bible offers some different interpretations as to why the legendary Sodom was actually destroyed. Frankly, I really need only four verses to make my point.

If the Bible is truly our basis for public policy, as conservatives like James Dobson advocate, then why is there not more outrage against corporate greed, ultra-wealthy CEO’s, and powerful oppressors around our world? Based solely upon Scripture should we not oppose the endocrination of our children by rich people more than that of homosexuals? What motivations would force the church to be so tough on homosexuality, but so laxed on the excess consumption of the top 1%?

We could expand this to any issue that you can think up. While you may hold certain behaviors or lifestyles as wrong, I believe that we should all hold that there are certain truths which permeate the message of the Bible (and for that matter the message of most world religions). I would argue that these central truths, upon which we can all agree, hold a greater moral weight than the smaller truths about which we can subjectivity disagree.

Yesterday in Wichita, a pastor was arrested during a protest of a gay pride parade. His conduct was reportedly so hateful that he is being charged with Battery for throwing a button at an organizer from the festival. I wonder what his attitude is towards people of means who come across his path. Does you suppose he throws buttons at them as well? I imagine not.

Therefore, I either suggest that conservative Christians begin opposing everyone whom the Bible declares to be sinful with picket signs and Constitutional Ammendments or start promoting to a greater extent the core values of love, tolerance, and peace-making. And since, I suppose it will take awhile for the church to eliminate bigotry, inequity, and oppression from within its ranks and within the systems of our country, perhaps we should wait to remove that plank, before we start nitpicking about what happens under the covers. Only after we stamp out our prejudice and greedy, can we then throw the first stone…or festival button if you prefer.

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