One Night Stand
The ruling this week that a Christian couple acted unlawfully by refusing a gay couple a double room in their B&B once more raises the fundamental question: How do Christians live out their faith in the context of a society where that faith is not shared by everyone? The B&B owners were, ultimately, judged to have brought their private religious beliefs to bear where they did not belong - in the public sphere of the hospitality industry.
It's a reminder, if one was needed, that it's all too easy to talk up the 'adventure', or the 'journey' of discipleship, and make no mention of the cost of discipleship. In the case of the B&B owners, this cost includes the monies they must now pay as a result of Tuesday's ruling. These they will be able to meet, thanks to the generosity of Christian brothers and sisters who have supported them - a demonstration of the practical outworking of faith in the Christian community that received all too scant attention in the media's reporting of the story.
But the ruling also alludes to the possibility of a greater cost - the cost, perhaps, of giving up a job you love because you cannot reconcile its legal obligations with what you perceive to be the prior obligations of faith, whether that be in the hospitality industry, or in any other industry. We are, after all, required to submit to the rule of law and the authorities that govern us.
Of course, we need always to be very certain in any given situation that our faith is genuinely being compromised, and not just disagreed with. After all, whatever their line of work - whether paid or unpaid - the vast majority of Christians daily rub shoulders, and must get along, with colleagues and clients who don't share their faith and have made very different life choices as a result.
Then, as we contemplate the need to make a stand in those circumstances where, like the Christian B&B owners, we genuinely believe our faith is being compromised, we might do well to reflect on the example of the first Christians. Yes, they found themselves having to declare their need to obey God rather than human beings (Acts 5:29), but they did so in the full knowledge that such allegiance came at a price - often a very great price, and one that, as the rest of Acts demonstrates, they paid at immense personal cost.
As we do so, we might also consider whether the kind of predicament the B&B owners found themselves in might not be anything less than a regular occurrence among Christians wrestling with what it means to live as whole-life disciples...
Nigel Hopper
Links
For a different take on the court ruling in the B&B case, click here...
And for another view, click here...
Comments
I too, like many others have a problem with this article. I think it is incredibly poorly thought out and quite insensitive, possiblly offensive. Although I usually like the Connecting With Culture articles too, in general I agree with the majority of what is written above. The key question which is missed (but quite possibly would have made it onto a different article) is "what would Jesus do?" I do not think he would have turned them away, and he is the only man who does not need grace to ever have walked our Earth. So how can we, with planks in our eyes, possibly have been in a possition to start taking sawdust out of other's? I think this is a case of pot, kettle and black! The "greater cost" here is not the money or losing a profession you enjoy. That is incredibly small minded and "in the box thinking"- the greater cost is the possible loss of connecting with Jesus that gay couple now have following the pig-headedness of some "Christian" B&B owners. The Greater cost is the possible cost to the kingdom of heaven of two more people Jesus loves and laid down his life for because of a poor Christian attitude to sinners who are no better than themselves. We all fall short of the mark, only by grace can any one of us be in contact with our father. We have been invited to a full on feast in heaven, yet not a single one of us deserves even to pick the meat off the carcass the would have been chukced into the bin. So yes, we do need to make a stand, we need to make a stand of love and demonstrate the love Jesus would have demonstarted by inviting them in to eat with us and sharing the love of Christ with them rather than turning them away. Perhaps that couple were turning away Jesus? Who knows. If nothing else, at least it has got us all thinking!
The author of this article and the owners of the B&B sound awfully similar to the Pharisees who refrained from socialising with sinners. Jesus refused to spend time with such self-righteous people who considered themselves more clean than the secular sinners. Instead Jesus choose to spend his time with homosexuals, adulterers, prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors amongst others, inviting them into his home and enjoying meals with them. Do you not realise that Jesus came to tell us that we are all sinner and equally so. The point of the gospel is each of us is soiled and need a saviour. We are made clean by grace alone – so why is a heterosexual guest better than a homosexual one? Having given us grace, the only requirement Jesus gave us was that we love others. It seems to me that by refusing to spend time with homosexuals, these B&B owners refused to do the one clear thing Jesus asked us to do (love and accept the his lost sheep). In so doing these Christians rejected the true spirit of Jesus.
