Nov 16th; When Religion Gets Ugly

I think that religion can be ugly enough on its own and I don't particularly want to add to that ugliness, but I've a story that I think needs to be told. There will certainly be people that will take great offense to my rambling. I am okay with that because it is an offensive story.

Last month, my home church of Hopedale voted to adopt The Nashville Statement as a part of our church constitution. I was opposed to its adoption for a number of reasons and spoke against it (for my allotted two minutes at the business meeting) and was one of two votes opposing it (the other vote was my wife).
Although I was disappointed, frustrated and even angry with the results of the vote, I have grown accustomed to being on the outside when it comes to religion and politics in Southwest Missouri. I should point out that my frustration goes much further than Hopedale and includes being cast in the general group of evangelicals that want more to do with legislating morality and engineering a religious based government than sharing God's grace.
It was with all of this in mind that I wrote my Weekend Rant of a few weeks ago.

Although Hopedale wasn't mentioned specifically in the post, my pastor read it and took it as a personal attack on him and the church. The following day I received a voice mail to call him later in the afternoon. I was busy at that time and when I was ready to call him there was a text telling me that the magic at the next night's Trunk or Treat had been cancelled and we'll talk later.
I called him on Tuesday morning and was informed that we (both me and my wife) would no longer be able to teach, serve on any committees, nor serve in any leadership roles at Hopedale. I guess that also included doing magic at a community event.

Wow!
All of that from one post!
I feel like I should mention that I've been blogging for more than eleven years. If you were to find the search bar (upper left in the web version) and type in Hopedale, you will find these posts. I've re-read those posts and think that I've painted a pretty rosy picture of Hopedale.
It was after Tuesday's phone conversation that I wrote Wednesday's post, Heretic.

Now I'm more sad than angry as I feel like I am a man without a church. I'm more sad for Chris as she has far many more ties and friendships than I do.
And I'm thinking that there are quite a number of people to whom I owe apologies. Over the years, many have left Hopedale and shared parts of their stories or indicated that they no longer felt welcomed there -- and I always defended Hopedale and our its pastor. Now I wonder if they found themselves victims of the same type of non-biblical church discipline.

We have reached an ugly point in our human history. In today's world, differences of opinions create enmity. I am so thankful for my faithful friends that have greatly different opinions on some topics and yet choose to remain my friend because of the core things that we have in common.
We have also reached an ugly point in christianity (little c intentional). In today's world we have decided that it is our place to pass judgement and condemnation rather than simply share that God's grace is enough.
It is enough to cover my sin.
It is enough to cover yours, too.

I'm not going to pretend that I have all the answers. In fact, the only answer I have is that God loves you and Jesus died for you.
I think I'll leave it to Him to figure out the rest.

John <><