Last April, I preached at a church in New York City called The Gallery Church. It’s a small evangelical congregation meeting in a restaurant right in the heart of Manhattan. Pastor Freddy T. Wyatt had planned a series on sexuality and gender, and my contribution was on the meaning of marriage.A few weeks after my part in the series, another speaker brought a message on what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. As a result of that message, the owners of the restaurant informed The Gallery Church that they could no longer meet in their establishment.
I'll state right now that I don't know exactly what the sermon said, though it's probably safe to guess that the message wasn't "It's OK to be gay; God made you that way." It's possible that the sermon included suggestions like "The compassion of Christ is boundless, and being gay is no barrier to have a relationship with God."
And I definitely feel frustrated on account of Freddy T. and the others of his church who found themselves out of a space they (presumably) had planned to be in for a while. I feel for them, but I’m not sure I see much cause for the outrage I'm seeing in Burk's post.
Here's how the situation appears to have unfolded. First, the Gallery Church had a sermon in which it outlined a "tough stand" on homosexuality. Second, management at the restaurant, which is based in New York and must be mindful of its the views of its customers, decided it would be bad business to be associated with the views expressed in that sermon, and asked them to leave.
If a church wishes to espouse a view it can expect others will object to, but chooses to espouse that view anyway, there’s no cause for complaint when that backlash comes. In fact, when it comes to more serious matters, like the actual gospel itself, Jesus told his followers to expect not just pushback but actual persecution, and the biblical authors enjoined their readers to count it joy to suffer for the gospel.
The gospel, it's worth noting, is not a moral standard. It's a message of reconciliation between God and humanity, and among humanity. It led to the early Christians being persecuted for a number of reasons, not just because they didn't worship the official gods, but also because they stopped paying as much attention to social niceties about whom to eat and drink with, and crossed all sorts of social lines.
So I have to challenge the notion that the Gallery Church was evicted for preaching the Bible. Homosexuality is barely a footnote in the Bible. Given that telling people “Your lifestyle is a horrible sin” is going to alienate people, and given that the message of Jesus and the Apostles was not “You are sinner” as much as “God is calling all people to be reconciled to him through his son, who has risen from the dead,” I don’t think this reaction indicates any antipathy to Jesus or the gospel, as much as it does fatigue with the evangelical message of “You are a sinner and deserve to go to hell.”
Most of American society is familiar with the evangelical message on homosexuality, as it has been proclaimed many times by many people, from many pulpits. What’s lost, because we never get around to saying it, is Jesus’ message of, “I’d like to come have dinner with you. Does this Friday work for you?” or “I’m sorry your parents told you that you couldn’t live in their house anymore when you told them you were a lesbian. Do you need a place to stay?” or even “Want to watch the new Superman movie with me?”
Try a message like that, and people just might start beating the door down to come to church.
Copyright © 2013 by David Learn. Used with permission.
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