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LGBTQ+ And The Church

November 18, 2019
by Matt Shantz

This seminar was an important night in the life of our church. Because if the church is unable or unwilling to 1) Address the most pressing cultural issue of our day and, 2) Resource our people to engage gender and sexual minorities in the way of Jesus, then we hurt our witness and do nothing to bridge the massive divide that exists between church and culture. Said positively, thinking through how to be a compelling Christian witness towards the LGBT community goes a long way in building bridges between the church and culture for the sake of the Kingdom.

The great cause of poor love of people and poor theology is the persistence of the false dichotomy that we can only do one or the other. But it’s not the Bible or people. It’s always the Bible and people. Jesus is described as full of grace and truth. When the Bible gets wielded as a weapon against people for the sake of “truth” or the Bible is adapted or rejected in order to “love” we’ve missed the way of Jesus.

Jesus got hit from both sides. He preached radical truth (Lustful look = Adultery) and took flack for it; yet was radically compassionate (friend of tax-collectors & sinners) and took flack for it. So if you're not regularly critiqued from both sides you're probably not following the way of Jesus very closely!

Missional Ecclesiology

Many churches function this way: Behave the right way, believe the right things, and then we’ll let you in and belong. A missional church functions this way: We're glad you're here, we want to love you, and we want you to meet Jesus (not as a bait & switch but out of genuine desire for your good), and ultimately we’ll trust that intimacy with Jesus will produce the spiritual formation that He will require.

In other words, we can start on the edges and work in (behaviour modification) or we can start at the centre and work outwards (recognizing that people need to embrace Christ and then be transformed from the inside-out). 

Church is messy and we have two options. We can be messy in a good way or messy in a bad way. Let me paraphrase Caleb Kaltenbach, from his book Messy Grace: When we don’t expect each other as fellow believers to be perfect, room is created to work out the struggles between you and God. No one views themselves with superiority but instead are more than happy to walk alongside you in the journey. At times it will be messy and confusing when we try to show both grace and truth, but that’s a tension of the tightrope we are to constantly attempt to walk. Most of us aren’t comfortable with church being messy but I think that this kind of posture and context for ministry makes church messy in a good way. If we get this wrong, our church will be a place that’s messy in a bad way. Because if our church is a place where people can’t be honest, we’re creating sanctuaries for fake people. Ultimately, our church becomes a Pharisee factory.

Our church must be a place where "it's ok not to be ok". Where we can be honest and transparent and find that the person next to us is just as messed up as we are. And yet also find a culture that is set on not leaving each other there. Ultimately, the greatest gift we can give one another is a culture where we love, draw, spur on, and entreat one another toward Jesus.

Tightrope Walkers

Rainbow stickers are on the entrance windows of a lot of businesses and public spaces. Do you know what they mean? They mean 'This is a safe space' for the LGBT+ community. The church should be the safest of spaces for these individuals but unfortunately, the opposite has often been the case. 

We at Central hold a historic view of the Bible when it comes to sexuality. But our goal is to be exceedingly biblical in all of it: exceedingly loving, exceedingly compassionate, exceedingly counter-cultural, exceedingly unique as a family of faith. Truth without love is the ugliest form of fundamentalism. But love without truth is mere sentimentality. Neither of these extreme poles are ultimately truthful or loving. 

In the middle, full of grace and truth, is the tightrope we are called to walk as followers of Jesus. It's not easy. It's not neat and tidy. But this and this alone is the way of Jesus.

Definitions

We often fear what we don't know or understand. And functioning out of fear doesn't go well, generally speaking. Wise decisions and loving actions are not typical descriptors of a culture of fear. Yet, I have found, that many of those in the church operate out of fear rather than truth and grace when it comes to LGBT+. So lets learn about some terms we frequently hear these days.

GENDER DYSPHORIA
A psychological term that has been given to describe somebody who feels high levels of incongruence or disconnect between their internal sense of who they are (often called gender identity) versus their biological sex. When we think 'euphoria' we think: positive. 'Dysphoria' on the other hand is a negative, and for those who experience gender dysphoria, it can be deeply distressing.
For many, it’s so deeply distressing that it can rise to the level where it’s a diagnosable disorder as a mental health concern (gender identity disorder), and should  then be responded to as other mental health concerns would be.

TRANSGENDER
A broad umbrella term that can mean anything from somebody who believes they are the opposite sex of their biological body (I am a woman, even if I have the body of a man); or somebody who identifies as transgender to mean the dysphoria they live with (to describe the incongruence they experience but don’t believe they actually are the opposite gender), or others who don’t match the stereotype of masculinity or femininity (therefore, questioning for those reasons).

CISGENDER
A term for people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth (if I find myself in a setting where pronouns are being used in introductions, I might introduce myself as cisgender with the preferred pronouns of he/him/his).

INTERSEX
A general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies. A person may be born with mosaic genetics, so that some of her cells have XX chromosomes and some of them have XY or a person may be born with genitals that seem to be in-between the usual male and female types.
Some examples of intersex conditions (from American Psychological Association): Congenital adrenal hyperplasia; 5-alpha-reductase deficiency; Partial androgen insensitivity; Penile agenesis; Klinefelter syndrome; Turner syndrome; Vaginal agenesis.
Intersex was formerly referred to as hermaphrodite but is no longer a preferred term by intersex individuals. Many experts and persons with intersex conditions have recently recommended adopting the term disorders of sex development (DSD).

NON-BINARY GENDER IDENTITIES
A spectrum of gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine‍—‌identities that are outside the gender binary rather than adopting a cross-gender identity, as happens when a biological male identifies as female. Some examples of non-binary gender identities include genderfluid, genderqueer, agender, gender expansive.

One of the many reasons listening is so critical is because the transgender umbrella is so wide. If someone tells you that they’re transgender you don’t yet know what that means. We won’t know how to lovingly support if we don’t even know what their particular story and experience is.

HOW SHOULD I ENGAGE AN LGBT PERSON IN MY LIFE WHO ISN'T A BELIEVER?

The short answer is: love them and show them Jesus. The Apostle Paul said, "What have I to do with judging outsiders?" (1 Corinthians 5:12).

Rosaria Butterfield's testimony and insight into this question are so helpful: “Me being a lesbian was not my biggest sin. Being an unbeliever was.”

She goes on with sound advice for the church: “So don’t get sidetracked into focusing on sins (plural) about anybody. Get to know people well enough to know what’s really the issue. Everyone has a longing for those things that eternal souls need. And the Word of God is the only food and the person of Jesus Christ is the only friend for all of humanity. So don’t get sidetracked with how people are presenting themselves or how they’re identifying. That’s not helpful, it’s not even kind.”
Madelaine L'Engle's words help us here as well: 

HOW SHOULD I ENGAGE AN LGBT PERSON IN MY LIFE WHO IS A BELIEVER?

The short answer is: love them and show them Jesus. I get that that's overly simplistic. But it’s in the context of relationship that you will have the opportunity over time to share God’s best for them, in humility, and not unnecessarily divisively. 

When we have a humble and listening posture it will help us care well because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach in all of this. 

There are LGBT Christians who know what the Scriptures say so they don’t need to be preached at, they need to be supported and routinely encouraged. 

There are LGBT Christians who are unsure what the Scriptures say and so they need support in a context of love and trust where they can be shown what the Scriptures say, and be provided loving, humble help to apply it to their circumstance. 

There are LGBT Christians who question or disagree with what the Scriptures say. As best as possible, like with anyone else, lovingly pursue them with grace and truth.

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Categories: Church , Culture , Gender , Sexuality