This opinion piece made me want to weep and hang up my hat as a Christian. It was really disappointing as I usually agree with the views expressed in these opinion pieces. You often offer quite refreshing and relevant views on contemporary Christian living. I wonder why as Christians we have to be so completely intolerant of difference as if we have a right to impose our beliefs on others when the only rule that is clear-cut in the bible, seems to be to love and accept others with open arms. My experience I getting to know a few gay people has been of humble, tolerant and kind people who have dealth with massive amounts of pain in their lives from intolerance and lack of empathy. I have an amazing work colleague who used to be my HR Manager. He became my mentor and friend and helped me through a very difficult restructure at work. I’ve known him now for four years and I'm sorry to report that I’ve actually avoided telling him I’m a Christian as I can vividly imagine what his reaction will be. Odds are that the only experience he’s had of supposedly God loving people will have been condemnation and abuse as to his sexuality and moral code from modern day self-righteous pharisees. Reading about the story below I thought of the story of the Good Samaritan in the gospels. Imagine if it was a gay man that got beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road. How many Christian’s would stop to help him, or feed or house him in their B&B? I don't know the particulars of this situation, living so far away in New Zealand, but I detest that the Christian brothers and sisters who paid this couple's legal fees are being held up as heroes. I wish instead that the media could have reported that Christians had instead contacted the gay couple and offered to a) have them come and stay or put up them up in a five star hotel, all expenses paid, as a sign of God’s love, acceptance and generosity towards them. Grace. It’s such an assuming word and yet how desperately we need to receive it and show it to the broken world we live in. Judgment without it is hardly being salt and light in a broken world.
Didn't Jesus extend hospitality to the 'sinner'? Unless the B&B were only going to take Christian guests aren't lots of the guests going to be 'sinners'? Why is it that Christians seem to make homosexuality a worse sin than any others? I just feel a little uncomfortable with the author's assumption that the B&B owners have definitely done the "Christian thing".
It is one thing to live according to ones own Christian principles, and quite another to impose those principles upon others. Making a moral stand on how we think *other people* should be living? This is where evangelical Christianity and Jesus part ways.
I certainly pick up on "the cost, perhaps, of giving up a job you love because you cannot reconcile its legal obligations with what you perceive to be the prior obligations of faith" I have for a long time worked in the music/entertainment biz. I have a friend who is a (Christian) actor. I think we both have struggled with a lot of what goes on, particularly now in those arenas For instance. I recently took part in a film and later learned that he had turned down a big role in it because he took issue with the script, the words and the action. My scene was very innocent and there was no dialogue or hint of other scenes BUT probably if I had known the whole story I would have declined to be filmed. Too late to protest now! If you are in a job that conflicts with the modern take on morality(hard to know what to call it!) you do make it hard for yourself as a Christian.Should we leave that job and trust God for provision or should we endeavour to be 'salt and light' . It becomes harder and harder to be "in the world but not part of it" when you are prosecuted for your conscience,though.
I think Connecting with Culture emails are generally very thought provoking and incisive but this one lacked any real critique of what those Christians were 'standing for' apart the feeling that their faith was being compromised. There was no real insight into the possibility that they may be wrong in their feelings and that their approach was actually counter to the gospel of love and generosity because of their judgemental position. I am quite glad that the media didn't focus on the generosity of Christians who supported them because it would reinforce even more the general feeling that the church and Christians are homophobic and judgemental! A far greater and more genuine cost would be to welcome them into their B&B with love despite their feelings and beliefs! Now that would be costly!
Living abroad, I do not have detailed information about the specific case, however knowing quite a few gay friends, I have problems with puting this up as an example of "Christian" upstanding. I respect the opinion of the B&B Owner, and such owner should have the right to refuse some guests. But does he check also on unmarried couples, or maybe that there is some adultery involved in the stay, or whatever? Standing up and taking risks for core values, like not steeling, not discriminating!, integrity, etc. is always a good example. But from my experiences with gay people, I believe that Christians should come to peace with them - many are Christians themselves - and be careful not to discriminate - and not to celebrate such act as an example of faith - there are in my view better examples.
According to the article at Christian concern which pulled from various sources their stance is on sexual activity outside of marriage and is applied to heterosexual and homosexual couples. http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/sexual-orientation/christian-guesthouse-owners-ordered-to-pay-compensation
Date:
2011-04-10 16:06:21
Author:
Erwin