I Have A Problem With This

In the recent days, I read about a series of events that made me happy - and then sad - and then sadder.  These concerned the activities of Christian children's charity World Vision, and many of you may be familiar with the events to which I am referring.  For those who are not, you may find some information here, or just continue reading and I will briefly summarize the events.

On Monday of this week, World Vision, a Christian charity that offers a 'sponsor a child' program to aid impoverished children around the world, announced a policy change reflecting its intention to hire Christians who identified as homosexual.  In the two days since that information was released, large numbers (some sources says thousands) of Christian World Vision sponsors immediately withdrew or threatened to withdraw their support of their sponsored child through the program.  Facing this backlash and the prospect of having to tell thousands of children that the benefits of having a sponsor were ending for them, World Vision chose to cut their losses and reverse the policy in hopes of keeping its sponsors and maximizing benefit to the children they serve.

Now, I know there were a lot of things wrong with what you just read, but I want to take it one step at a time.  First, though, I want to make one thing absolutely clear.

These "Christians" who withdrew their support for the children they had promised to help over a doctrinal disagreement DO NOT represent Christians as a people, and they DO NOT represent the God we serve.  We'll get to more on why in a moment.

First let's talk about the initial decision - the policy change to allow the hire of homosexual employees.  When I heard about this, I was thrilled.  That decision by World Vision was very Christ-like.  You see, the God I worship wrote a lot of things in the Bible.  Sure, some of them can be interpreted as stating that homosexuality is a sin.  My opinion on that is neither here nor there.  The point that is important for me to make here is that this is not all the Bible says.  The Bible lists a multitude of other things that are considered sinful.  Lying.  Stealing.  Cheating.  Disobeying your parents.  Working on the Sabbath.  Using the Lord's name in vain.  Divorce and subsequent remarriage.  In the Old Testament, where most of the references to homosexuality are found, even things like consuming pork or wearing the wrong type of clothing.  It also states, in more than one place, that God does not consider any one sin 'better' or 'worse' than any other.  This means that murderers and liars are guilty of the same sin, not one more than another, neither more worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.  None of us sin better or worse than others, we simply sin differently.  So to bar homosexuals - CHRISTIAN homosexuals - from employment, would be no different in the eyes of God than barring anyone who had ever committed any sin from it.  And none among us are without sin - so who exactly would World Vision employ?

Contrary to what the Westboro Baptist folks would like you to believe, God LOVES homosexuals.  He also loves liars, cheaters and even murderers.  In many places the Bible states that never should any one of us stop another person from doing good in God's name because they do so differently, believe differently, or because they are not "one of us".  To stop another person from doing good is to do bad yourself.   In changing their policy, World Vision was following Christ!  Their decision to allow even those whose doctrinal beliefs differ from their own to do good works in the name of the Lord was Christ-like. 

What followed, however, was the opposite.

As I previously stated, following the announcement, a large number of World Vision supporters either withdrew, or threatened to withdraw, their commitment to their sponsored child, citing what they believed was a policy that violated their religious beliefs.  Since this is my blog and it's about my opinion, I can state quite plainly here that they were WRONG.

Further study of the Bible would reveal to these people that World Vision's actions did not violate the beliefs of Christianity in any way - in fact, it is exactly what Jesus would do.  Love every person, encourage them, despite whatever their sins may be, to do good in His name.  You see, God LOVES the world.  He SO loves the world that He gave His Son so that we might have eternal life.  God does not love 'only those without sin'... that's not what the Bible says.  It says "For God so loved the world".  He loves the sinner.  He loves everyone - all colors, shapes and sizes - born and unborn, married and single, gay or straight, rich or poor, happy or sad, clean or dirty.  He loves us all... even the liars, the cheaters, the murderers, the adulterers, even the very people who denounce Him.  None of us is without sin.  He loves us anyways.  God would not have us stop any of these people from doing good in His name - so why would we expect World Vision to do that?

