Rousing Her Radiance: Day 24
Author: Andrew Comiskey
November 03, 2023
Ugly
Orthodoxy
The
priest corrected our errant ways throughout one of our Living Waters training.
We discovered this together as team members recounted his admonishments,
sourced in truth but unsolicited and given in a sour tone. ‘Right lyrics, wrong
music,’ Bonnie mused, and we all agreed.
Truth
alone doesn’t qualify us to share our opinions. For example, I don’t like the
tone of many barbs aimed at the pope and friends by conservative churchmen.
Right lyrics, wrong music. Some eloquent digs are so vociferous that I see nostrils
flaring and temples bulging; words are spat, not said. All it does is entrench
us deeper into our pre-existing camps. The target of our criticism can’t be
expected to listen and learn. Rants are abusive: emotional intelligence 101.
I’ve ranted.
I can be so taken by my convictions that I forget the person before me. Maybe
that’s because online communication obscures the object of our wrath. We can
blow ourselves up like the Wizard of Oz and challenge any bigwig who vexes us,
knowing he or she would never give us the time of day. Christians should know
and do better.
I
should do better. Bearing concern throughout the year over the synod, I felt
convicted to not say or write anything about Pope Francis (my pope) that I
wouldn’t say to his face. I tried. And I tried to see him, love letters in heart
and hand! I had a tiny window in Rome to meet him last June but the day I left
for Europe he got sick and cancelled all appointments. He has not responded to my
written communication. While we are not on his ‘must see’ list,
pro-LGBTQ+ ministries are. Maybe someday.
Jesus’
call remains–don’t say anything in a tone you wouldn’t say to another’s face,
Pope Francis or otherwise. I want my truth to be melodious, whether it is received
or not.
A
darker strain of ugly orthodoxy infects those so sick of good people caving
into the ‘gay’ agenda that they start hating people with identity confusion. That
is a huge mistake! First, the enemy is the enemy. No one person or false ‘people’
group embodies that. Our goal is to woo persons out of darkness and into glorious
Light. Second, the enemy works more through a Church who has lost courage rather
than through sexual sinners. Where is our empowered good news, the radiance of
our vision for humanity’s best, focused compassion that invites strugglers into
that ‘best’?
Without
a Church empowered in Her Gospel proclamation and anthropology (clarity on our
human dignity, sexual and otherwise), vulnerable people just gravitate toward worldly
solutions.
Don’t
blame LGBTQ+-ers. Love them. Repent on behalf of a cowardly Church and sing
bravely, sweetly. Our song needs to be heard.
‘Temper
our truth, sweet Jesus, with Your love for people, however we disagree with
them. Give us humble hearts. Convict us when we have ranted. Change us so we
can be heard. Forgive us when we have tagged the rainbow set as the enemy.
Enliven our orthodoxy with Your good news so that in every truth we declare
others can hear the love song You sing over us all.’
‘Father,
we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell
will not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on
Her firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the
deceiver and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members
of Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace
to sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the
chaste radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe,
holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’
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