Tomorrow, April 25, is a Day of Silence. I’m just learning about this, and in conjunction with it, I’m learning about the Christian protest. I learned about the Christian protest while I was preparing dinner. I was using a knife. I was angry, and it’s a wonder I didn’t cut myself.
I believe that we are all sexual sinners. I believe that all sexual sin is bad. I believe that homosexual activity is a sexual sin. I believe that lots of stuff I’ve done in my life was sexual sin. The difference is, I could confess, and in some circles celebrate, that sin, and no one would have said a word. If I were confessing, Christians would have come alongside me and helped. If I were celebrating, the world around me would have celebrated with me. In neither of those situations would I have to be concerned that someone might ridicule, deride, punch, spit on, kick, or murder me.
That’s the point of the Day of Silence. I don’t have to agree with the position on human sexuality of LGBT groups to agree with them that folks who experience those desires shouldn’t get murdered. Do Christians have any idea how they sound when they protest things like this? When they call the school to inform them their children will not be coming to school as a protest?
Here’s a little mock conversation to get the point across.
School Principal (SP): “April 25, our school will be honoring the wishes of those willing to participate in the Day of Silence. We do not believe LGBT teens and children should be bullied or hurt.”
Christian Parent (CP): “I don’t agree with your agenda.”
SP: “Excuse me, what agenda is that? Stopping murder?”
CP: “No, this is clearly a celebration of the gay lifestyle, and that’s not right.”
SP: “Who’s celebrating? It’s a Day of Silence. It represents those who have been murdered, whose voices can no longer be heard because someone killed them just because they were gay.”
CP: “That’s just deception. My child won’t be coming to school. We’re protesting this celebration of the gay lifestyle.”
Come on, folks. You have to realize what this looks like. It’s manifestly true that kids who are “gay” get bullied, beaten, and sometimes killed. When you protest an event like this, because of some supposed hidden insidious agenda, it’s bad. Unless you’re willing to say that Christ would deal with the sin of homosexuality by ridicule and beatings, send your kids to school, and let them be representatives of Christ - the one who took the ridicule, the beatings, and the death on our behalf. Don’t be so caught up in the culture war that fear of an agenda overrules mercy.
4 responses so far ↓
1 lonelypilgrim // Apr 25, 2008 at 12:52 am
Thanks. You are quite correct. My own sexual sins aren’t as bad as those of homosexuals. Why? Well, because they are mine of course. And mine can’t be as bad as theirs are.
My Sunday School teacher said something a few weeks ago along these lines. Paraphrased, the sins we hate the most are the ones that we don’t commit. I’m not an alcoholic so drunkenness is evil. Gluttony, well that’s another matter of course.
I think one is becoming more Godly when he starts to hate the sins he sees when he looks in a mirror as much as he hates the sins he sees when he looks out a window.
2 Travis Prinzi // Apr 25, 2008 at 7:21 am
Well said. I’ll probably quote that last line some day.
3 Mike F. // Apr 26, 2008 at 9:50 am
There was a piece on this on the local news last night. One school had 30% absent. This particular school had extra security guards and police officers because there had been some threats. They interviewed one lady and her niece who choose not to attend. The lady said she didn’t think it was right for the school to “honor the gays” because she didn’t “hold to that”.
4 Travis Prinzi // Apr 26, 2008 at 11:13 am
That’s appalling. Extra security because of threats on the Day of Silence for people who had been killed, and Christians boycotting school. Ugh.
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