What does violate the beliefs of Christianity is withdrawing your support from an innocent, impoverished child who needs your help because you disagree with some higher-ups about a doctrinal issue.  This is failing to heed the call of the Bible to care for the orphan and the widow, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  There is no clause in the Bible for only doing what is right when you get to make the rules.  There is no clause that states that it is more important to judge others for their sins than to do good works.  Yet that is exactly what all those people did by withdrawing their support.  Is that what Jesus would have done?  I think not.  To hear that people had done this, withdrawn support from innocent children, supposedly 'in the name of God'... well, that hurt my heart.  And I know it hurt His too.

So then the news came today that World Vision was reversing its decision... they will no longer hire Christian individuals who identify as homosexual.  This made me even sadder.  Now not only are they also stopping people from doing good in the name of the Lord... we, the church, by allowing this to happen, are sending the world a message about Christianity.  We are sending the message that it is more important to judge than to help.  That charity and being Christ-like take a back seat to judgment and pride.

This is where I want to make a different message very clear.  These people do not stand for all Christians, nor do they stand for the God we worship.  The message they are sending is nothing but harmful to their cause - as it will turn more people off to Christianity, seeing the religion as judgmental and bigoted.  But sadly, these people are the vocal minority.  There are many, many Christians such as myself who supported World Vision's initial decision.  Some of us even sought out the organization to make donations or sign up to sponsor a child because of Monday's statement.  But you won't see any mass exodus of these people now that the statement has been reversed - because they actually value being Christ-like first, and would never withdraw support from one of God's children, or from an organization that helps God's children, over such a disagreement.  Certainly, to me at least, World Vision's reputation has been tarnished by the reversal - but if I had chosen to sign up to sponsor a child, I would not withdraw my support of that child now - the only person who loses when people do that is the innocent child.

It would be easy to assume that since things will quiet down now that the statement has been reversed, that Christian sponsors are happy with the results.  But like I said - the outcry came from the vocal minority.  The vast majority of Christians support both the ministry of World Vision and the equal hiring practices proposed in the initial statement.  We are saddened and disappointed by the reversal - but we won't be taking it out on the children.

So please, I ask you as you read about these things in the news, do not judge all of us by the ones who give us a bad name.  Do not be deceived into believing that we are all judgmental and bigoted - because the vast majority of us are not!  Those who are truly following Christ, even if they believe that homosexuality is a sin, also realize that we are all guilty of sin and that none of us should be judged solely by our sins.  We believe that none among us should be held back from doing good in His name because we sin in one way or another - because who, then, would do good?  We do not value being judgmental - the Bible does not call us to that.  We value being Christ-like, which the Bible does call us to... and He loves each and every human soul.  We truly do believe in asking ourselves, "What would Jesus do".  And in this case, well, as my favorite pastor used to say... "God loves you.  He loves you just the way you are."

So do good in His name.  Let no one stop you - any who try are not doing the work of the Lord.  And know that a vocal and judgmental minority does not represent our religion, or our God.

Too Long

Princesa,

It has been too long since I wrote.  I am sorry.  I have given you reasons before and I don't think you need to hear them again, I think you will understand perfectly well, but I do want to make sure that you know that even when I go a long time between letters, it does not mean I am thinking of you or missing you any less.  I still fall asleep every night snuggling Ellfant and thinking of you.  I still pray night and day for your health, safety, and happiness... and for you to come home.  I still see you in every little detail of my every day.

Yesterday I opened the closet to get out a coat to wear, and saw your flower umbrella that you got for your seventh birthday, and the pink rain jacket we bought because you didn't have one to wear to school, and I wished you were here to use them.  I allowed myself to part with a few of your things - outfits, shoes, things like that - so that your friends J and N can use them.  You should see the pride they take in wearing "A's clothes".  How they tell me they miss you every time they put them on.  How my heart smiles seeing things that used to be yours bringing other children joy.

