An open letter: When my moral positions hurt you
Dear person(s)
If you've read the news today, you read the article about Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty talking about his moral convictions. (If you haven't, you've hidden under a rock).
The aftermath has been crazy. And if we are able to step off our soap boxes for a moment (as I write on one...) and consider each side, I think we'd all be a bit more understanding. One guy expressing his unedited opinion. A lot of people hurt and angry because they disagree.
My mom always taught me anger is a secondary emotion. The first is almost always hurt.
So bottom line: people were hurt. And that's what inspired this letter. To acknowledge something I think a lot of Christians don't think through.
Our moral positions may hurt others.
Stanley Hauerwas, named Times Magazine’s “America’s Best Theologian” in 2001, once wrote that every substantive moral position will, at some time, ask other people to suffer for its commitments. I’ll never forget a Christian professor from my alma mater responding to a LGBT forum with the following statement: ‘I cannot delude myself into thinking that taking what I consider to be a biblical position on this issue will not hurt other people. With tears, I admit that it will hurt them.’ Jesus' teachings were radical. He was gracious, kind, and patient but also confrontational, controversial and unapologetic about God's counter-worldly way of things. He was a Savior to some and an offensive nuisance to others. He caused riots.
So I guess what I'm saying is, if you disagree with fundamental Christian doctrine, I understand why you're mad and hurt. For those who disagree with our beliefs, it sure seems like we're arrogant and self righteous. But if the Bible is true, if Jesus is right, and if the world is as He says it is, I have to be 'all-in'. If I truly believed that everyone was destined for a place of eternal pain and anguish unless they genuinely acknowledged God, then I’d have to be a selfish vindictive person to keep what I know to myself. I don't think I'm better than you (I know it appears that way). I just think I know a better way. The Way. That may seem arrogant. Unless the Bible's right. And that's what I'm betting my life on.
So here's what we do: We learn how to disagree without being mean. To accept love from one another. To appreciate honesty and communication and listening. But if I don't change my mind, please don't call me closed- minded.
In the words of Gilbert Keith Chesterton: "Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid."
I believe I've found my something solid. He showed love but lived by truth. My aim is to do the same.
- Amy