- Why Jars of Clay is Still one of My Favorite Bands.
- (Supporting Dan Haseltine’s comments and Christina Love)
- (DISCLAIMER: This is an exhortation, we are all covered in grace, please take it with a grain of salt.)
So this week Dan Haseltine of the Christian Super-Star band Jars of Clay took to Twitter to talk about his support of Same Sex Marriage. The comments, as they usually do when someone in the spotlight makes such comments we jump on top of them, call them a heretic and stop buying their books / music / TV shows etc because they have “Abandoned their Christian heritage.” Haseltine faced more abuse in three days then some people do in their entire lifetime, and a lot of it was from the church.
Before I go on though, I want to consider who this man is. In all my years of listening to Jars of Clay, owning 12 of their albums and listing “Who We Are Instead” as one of the top 5 albums of all time I have found the band to be a thinking band. They tend to be up front and honest about life and their honesty is well-thought out. Just listen to the songs “Show you Love” or “Collide” or “Unforgetful You.” Can you tell me those songs did not have a lot of thought put into them. Consider “Collide” (If I left the Zoo), a song about wrestling with a truer, and more refined version of love that comes from the father. The band has always had something to say, in the words of one of my mentors (whose son was a founding member of Jars) “They are all thinkers.” This is evidenced in the band’s music, the depth of their lyrics at times astounds me, makes me wish I wrote that deep all the time.
Yet on a flight home from Australia he started to ask questions, and instead of helping him answer them, we attacked him, called him a heretic, told him that he did not believe in the bible. Some of the things tweeted at the man were abusive. Some of the articles people wrote were atrocious. Just like the World Vision decision I found myself let down by the church, instead of showing grace to a brother, we released articles asking people to “Boycott Jars concerts.”
Honestly this gets old, am I perfect, I do not believe so. Have I been a part of controversies in the past? Yes! Did I leave a mainline denomination over the issue of Same Sex marriage & Ordination? Yes. I will never claim to be perfect, if I do someone please tweet a reminder at me. This is not the point though, this is far from the point.
The point is this: If the church is to engage a secular culture, to encourage social righteousness and even social justice. Then we must first stop engaging in these vain discussions of whether Haseltine was right or wrong and start answering the hard questions that he is asking. Mainly: “By not supporting same-sex marriage am I participating in a form of oppression?”
I believe as a church today we have developed a dangerous and unhelpful infectiveness that has led to a heavy dose of what I call “Corinthian Syndrome.” We like to talk about big issues, or blow small issues out of proportion to make us feel good about the things that we do not want to talk about but know are sins. A while back I was discussing the issue of Homosexuality with one of my brothers in Christ, a man who to this day amazes me with his insights. He said: “All sins are an affront to God, not one is greater than the other, we just make one worse than another.” We make one sin greater than the other, your gluttony is not as bad as your neighbors covetedness, and so on and so forth. Haseltine just so happened to comment on the issue that the church likes to make the focal point of every sermon on sin. Ignoring the root sin (Lust) and going straight for the throat of the gay community instead of acknowledging that Lust is a sin we all have to struggle with.
Is this not contrary to what Christ commanded? Does the commandment of “Love your neighbor” not extend to the gay man who lives down the street? Apparently it does not for some Christians, at one point in my life it did not for me either. Yet as I get older in my faith I have come to realize the damage we are doing to our own witness by attacking Haseltine, not even by not showing the love of Christ to the gay community, but by attacking Haseltine, world Vision, the owner of Chick Fil-A (need I go on). Realize that person is your brother in Christ, Haseltine is your brother in Christ, The director of World Vision is your brother in Christ, I am your brother in Christ. Remember Jesus words in Matthew 5:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”
(Matthew 5:21-22 ESV)
By treating Haseltine and others in a hateful and bitter manner for asking these questions has made us a condemnation all unto ourselves. To the world it looks as though we are fighting another civil war, forgetting that there is a world that needs Christian Love now more than ever. Separated by opinions formed with an understanding of scripture that is neither nourished by grace or dependent on the spirit of God, we fight and eat and drink while some are left out in the spiritual cold. We have adopted the Corinthians way of life, allowing the bitterness rivaling Fred Phelps to seep in towards one another and towards the world.
We need to learn to be the love of Christ again.
And I am not talking about a flowerly, watered down love either. I am talking about a love that is not afraid to ask the tough questions, a love that operates with the intent to bring others into the kingdom. A love that can transform the church, transform the communities, transform the world. I am talking about an accountable love, a tough love. I am talking of Christian Love.
We must know that Christ wants us to be better than this. Regardless of how you feel about gay-marriage attacking another believer for asking questions about it is far from Christian Love. So I support Dan Haseltine because he is asking the questions and wanting to seek answers. He still holds to scriptures, but as far as the world goes he has a point, should Christians not hear the cries of all people, regardless of feelings towards a specific splinter group and show them the love of Christ?
I personally believe if we are to win anyone into the kingdom we must do it through the passionate, truth bearing, life giving love that we were shown on the cross when Jesus died to save us.
FOR THE RECORD: This article is not intended to be a commentary on gay rights, for biblical & reasons of consciousness I do not and will not support gay rights in the church. However, that should never stop me from loving those people who God commands us to love, or showing the gay community Christ’s love through my actions. As Christians we are to be above reproach, something we fall short of oh so often, something I fall short of, we are called to glorify God in all that we do, should that not mean how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ as well as those who do not believe?
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