You're going to be 11 soon.  I thought double digits was hard, but 11... goodness.  The day I said goodbye to you, you were 9.  Little.  11 is a pre-teen!  I hate so much that I have missed these 21 months of your life.  I wonder what has changed about you.  Which of your little quirks you have retained, if you've gained any new ones, what parts of who you were when I saw you last that you have outgrown.

Stores are full of fun spring and Easter goodies.  I long to put together an Easter basket for you, to pick up another pair of adorable Easter socks in the dollar aisle, to take you to the store and have a fashion show to pick out the very best swimsuit for summer.  Mom made Paczki last weekend and the weekend before... and I think about how if you were here, I'd barely get any!  But I wouldn't mind, because it would mean you were here.

I can't look forward to your birthday this year.  It was so very hard for me last year, even though I put a smile on and celebrated for you.  We'll celebrate again this year... but it won't be the same without you.  I'll miss picking out the perfect presents and watching you open them and exclaim "Oh, I just did want this!" even when you'd never seen it before in your life.  I hope you'll have cake and presents and ice cream and love wherever you are.

But I don't want my letter to be all about being sad and missing you because you were never one to dwell on the negative, the things you couldn't control - you were one to seize the day, enjoy the moment we were in.  So I'll fill you in on our 'moments'... on one condition... you tell me everything you can remember that put a smile on your face since I last saw you, when I see you again.

Mom is still working a lot, but she does it for our family and I know she loves and thinks of you all the time.  She's been cooking a lot of fun treats lately that I'm sure you'd be glad to help her out with... at least the licking the beaters part.  She misses sharing her bagels with you in the morning, you helping her dry the dishes.

Danny is going to college now, he's mostly taking general classes because he's still not quite sure what he wants to do 'when he grows up', but he seems to like it.  He plays video games all the time, as usual.  He's also driving now (I know, scary, right?) so there's an extra person to run errands around here.  He had a friend over last weekend... and they, you know, played video games while sitting next to each other, haha.

M doesn't come over every day anymore because she's almost 15 years old and big enough to stay by herself for a few hours - but we get together on weekends sometimes, or even weeknights especially if it's going to be cold in the morning so I can drive her to school.  We go shopping, play games, go out to eat... a couple weeks ago we went to Fort Rapids (the indoor water park I took you to where we saw some of our friends from church) and had a really good time.  Wished you were there.  We'll go when you come home.

I know you'll want an update on the kitties... they are doing good.  I think I wrote to you before that Boo went to kitty heaven, but that I got another kitten and named him Marbles - he's about a year and a half old now.  He and Tiger (or, "Stripey Cat" as you liked to call him) get along really well, even though they beat up on each other and chase each other around the house a lot.  Marbles got out of the house the other day when it was snowing and really cold... Danny and I had to drag him in from under the deck!

As for me... I worked for a few months as a nanny for a 3 year old boy and a newborn little girl.  I quit that job a couple weeks ago because it was just too stressful - funny how other people's kids are so much harder to handle than you guys!  I'm back to looking for jobs and helping Shannon with your friends J and N, and little M who has turned into a toddler since you last saw her, and R who was born last summer.  I love being at their house because they know and understand everything you and I went through.  Shannon understands where you're coming from more than I think you even know.  One day maybe you can talk to her about it.  I've also been doing the same stuff, helping orphans find families and getting them home, and seen a lot of beautiful families in the process.  And I taught myself how to make really cool bracelets and if you were here I'd make you a pink and purple one.  Actually, I do have a surprise for you when you go home... for all our missed birthdays, Easters and Christmases.  I can't wait to give it to you.

I wish I could hear from you and hear how you're doing, what you're up to, who your friends are, how you like school... we're going to have a lot of catching up to do when I see you again!

I love you Princess.  I love you like the moon at night - big, and round, and warm, and bright.

I love you.  Goodnight.

Love you forever,
"Kai"