Monday, June 7, 2010

The Cancer in the Body of Christ

One of my Facebook friends posted this "gem" on her page this morning, and as you might imagine, it caused a stir.
I don't like church marquee signs as a general rule, and this one, from a church in Blacklick, OH, on the outskirts of Columbus, definitely wins in the highly-offensive category. The lyrics of the Katy Perry song it references are bad enough ("I kissed a girl just to try it. Hope my boyfriend don't mind it"); this sign adds additional insult and is yet another barrier designed to keep the LGBT community from knowing the love of God. Signs such as these don't just keep gay people away from Havens Corner Church; it repels them from Christianity as a whole.
Checking into the church's website, I learned that they "love God's Word and people". They want to "meet the spiritual needs of our community and provide opportunities for fellowship". They clearly believe that one must accept Jesus Christ to be saved, and be a member of the Allison family in order to lead (the pastors are father and son... with another son as the assistant music minister).
This marquee message is a symptom of what I believe is the cancer in the Body of Christ. That cancer being the noxious hatred of the LGBT community, and the use of homosexuality to conjure up fear and loathing among the faithful. Like cancer, this attitude and belief about gays spreads itself throughout the Body. Once inside, it kills off the healthy cells in the Body until it overwhelms the Body in the effort to destroy it.
Any time Christians fall prey to the cancer of hatred of the "other", they are helping to spread a cancer. Pastors who preach using a song that is thought to be lesbian and then saying that leads to "Hell" are infecting the Body with cancer.
The motto of Havens Corner Church is "Finding and Feeding His Sheep". But if this sign is any indication of how they plan to do that, it might be better to say that they are finding and feeding some of the sheep to the wolves.

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